pictures say a thousand words ...

[Gorhoops]

Just thought I would do a quick check of how Carson Wentz developed at NDSU. He redshirted in 2011, was the backup in 2012 and 2013, He threw for all of like 208 yards his entire redshirt sophomore year before becoming the starter in 2014. Easton Stick redshirted in 2014 and began 2015 as Wentz' backup until Wentz was injured and Stick started the final 8 games, going 8-0 and winning the title.

Compare that to where Howard is currently in his career. With no spring or summer coming in as a freshman, Howard was forced to start for a team with all kinds of covid issues, no threats at WR and Briley Moore and Wheeler were both hurt for much of the time he was playing. So basically Howard had another true freshman in Deuce Vaughn and himself out there and we should have beaten Baylor had the defense held up and we should have beaten OSU, although Howard was the culprit with the fumble/TD and the late pick in that game.

I guess I just find it really hard to believe that people are already making huge judgements about Howard considering you could not find a more difficult situation to put a kid in to start a career as a P5 QB.

How about we give the kid a chance. Pretty much all of our very successful QB's over the last 30 years had lots of time to prepare before they were thrown to the wolves like Howard has been. May, Bishop, Waters, those guys were transfers and even Bishop and Waters struggled early in their first years. Klein was a WR and then couldn't pass the ball until his junior year. Skylar's first few years were all over the place, filled with huge ups and downs.

Give the kid a chance to develop. I get it, we have a good team and we don't want to give games away because of poor QB play, but the one that shows up is the best one coming, so get behind him and lets see what he can do against the Pack.

I agree, and it's why I was hoping Kleiman would have went out and got a JUCO/Transfer QB to bridge that gap, not only this year, but also last year. Somebody who had a year or 2 of eligibility left that could give time for Howard to mature in the system. And guess what... if Howard doesn't show enough growth this year (he'll get the chance to show us), i'll be advocating for us to pickup a JUCO/Transfer QB again in the offseason.

Problem I have with this is that QB recruiting is very touchy. We signed a good high school QB in 2019 in Howard and a big time QB recruit with LSU and many other offers in Rubley in 2020 with the assumption that Skylar was around. Can you tell Rubley he is the guy, and then go sign a juco guy or a transfer?? Also, how good of a guy are you going to get if Skylar is here and entrenched as the starter and Howard is here as the backup who started 5 games and Rubley is here as a 4 star stud, what decent Juco or transfer is going to come here?? Do you think we could have gotten someone better?? That is highly doubtful.

Plus, what does this tell future QB recruits like the Maize kid or the Pauley kid from Blue Valley or the other guys we are recruiting. It is easy to think we should always have a fall back plan with a juco or something, but that isn't how it works at the QB position. If you go out and sign a juco guy, Jake Rubley says "what the he....., you told me I was the guy?"

I personally have no problem not having some scrub juco guy just in the odd case that Skylar gets hurt, especially in the 2021 class because you had Skylar and Howard coming back and you signed Rubley in that class. Fact is, Howard is better than 95% of the guys you could have brought in.

[Ksuminnesotacat]

I am going to go with let’s see what MR Howard can do in the near term. But I will say this has been an issue for six years. We used a receiver remember. Why does this organization always have to have a back up issue. Not ready, not experienced , game is to fast and on and on. I see other schools and not blue bloods either come right in with number two and they miss a little beat but not stumble and bumble along for weeks? Six years Skyler has been in and out and it’s always the same why?

[katlander]

I re-watched part of the game and Will was in there on all but one TD drive, I think I must have been in the concession line. That third TD is the one where he had the pass to Landry Weber. That was aa pretty good drive so I feel a little better about Will. Losing Skylar is still a major downer but maybe Will can get it done.

[Gorhoops]

I am going to go with let’s see what MR Howard can do in the near term. But I will say this has been an issue for six years. We used a receiver remember. Why does this organization always have to have a back up issue. Not ready, not experienced , game is to fast and on and on. I see other schools and not blue bloods either come right in with number two and they miss a little beat but not stumble and bumble along for weeks? Six years Skyler has been in and out and it’s always the same why?

Not sure I completely agree with this post. Skylar's first three years he was only in and out because of how he played. If he performed poorly Coach Snyder would go to Delton and in 2019 Skylar played the whole year. It was just last year on a dirty hit and this year on a fluke play that he has had some injuries.

The real question that we should probably all be asking the coaches is what is the deal with Jaren Lewis? If he has the arm talent that they say he has, why isn't he more of a viable option? He has been in tow since this staff took over, so he must really lack top talent if he is not even a thought to go in and play.

But again, QB recruiting is touchy. It is hard to sign good QB's in this day and age and have them wait around and develop until they are ready to play. They all think they are ready to play at least in their 2nd year, if not immediately.

[KsJoey]

I agree, and it's why I was hoping Kleiman would have went out and got a JUCO/Transfer QB to bridge that gap, not only this year, but also last year. Somebody who had a year or 2 of eligibility left that could give time for Howard to mature in the system. And guess what... if Howard doesn't show enough growth this year (he'll get the chance to show us), i'll be advocating for us to pickup a JUCO/Transfer QB again in the offseason.

Problem I have with this is that QB recruiting is very touchy. We signed a good high school QB in 2019 in Howard and a big time QB recruit with LSU and many other offers in Rubley in 2020 with the assumption that Skylar was around. Can you tell Rubley he is the guy, and then go sign a juco guy or a transfer?? Also, how good of a guy are you going to get if Skylar is here and entrenched as the starter and Howard is here as the backup who started 5 games and Rubley is here as a 4 star stud, what decent Juco or transfer is going to come here?? Do you think we could have gotten someone better?? That is highly doubtful.

Plus, what does this tell future QB recruits like the Maize kid or the Pauley kid from Blue Valley or the other guys we are recruiting. It is easy to think we should always have a fall back plan with a juco or something, but that isn't how it works at the QB position. If you go out and sign a juco guy, Jake Rubley says "what the he....., you told me I was the guy?"

I personally have no problem not having some scrub juco guy just in the odd case that Skylar gets hurt, especially in the 2021 class because you had Skylar and Howard coming back and you signed Rubley in that class. Fact is, Howard is better than 95% of the guys you could have brought in.

The way I see it... Ideally, Howard and Rubley, are going to need to 2 years(maybe 3) to reach playing at a high level. Sure, there's QBs that can play at freshmen or sophomores at a high level, but most aren't at a high level until upperclassmen. That's what i'm telling every QB recruit, because telling them they'll be starters as freshmen or sophomores is typically unrealistic. By bringing in a JUCO or transfer with only a year or 2 eligibility, it bridges that gap and allows these underclassmen QBs to develop, while still not over-recruiting them. At the very least it gives us that option to allow guys like Howard, who doesn't appear ready to play at a high level to get another year under his belt. Instead, we have no other good options and are forced to roll with Howard regardless of his performance.

It might be a tough to sell some recruits to come in an compete for a backup spot, but there are very few P5 starter jobs guaranteed available for transfer QBs. But with Skylers history, odds are he would get injured at some point this year allowing the #2 guy to be the starting QB. Plus, Skyler is only here for 1 season, so you're looking at competing for a starting QB spot over guys that are either young, haven't proven they can consistently play at a high level, or both. After what we saw last year and this past game from Howard... the bar is set pretty low. There were plenty of QBs available that could have performed much better. I know i'm bagging a lot on Howard here.. but I just hate that KSU is forced to have him as the #2 QB when he clearly isn't ready.

Heck, just look down the river at KU. Even with that horrible offense, team and program, they were able to bring in a transfer QB who isn't great by any means, but still looks substantially better than Howard. Bringing in a guy similar to him would have given us options and likely much better play last year.

[KsJoey]

I am going to go with let’s see what MR Howard can do in the near term. But I will say this has been an issue for six years. We used a receiver remember. Why does this organization always have to have a back up issue. Not ready, not experienced , game is to fast and on and on. I see other schools and not blue bloods either come right in with number two and they miss a little beat but not stumble and bumble along for weeks? Six years Skyler has been in and out and it’s always the same why?

Not sure I completely agree with this post. Skylar's first three years he was only in and out because of how he played. If he performed poorly Coach Snyder would go to Delton and in 2019 Skylar played the whole year. It was just last year on a dirty hit and this year on a fluke play that he has had some injuries.

The real question that we should probably all be asking the coaches is what is the deal with Jaren Lewis? If he has the arm talent that they say he has, why isn't he more of a viable option? He has been in tow since this staff took over, so he must really lack top talent if he is not even a thought to go in and play.

But again, QB recruiting is touchy. It is hard to sign good QB's in this day and age and have them wait around and develop until they are ready to play. They all think they are ready to play at least in their 2nd year, if not immediately.

If Lewis couldn't sniff the field last year while having an additional year of experience over Howard, and considering Howards level of play last year, I don't see where he's going to ever impact this team in any way other than 3rd, 4th string depth.

[Gorhoops]

Problem I have with this is that QB recruiting is very touchy. We signed a good high school QB in 2019 in Howard and a big time QB recruit with LSU and many other offers in Rubley in 2020 with the assumption that Skylar was around. Can you tell Rubley he is the guy, and then go sign a juco guy or a transfer?? Also, how good of a guy are you going to get if Skylar is here and entrenched as the starter and Howard is here as the backup who started 5 games and Rubley is here as a 4 star stud, what decent Juco or transfer is going to come here?? Do you think we could have gotten someone better?? That is highly doubtful.

Plus, what does this tell future QB recruits like the Maize kid or the Pauley kid from Blue Valley or the other guys we are recruiting. It is easy to think we should always have a fall back plan with a juco or something, but that isn't how it works at the QB position. If you go out and sign a juco guy, Jake Rubley says "what the he....., you told me I was the guy?"

I personally have no problem not having some scrub juco guy just in the odd case that Skylar gets hurt, especially in the 2021 class because you had Skylar and Howard coming back and you signed Rubley in that class. Fact is, Howard is better than 95% of the guys you could have brought in.

The way I see it... Ideally, Howard and Rubley, are going to need to 2 years(maybe 3) to reach playing at a high level. Sure, there's QBs that can play at freshmen or sophomores at a high level, but most aren't at a high level until upperclassmen. That's what i'm telling every QB recruit, because telling them they'll be starters as freshmen or sophomores is typically unrealistic. By bringing in a JUCO or transfer with only a year or 2 eligibility, it bridges that gap and allows these underclassmen QBs to develop, while still not over-recruiting them. At the very least it gives us that option to allow guys like Howard, who doesn't appear ready to play at a high level to get another year under his belt. Instead, we have no other good options and are forced to roll with Howard regardless of his performance.

It might be a tough to sell some recruits to come in an compete for a backup spot, but there are very few P5 starter jobs guaranteed available for transfer QBs. But with Skylers history, odds are he would get injured at some point this year allowing the #2 guy to be the starting QB. Plus, Skyler is only here for 1 season, so you're looking at competing for a starting QB spot over guys that are either young, haven't proven they can consistently play at a high level, or both. After what we saw last year and this past game from Howard... the bar is set pretty low. There were plenty of QBs available that could have performed much better. I know i'm bagging a lot on Howard here.. but I just hate that KSU is forced to have him as the #2 QB when he clearly isn't ready.

Heck, just look down the river at KU. Even with that horrible offense, team and program, they were able to bring in a transfer QB who isn't great by any means, but still looks substantially better than Howard. Bringing in a guy similar to him would have given us options and likely much better play last year.

Not saying you are wrong, just saying the QB recruiting is different than other recruiting. First of all, not sure I agree on the "Skylar's history." He only had the one cheap shot injury last year, so before that he had been pretty durable. Plus, I am not going to give much credence to the new KU QB. There is zero film on him as the QB at KU and all he has done at this point is show he can run a little bit. Lets see how he does when people have lots of film to design to stop him.

As I mentioned earlier, the biggest whiff at this point seems to be Jaren Lewis. Jaren Lewis at this point should be ready to play if he is a viable P5 QB.

We are definitely able to disagree and that is great, but I just don't believe we could have found a decent transfer QB that would have come in and really done any better at this point. Plus, how about we let Howard play tomorrow before we make these sweeping proclamations that he is substantially worse than KU's QB??

[KsJoey]

I thought I remember Skyler getting hurt when he was younger, but I may be wrong..

I absolutely hope Howard comes in, succeeds and shows he's a capable QB. He's a great kid, high IQ player, carries himself well, represents KSU well and is obvious he put in a lot of time in the weight room over the off-season to improve. I hope he is up for the task.. this team needs him to be good.

[Tbonespop]

Honestly, I think Will Howard will develop into a really fine QB for us (over time, and it begins this weekend) and half way through this year when Skylar comes back and he's still a little gimpy with the knee and unable to run at 100%, then he struggles a little on a few drives against a decent defense, that people will be talking about getting Will back in the game. Football is a tough game. Playing QB, which is the most important position on the field is even that much more difficult.

Lets all root for Will this weekend to be successful. He needs to not lock in on just one receiver and go through his progressions. Get his footwork right and play with confidence. I'd like to see him targeting our TEs more, not just the primary WR, then tuck and run if he's not open. Make good decisions, play within his abilities, and focus on moving the chains. Shoot, we have a good OL and a fantastic group of running backs. Our passing game only has to be good enough to keep defenses honest. Get it done and go win the day.

[tmcats]

i remember last year people here writing "is it time to see will howard?"