Which Nebraska QB would you choose for Frost's offense?

Pick a Nebraska QB (past or present)

  • Turner Gill

    Votes: 32 27.6%

  • Tommie Frazier

    Votes: 23 19.8%

  • Scott Frost

    Votes: 23 19.8%

  • Bobby Newcombe

    Votes: 9 7.8%

  • Eric Crouch

    Votes: 29 25.0%

  • Jammal Lord

    Votes: 5 4.3%

  • Zach Taylor

    Votes: 6 5.2%

  • Joe Ganz

    Votes: 27 23.3%

  • Taylor Martinez

    Votes: 33 28.4%

  • Tommy Armstrong Jr.

    Votes: 13 11.2%

  • Adrian Martinez

    Votes: 11 9.5%

  • Tristan Gebbia

    Votes: 7 6.0%

  • Andrew Bunch

    Votes: 4 3.4%

  • Gerry Gdowski

    Votes: 10 8.6%

  • Steve Taylor

    Votes: 13 11.2%

  • Brook Berringer

    Votes: 22 19.0%
  • Total voters
    116
Again, Newcombe played quarterback in an offense tailor-made for him, and lost the job to better players. 

If we're being fair, Tommy Armstrong could have been a monster on those Tom Osborne's teams. 

 
Guy Chamberlin said:
If we're being fair, Tommy Armstrong could have been a monster on those Tom Osborne's teams. 
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I don't think he would've been as good as Frazier, Frost or Crouch. My problem with Armstrong wasn't his accuracy. It was his decisions. He seemed to think throwing the ball out of bounds was an illegal play, and he threw into triple and double coverage way too often. With Osborne's offense he may not have had receivers covered by more than 1 person very often, so maybe he never would've had that problem.

 
Moiraine said:
I don't think he would've been as good as Frazier, Frost or Crouch. My problem with Armstrong wasn't his accuracy. It was his decisions. He seemed to think throwing the ball out of bounds was an illegal play, and he threw into triple and double coverage way too often. With Osborne's offense he may not have had receivers covered by more than 1 person very often, so maybe he never would've had that problem.
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Maybe not. But Armstrong had twice the pass attempts as Frazier, Frost and Crouch, so his interception ratio wasn't much worse (and better in the case of Crouch).

I guess the point is that when you have the security of one of the best offensive lines, running back corps, and defensive units in all college football, you not only play better and look better, but you win more games and get away with stuff.

 
I went with Berringer.  He was mobile.  If memory serves me correctly, he had the same 40 time as Frazier.  Plus, he was accurate especially with the shorter throws.  Tennis elbow would have kept him from attempting 40 throws a game, but he could have been deadly in the 15-25 attempts per game.

 
Turner Gill

Joe Ganz

Zac Taylor

Steve Taylor

Brook B.

Turner I think would be best from an overall perspective.  Ganz a better passer but Turner could run and pass well and was a multi year leader as QB - and perhaps a NC QB if Tom had gone for 1 pt. 

From a pure passing perspective  = Ganz and Z Taylor.  Zac however would be too 'wooden' of a runner (he did have to run away from D linemen due to horrific pass blocking).  Someone mentioned Joe Ganz being the best combination.   Again, if Joe had the D from the following year - NC may have been in play.  That O and that D would have been nice together.   

Brook & Steve Taylor  would be serviceable as both dual threat options.    I'm not sure how their passing stats compare to Scott Frost's as QB. Maybe Scott running his own O - he was a wizard at the option.  He'd have to work on passing game some.  

Tommie Frazier - his ability to lead and win - may be enough to run Scott's O.     He'd have to work on passing but from a leadership standpoint - he'd make it work.  

No idea about current QBs. 

 
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I think a lot of this whole discussion is based on how you remember it . 

Do you remember Tmart as the blindingly fast,  fearless playmaker pre injury?  or 1/2 step slower guy who made bad decisions , commited turnovers , and took too many sacks ?  

TA used as run first throw second limited decision role (Foster farm bowl game) was great . Or do you remember gimpy, post injury guy forced to throw constantly ? Yolo bombs and a maddening inability to hit a receiver 10 feet away ? 

Gill was a great player in my youth,  but I mostly remember he could never win the big one . To be fair though he didn’t have near the receivers we have had post Callahan . I think Westercamp, Swift , Morgan etc would have caught that 2 point conversion and changed history . 

Memories of Crouch could be tainted by seeing him get rocked by Miami in 2002 (one of the best teams in college history )  or his not so good attempt in the NFL. I remember a dynamic playmaker with his arm and legs whose play won many games for us . 

Berringer didn’t play enough for me to even remember his play but he was a great person gone too soon and I think that’s why people are ranking him so high . 

Some of this is comparing apples to oranges too . Different offenses , different types of receivers and offensive lines etc all shaped how the qbs carreer went . 

 
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dtbugeater said:
Agree
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Well I picked Tommy Armstrong just because he was way down the list. 

If we're wondering how former QB greats would do with a fledgling offensive line and bottom-dwelling defense, it's only fair to wonder how Armstrong and Martinez would have fared with the complete Osborne toolkit.

That was back in the day when Matt Turman was undefeated as a starter.

 
Husker_Bohunk said:
Gill had perhaps the greatest Husker receiver of all time to throw to. He spent 17 years in the NFL  and was the #1 draft pick in 1984.
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Yeah I remember Irving Fryar . He was the only one back then that could catch the ball  well enough to earn a spot on today’s teams , though . Because of the run heavy offense we ran,  blocking was more important back then . 

 
Guy Chamberlin said:
Well I picked Tommy Armstrong just because he was way down the list. 

If we're wondering how former QB greats would do with a fledgling offensive line and bottom-dwelling defense, it's only fair to wonder how Armstrong and Martinez would have fared with the complete Osborne toolkit.

That was back in the day when Matt Turman was undefeated as a starter.
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Great question.  I've often wondered how Tommy Armstrong and Jammal Lord would have fared as QBs in the 94-95 time frame.  I think both would have been great, and would no doubt be remembered in a different light if only they had played on teams like the 94-95 MNC teams.  

And I'm not saying either Armstrong or Lord were better than Tommie Frazier.  I just think the difference in talent between these three isn't as great as some would have us believe.  (Okay, now queue up the response from others about Tommie being the greatest QB in the history of the world.  lol)

 
NUance said:
Great question.  I've often wondered how Tommy Armstrong and Jammal Lord would have fared as QBs in the 94-95 time frame.  I think both would have been great, and would no doubt be remembered in a different light if only they had played on teams like the 94-95 MNC teams.  

And I'm not saying either Armstrong or Lord were better than Tommie Frazier.  I just think the difference in talent between these three isn't as great as some would have us believe.  (Okay, now queue up the response from others about Tommie being the greatest QB in the history of the world.  lol)
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How about how much better we might have been in the late-80's to early-90's with either of them?  I don't want to throw Mickey Joseph, Mike Grant, or Keithan McCant under the bus; but don't you think Armstrong and maybe Lord could have produced better results? 

 
junior4949 said:
How about how much better we might have been in the late-80's to early-90's with either of them?  I don't want to throw Mickey Joseph, Mike Grant, or Keithan McCant under the bus; but don't you think Armstrong and maybe Lord could have produced better results? 
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Probably.  Randomly enough, I met Keithan McCant in Lincoln last weekend.  Dude still looks like he could be playing.

 
Scott Frost as a college quarterback would never sniff the field for meaningful snaps in Scott Frost the coach's offense.

Now the comparison between Tommy Armstrong and Tommie Frazier is interesting. They've got a similar physical skillset - similarly fast and agile, similar velocity on throws, etc., and their career numbers and their best season numbers aren't that far off from each other.

So there's a good, legitimate question of whether or not Armstrong could have been considered one of the best college quarterbacks of all time if he was leading teams where A) he didn't have to throw the ball 25-30 times a game, B) his receivers were routinely wide open due to the nature of the offense, C) he had all-americans on the offensive line and in the backfield, and D) he had a top 10 defense keeping him safe and keeping his teams winning.

It's certainly not implausible.

 
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