Louisville's Lamar
Jackson enters into the spotlight for 2016
By: Raashaan Myers
I've heard all kinds of
nicknames thrown out there from Action Jackson, Mr. Electric, Captain Cardinal,
and more for UofL's stud sophomore QB Lamar Jackson. And though this Cardinal
team has been led by its defense the first two seasons of the 2nd Petrino
regime Lamar Jackson in the unquestioned focus of the college football universe
for Louisville Football. The stories of his conquests and legend of Lamar have
grown since the end of the season to the point of Paul Bunyan-esqe
proportions.
Now the question is can
he live up to the lofty expectations that are being placed upon him? Well the
easy answer is no and nor should he at this point in his still very young
career as a true sophomore going through his first full off-season of Spring
and Fall camp in college. That’s not so say that he will fall flat on his face
either, more so just the fact that people are expecting Michael Vick level
performances on a game to game basis is unfair. This year is about Jackson
being able to do the small things to effectively and efficiently run the Bobby
Petrino offense. During ACC media days Jackson admitted to knowing little to
none of the plays well enough to really effectively run the offense and often
just defaulted to playing sandlot football. With the strides he made in bowl
game prep for A&M coupled with a good looking Spring and entering camp
getting starter snaps this fall understanding of the plays and more calm in the
pocket is a must.
Now the interesting
question that will not be answered until the season starts will be how this new
look offense under sophomore Jackson will look for Petrino’s offense. Classically
known more for execution, misdirection, and nuance the Louisville offense under
Jackson was for the most part an extremely vanilla package with a bevy of
Pistol formation looks and plays Jackson was familiar with running in high
school. The question is how much of the playbook and more traditional Petrino
style offense will we see this coming year. It was a well-known fact that
Jackson was extremely uncomfortable taking snaps from under center and that
greatly diminished a ton of what Coach P likes run in his patented Power-I
spread formations. Improvement in that area alone will give the Louisville
offense diversity and flexibility that we haven’t seen from a Cardinal team
since Stefan Lefors was running the show.
One thing that will not
be questioned is the amount of weapons that Lamar will have at his disposal
next year. The number of talented playmakers the Cards possess at RB, WR, and
TE is as good as it has ever been and Jackson’s ability to spread the ball
around and get the ball to the right guy on time and on target will be huge.
One of the things that has made and continues to make Teddy Bridgewater very
good at his job was his ability to not lock in on one guy and really spread and
use all parts of the field. The ability to find the 2nd, 3rd,
and even 4th guy on a selected play puts a ton of pressure on the
defense and will also allow your playmakers to make some big plays in space.
The last and biggest key
to success for Lamar this season will be what he doesn’t do. He must take care
of the ball and not turn it over! Lamar threw 8 interceptions last year and
also had some issues running and fumbling the ball at times. Understanding that
this UofL team is still more about the defense and not trying to do too much is
going to be huge. With so much preseason hype and expectations being placed on
his shoulders it is understandable that he may want to go out there and prove
something, but that is not what is best for the team. Knowing when to throw the
ball away, run out of bounds, and simply go down on 3rd down if the
play isn’t there and putting the game in the hands of his more that capable
defense will be the most important thing he does this year. Coach Petrino’s #1
pet peeve is turnovers and he had to look past a lot of that last year because
Jackson gave the Cards the best chance to win, but in year 2 that turnover
number needs to be much better.
All in all I agree with
those that see the potential greatness that Lamar Jackson has in his future.
But I also know that these things take time and even Teddy Bridgewater had
several mistakes and setbacks before he was the guy that left UofL as one of
the best to ever do it. Hopefully the fans and Lamar both understand that it is
a process and there will still be several ups and downs yet to come, but the
future looks as bright as it has ever been for UofL.
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