The more tape I watch of Andrew Ford, the more I fall in love with his game. This young man has a very good arm and his decision making seems to be very good. I was doing some late night youtube creeping and stumbled upon this gem. I love this clip is because it shows Ford's ability to make a quick read as well as make a very, very good throw.
So what are we looking at here? Focus on the left side of the screen, where we have two WR's lined up. There are also three defenders, who give a zone look (probably a "Quarters" or Cover-4 zone, though it's hard to tell without seeing the whole field). Ford's read is on the deep safety to his left. Ford's slot receiver will run a route to sit in front of the safety, and the wide receiver will run a go attacking the CB. If the Safety assists on the Go, Ford throws to the slot for an easy completion.
But if the safety attacks the slot receivers route (as we see here) then Ford has to make the more difficult throw down the field to the one-on-one CB vs WR match-up, which Ford nails.
I'm looking forward to watching this kid play.
Comments
Plus, that kid doing the TD signal is pretty cool.
I agree. The more I'm seeing, the happier I am with this. In his highlight video, a lack of deep outs(except when rolling to that side) and general lack of zip on the ball led me to question his arm strength. However, his camp videos and accuracy are definitely impressive. The talent's there. I'm excited to see what Loeffler can do with his young QBs.
Check out his presence in the pocket too (0:43 1:49 2:05 2:27 2:33 all great examples). I am liking this kids confedence, he is aware of defenders while keeping his eyes down field. I'm really liking this kid too. Like his coach said "He's Smart."
Edit: oops somehow left off the last few words.
I am liking him for listing academics first in his tweet... shows character.
"After much thought and many prayers, I am proud to announce that I will be continuing my academics and athletics at Virginia Tech"
Couple thoughts..
1. He's extremely accurate. He made a few throws where the CB was in the WRs back pocket and he dropped the ball in there perfectly. He's also extremely confident in his accuracy - - he'll throw the ball to a spot where he knows only his guy can get it, even if when he starts his windup his WR is covered.
2. He anticipates the location of his guy as well as the defender. He anticipates where he wants to put the ball, and uses his accuracy to get it exactly there.
Wow! Great reads and great ball placement in his highlights; His "wheels" look fantastic too. Footwork is so-so, and his arm strength isn't NFL yet, but hey, he still has his senior year to go. Throws well on the run and has a quick release. He reminds me of a more polished Tyrod. Dare I compare him to Johnny Football in his Jr. year!? You decide: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rqDf1HJdf14
Scott Loeffler definitely saw enough potential to make him his first recruit; that's another great sign.
I like this Ford kid too, but lets slow down on the Johnny Football comparisons. Just watched that highlight video...he made guys look silly when he ran the football. Ford is more of a pocket passer. If anything, I'd say Tyrod was more like Johnny Football
I will say this: hearing Ford played his Junior year at 170 and that he has gotten bigger (190) and is throwing it harder makes me giddy. Kid looks good. Kid looks real good
I'd compare him more to a little bigger, faster, and stronger-armed Kellen Moore. He's got great touch, anticipation, and hopefully the ability to make the right reads and get it to the right guy at the right time.
If he does what Kellen Moore did, then I think we will be in good hands...
Kellen Moore was also an intelligent young man as well.
I really wish he is half the quarterback Johnny football is..but I think everyone is getting a little ahead of themselves on this recruit... Yes he looks good on tape and I'm glad he wants to be a hokie, but I don't think he's going to be the qb that takes us to the next level. Here's my number 1 reason, is the lack of competition he is playing in high school right now. I've played in his conference and to put it nicely its not exactly a conference power house. Almost all of the highlights he has on his huddl account are against awful teams that struggle to get in the playoffs.. Most are triple a schools that would get destroyed against a Salem, Oscar smith, brookville ect. The only team that is good every year on his game film is Bishop Mcdevvit, a private school that can basically recruit (kids flock just to play there) Lesean McCoy played there. My argument is that great football conferences or districts or areas that have great competition between d1 and d1aa athletes every Friday night produce the best recruits. The ones that expect to win and don't just get by, by running through a bunch of scrubs. Johnny football threw and ran for 155 touchdowns in three in half years as a starter in highschool in TEXAS..and his best offers were Texas a&m and Oregon... Rivals rated him a three star because he's 6 foot and white duel threat quaterback. So I think your on the right track when we might of got a guy that could come out of no where but he's not Playing in a conference that is really challenging him right now.. That's why his film looks good.. He's throwing against DBS that would struggle to run a 4.8. Now I know there are counterpoints that he's carrying a mediocre cedar cliff program in those films and that he won the Nike elite MVP award, but overall just something to think about. With that said I'm excited to seem as a hokie and hopefully he gets to the right hands for development(not sure yet it's us) bottom line I think he's a gets us 8 to 9 wins as starter and gets us in acc championship conversations.. Not national championship conversations.
If we were talking about an Offensive linemen or a Linebacker I'd whole heartidly agree... But we're talking about a QB.
It's easier to judge the athletic ability of a QB then other positions. Whether or not the DB closes quickly doesn't matter if I can see that the ball has zip on it when Ford releases it. Can the QB make the deep throw on target or does he under/over throw it? Does he lock onto a receiver, or is he in a system where he's required to make pre and post snap defensive reads? Does he have good footwork in the pocket and on the move?
A lot of these things you can tell regardless of competition level. Of course, the difference between an average QB and a great QB aren't the measurable. No coach will be able to know how a kid will react to living on a college campus for the first time, that's why there is no such thing as a sure thing. However, I am confident that Ford has all the necessary physical traits to be a top ACC QB.
- Bryan Randall - AA VA High School Player (Bruton is now A but I think they were AA when he was in school)
- David Wilson - AA VA High School Player
- Logan Thomas - AA VA High School Player
- DJ Coles - AA VA High School Player
- Daryl Tapp - AA VA High School Player
Most of these are current status. Not sure if they were different when they were in school, also I'm not sure about other state's players. I'm only familiar with VHSL. What I'm trying to say is high school talent is pretty overrated. If anything I think it just makes the players under-recruited and underrated. Hell, Thomas Jones (of LOLUVA fame) went to Powell High School (now Union) that graduates 150 +/- a year. He didn't play against very good competition in high school at all. I think Ford will be fine.
My only thoughts are that people often use what they see in the highlight videos as grounds for saying "I like the things this kid brings to the table." In reality, they are taking a season worth of plays and chopping them into 5 minutes to give you his best ones. They don't show where he made mistakes, where he faced heavy pressure and caved, where he threw ill-advised passes because those won't get him recruited. He has the skills, but there's no telling how that will translate once he gets to college. A good QB coach (which I hope Loeffler is) can make all the difference.
I don't remember his stats off hand, but I'm pretty sure he's only thrown 11 interceptions in 3 years. His completion percentage is near 70%. And he's thrown a shit ton of TDs. I don't think he has too many "ill advised passes".
I hear ya but you lost me at the end - "8 to 9 wins as a starter" - that's some seriously specific speculation for a kid that has yet to start his senior year in high school.
I think one of the things we should all like the most is, after reading all of his comments about Loeffler, Virginia Tech sounds like his number one and this is one recruit we won't have to worry about changing his mind. He's a solid Hokie.
The more I read up on Andrew Ford, the more excited I become. He sounds like a kid with a great head on his shoulders and an excellent all-around person according to his coach. It helps that his coach have coached Kerry Collins (I remember him as a Panthers' quarterback) and Chad Henne, so that coach ain't blowing smoke when he says that Ford is better than those two.
It will be heck of a quarterback battle to watch next spring between Leal, Hodges, and Ford. May the best quarterback win!
Glad to see we landed a solid QB after the recent downers. I think we'll be just fine.