Want to be an Elite QB

Published Sep. 27, 2010 7:29 p.m. ET

foxsports

Every year in March Madness we see it. The teams with savvy vets and senior laden rosters find themselves deep in the tourney. Whether it is a small school like Gonzaga or a powerhouse like North Carolina in the past or fan favorite Butler and reigning champ Duke last year, teams who have players who have been in the same system for more than two seasons excel. The same is in college football and it cannot be any clearer than this fall at the quarterback position.

The top four teams in the latest polls have a signal caller who has been in their offensive system for three or more years and their experience has been glaringly obvious one month into this young season.
Alabama’s Greg McElroy, Ohio State’s Terrelle Pryor, Boise State’s Kellen Moore and TCU’s Andy Dalton understand exactly what their offense is trying to accomplish on every given snap and as the national stage gets larger and the lights shine brighter, look for those quarterbacks to get more relaxed, more comfortable and continue to shred defenses.

While their passing efficiency and touchdown to interception ratio is impressive, it is a different set of numbers that prove why they have their teams on the path to BCS bowl games.

Combined, these four quarterbacks have been through more than 420 pre-season practices, over 650 summer workouts and most importantly, have logged over 1800 hours of film since they arrived on campus.
And at a position where your detailed knowledge and awareness of every offensive and defensive players responsibility on each snap is the difference between a touchdown or a sack, a seat at the Heisman Trophy ceremony or a seat on your buddies couch and BCS bowl berth or an invitation to the Sun Bowl; preparation and experience is everything.

For example, before each snap McElroy, Pryor, Moore and Dalton know which way to turn the protection if the defensive tackle lines up over his right or left guard, which gap his stud freshman running back needs to fill on 3rd down pass protection, and who to tell his freak wide receiver he is hot off of. On the defensive side of the ball, each QB must know the stance of the defensive end, alignment of the middle linebacker and which way the free safety is leaning as all of those little things will tip off each blitz and coverage.

Try to simply type that in less than three seconds, let alone make sense of it in front of 85,000 fans who look forward to cheering when you get lit up.

And all of that is before the snap.

After receiving the ball from their center, each QB doesn’t get to process that information, he needs to react to that information and allow his “quarterback instincts” to take over.

This is not an easy process as quarterback instincts take time to develop and in an era where defensive coordinators game plans revolve around how to cause quarterbacks havoc, the only true way to be consistently successful is to experience it, both mentally in the meeting room, visually in the film room and ultimately, physically on the practice and game field.

While every signal caller arrives as a freshman as the BMOC with a presence that screams potential, to become one of the nations elite quarterbacks takes time. Due to the minutes logged and snaps taken it’s no surprise that McElroy hasn’t lost a game since the 8th grade, Pryor’s footwork has gone from non-existent to clinic-worthy, Moore is the blueprint for a coaches dream and Dalton leads the nation in victories by an active quarterback. They have put the work in that is necessary to be dubbed elite and invested the time it takes to become instinctive signal callers.

Look for them to continue to shine and as the pressure of conference play mounts, they’ll each just smile, watch more film and continue to dominate the 2010 college football landscape.