Apparently Swain asked Hooker a question last night on the TN Prime podcast, and this led me and a co-worker having a conversation. Swain asked him if he thought he didn't win the starting job because so much of his game is because he is mobile, breaking tackles, etc. and in fall camp you just aren't going to let a QB get to show it. It makes sense and Hooker agreed based on what I the co-worker said. Then we discussed the flip side - is the reason that Milton looked to good in camp because he knew he had a green jersey on and wasn't going to get hit no matter what? We don't have an answer to that, but it is an interesting question worth considering.
Also, some people just click to another level when the "danger" is real. When one says someone is a "gamer" rather than a "practice player," I think it is that there is an extra bit of adrenaline and urgency that allows them to push themselves more.
Even in my basic playing days I was much better in games than practice. In practice I would think and overthink. In games I just played.
i had a teammate who routinely hit 20 3's in a row in practice several times. It feels like he may have gone 5-100 in his career during games.
I think that can work in reverse also… supposedly JG was the second coming of Unitas, Montana and Marino rolled into one in practice but once the lights were on, he morphed into something substantially less…
Milton is a 5:00 player. Damn good in practice and pre-game. Lights come on and he’s deer in headlights.
I’ll be interested to see where Bailey ends up. Seems like all of the folks who jumped ship would have been better of staying here. Eric Gray isn’t doing squat at Oklahoma, T’ooT’ooToyotatotatootoyo isn’t a household name at Bama.. I can’t think of anyone who has left who’s doing appreciably better than they’d be doing had they just stayed to begin with.
Id rather have Bailey back as an inevitable backup when Hooker gets hurt. Milton kind of threw a monkey wrench into the works.
He was a moron for going there. Shifty backs basically become wide receivers in that offense which does nothing for their NFL stock.
That's why I hate the combine and it's other equivalents. Your real ballplayers are gonna play faster than they run against air and vice versa.