Three things that struck me about Shapen Bake tonight:
1. He showed a first-reaction desire to stay inside the pocket. I think most young QBs, let alone those getting their first start in the middle of a physical road conference game as freshmen, default to pressure release. Escape, evade, then decide. Watch Shapen's first couple snaps especially. On a couple he's literally standing the pocket going through reads. He did his scrambling, but it was comforting to see him not default to hair-on-fire scrambles. Which honestly I saw more of from Caleb Williams.
2. Holy hell he's fast. Gerry's bigger and so his strides probably make his straight-line speed look a bit slower, but Shapen gets from A-to-B like a bullet. I knew he was a dual threat guy, but mon dieu. Bro chews yards.
3. Arm strength. Lots of it. He fluttered a couple throws early probably out of nerves, but if you go back and watch his progression, he's just winging in balls on 15 and 20-yard ropes after a while. He wasn't getting a ton of chunk plays because Grimes rightly wanted to keep his routes to shorter trees, but when he did get a window you could see there wasn't a throw he couldn't make.
Gerry earned his spot and will get it back once he's healthy, but Shapen, man, that's a dude. If we roll with him for the Tech game I'm still feeling pretty good about the W with our run-heavy system and the way our D is rolling. Hopefully he trusts the staff enough to stick it through next year.
1. He showed a first-reaction desire to stay inside the pocket. I think most young QBs, let alone those getting their first start in the middle of a physical road conference game as freshmen, default to pressure release. Escape, evade, then decide. Watch Shapen's first couple snaps especially. On a couple he's literally standing the pocket going through reads. He did his scrambling, but it was comforting to see him not default to hair-on-fire scrambles. Which honestly I saw more of from Caleb Williams.
2. Holy hell he's fast. Gerry's bigger and so his strides probably make his straight-line speed look a bit slower, but Shapen gets from A-to-B like a bullet. I knew he was a dual threat guy, but mon dieu. Bro chews yards.
3. Arm strength. Lots of it. He fluttered a couple throws early probably out of nerves, but if you go back and watch his progression, he's just winging in balls on 15 and 20-yard ropes after a while. He wasn't getting a ton of chunk plays because Grimes rightly wanted to keep his routes to shorter trees, but when he did get a window you could see there wasn't a throw he couldn't make.
Gerry earned his spot and will get it back once he's healthy, but Shapen, man, that's a dude. If we roll with him for the Tech game I'm still feeling pretty good about the W with our run-heavy system and the way our D is rolling. Hopefully he trusts the staff enough to stick it through next year.
