Taysom continuing to impress

http://www.theadvocate.com/new_orleans/sports/saints/article_02fc3dd2-5fa2-11e8-8f73-0bd3eda14d69.html

He’s commanded the huddle well this week and is starting to prove that he’s comfortable with all the terminology and other things he picked up in the classroom last season.



He’s already done some extraordinary things this week. Quarterbacks coach Joe Lombardi mentioned Hill has gotten out of the pocket and made difficult throws across his body. If Hill continues to develop, his ability on the move could be something that differentiates him and provides him with a skill to lean on.



“Every great quarterback has to have a way of making a play when the play call isn’t perfect,” Lombardi said. “Someone’s not open right away, or the pressure gets to you, and you have certain guys like Tom Brady or Drew, they do it by finding these creative throws or getting the ball out so quick and having that sixth sense of where to go with the ball. Other guys get away from the rush, and they get outside the pocket, and they create.



“You see Aaron Rodgers and those kind of guys make plays that way. Just the ability to avoid the rush. The guy runs a sub-4.5 40, and he’s strong — he might be the strongest guy on the team.”



The strongest guy on the team? Seriously?



“Certainly pound for pound. He might be the strongest squatter,” Lombardi said. “The guy is a freak athlete. I’ve never seen anyone like him at this position.”

http://www.espn.com/blog/nflnation/post/_/id/276303/can-saints-qb-taysom-hill-really-become-drew-brees-heir

Only two of the Saints' OTA practices have been open to the media so far. But Hill has turned heads on a couple of plays -- one when he took off running down the field and one when he made a strong throw across his body.



"He looks good," Payton said. "We like where he's at. He's grinding, working hard. You guys saw maybe a play where when he does get outside the pocket, he can run -- I mean real fast. So that presents a new challenge for the defense."

Obviously a lot of focus on his strength and speed, but a still a couple mentions about good throwing ability and leadership



PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE let him stay healthy and get a quality shot at starting. PLEASE!!!! :crazy:

Taysom Hill is a once in a lifetime type player. I bought tickets when he was at BYU just to see him play. It is a shame he never stayed healthy, if he had, he may have broken all of BYU's QB records for throwing and rushing combined. We may have had some special seasons too.

frdbtr wrote:

Taysom Hill is a once in a lifetime type player. I bought tickets when he was at BYU just to see him play. It is a shame he never stayed healthy, if he had, he may have broken all of BYU's QB records for throwing and rushing combined. We may have had some special seasons too.

The two biggest "what ifs" in my adult life of BYU sports are what if Taysom stayed healthy, and what if Brandon Davies hadn't gotten suspended...the possibilities are painful to think about.



Sounds like a good topic for a separate thread actually

tmoney35 wrote:

Taysom Hill is a once in a lifetime type player. I bought tickets when he was at BYU just to see him play. It is a shame he never stayed healthy, if he had, he may have broken all of BYU's QB records for throwing and rushing combined. We may have had some special seasons too.

The two biggest "what ifs" in my adult life of BYU sports are what if Taysom stayed healthy, and what if Brandon Davies hadn't gotten suspended...the possibilities are painful to think about.



Sounds like a good topic for a separate thread actually

The Brandon Davies one is especially tough since we lost to Florida in double overtime, and with Davies in there, I think we easily win that one. That may have been the season we made it to the final four if not farther with Davies on board. That one is going to sting for a long time. With football, and having many more players on the field, both offensively and defensively, I don't play the what if game as much because even if Taysom is super healthy, we still had to play good defense, and we still lost games with him healthy, though not many. Maybe we make it to a BCS bowl that year. That still doesn't hurt as much as Davies, though.

tmoney35 wrote:

Taysom Hill is a once in a lifetime type player. I bought tickets when he was at BYU just to see him play. It is a shame he never stayed healthy, if he had, he may have broken all of BYU's QB records for throwing and rushing combined. We may have had some special seasons too.

The two biggest "what ifs" in my adult life of BYU sports are what if Taysom stayed healthy, and what if Brandon Davies hadn't gotten suspended...the possibilities are painful to think about.



Sounds like a good topic for a separate thread actually

The Davies what if is the most painful for me because BYU was a legit final four team with him.

Playing Charles Abuou at the 4...



I'm still heartbroken

We know what would have happened if Taysom played injury free. BYU still wouldn't have been good enough to go undefeated, and so would have ended up going to the same bowls. Maybe...maybe, we would have gotten an NY6 bowl.



Davies...well, that's a different story. With Davies, we beat Florida. There were so many "upsets" that year in the NCAA tourney that BYU would have had a legit shot at a Final 4 appearance.

Gunk wrote:

We know what would have happened if Taysom played injury free. BYU still wouldn't have been good enough to go undefeated, and so would have ended up going to the same bowls. Maybe...maybe, we would have gotten an NY6 bowl.



Davies...well, that's a different story. With Davies, we beat Florida. There were so many "upsets" that year in the NCAA tourney that BYU would have had a legit shot at a Final 4 appearance.

Nothing and nobody will ever convince that we don't go to the final four with Davies that year. The final four in 2011 was #11 VCU vs #8 Bulter, which HAS to be the worst combined final four seeds ever, and #4 Kentucky vs #3 UCONN



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P7qUtAE7f0A&t=155s



I was just watching this youtube video from SB Nation about how 2011 was the worst NCAA tournament ever. those elite 8, final four and championship games were sloppy, ugly basketball. That was BYU's best chance to ever get to the final four. The conditions were perfect with a player like Jimmer, the top of the MWC being very strong that year so we were sufficiently battle-tested going into March Madness, AND all the upsets and lack of any real dominant teams and I don't know how to finish this run on sentence because thinking about this just breaks my heart.



I try to focus on the good times in 2011 and how lucky I was to be a student at BYU during the Jimmer years...I just get sad sometimes :blush:......thanks for letting me rant

As far as Taysom is concerned, I don't know about the team as a whole, but I would put money on him at least getting an invite as a Heisman finalist once. Wouldn't have won, but at least a 4/5 place finish

Gunk wrote:

Davies...well, that's a different story. With Davies, we beat Florida. There were so many "upsets" that year in the NCAA tourney that BYU would have had a legit shot at a Final 4 appearance.

With Davies we probably don't play Florida as we're probably a #1 seed. When Davies got suspended, we were #3 in the nation, and #4 in the RPI.



We probably would have been 32-2 going into the NCAAs. We were slated for a No. 1 Seed. We'd have still played the 1st two games in Denver, but then been in Anahiem instead of New Orleans.

SpiffCoug wrote:

Davies...well, that's a different story. With Davies, we beat Florida. There were so many "upsets" that year in the NCAA tourney that BYU would have had a legit shot at a Final 4 appearance.

With Davies we probably don't play Florida as we're probably a #1 seed. When Davies got suspended, we were #3 in the nation, and #4 in the RPI.



We probably would have been 32-2 going into the NCAAs. We were slated for a No. 1 Seed. We'd have still played the 1st two games in Denver, but then been in Anahiem instead of New Orleans.

Yep, I was thinking the same thing, that BYU was going to be a 1 or 2 seed after beating San Diego state again and being ranked as a #3 seed and then on the radio monday morning I hear that Davies had been suspended for the season. I knew it was all over right then. Jimmer was great and carried the team to the sweet 16 but couldn't do it all by himself forever. He was exhausted in the Florida game, you could see it.

Jimmer pulled a muscle against Florida. If Davies had played maybe he does not get hurt but maybe he still does.

SpiffCoug wrote:

Davies...well, that's a different story. With Davies, we beat Florida. There were so many "upsets" that year in the NCAA tourney that BYU would have had a legit shot at a Final 4 appearance.

With Davies we probably don't play Florida as we're probably a #1 seed. When Davies got suspended, we were #3 in the nation, and #4 in the RPI.



We probably would have been 32-2 going into the NCAAs. We were slated for a No. 1 Seed. We'd have still played the 1st two games in Denver, but then been in Anahiem instead of New Orleans.

Very good point. We would have had the best seeding in BYU history.