How much better is Levi Brown in an 18-month span? (plus Tuesday links)
October 26, 2009
That was a big question I had for offensive coordinator Neal Brown. How much better is record-setting quarterback Levi Brown at this point than he was in the spring of 2008, when he lost out to Jamie Hampton in that drill.
The answer makes a lot of sense and was more obvious back then, but here it is.
“We’re better everywhere else,“ Neal Brown said. “We’re a lot better everywhere else. That competition deal, he didn’t so much as lose it, we weren’t real experienced up front. We felt pretty good about the tackles but didn’t know what else we had. We weren’t very good at receiver. We knew we had Jerrel and DuJuan, who were really, really young. That was about all we felt good about.“
“Jamie’s going to be a good player and you’re going to see that. It wasn’t anything Levi didn’t do, but it’s that the other guy gave us more things (ability to run). The other thing that Levi’s got is that he is so much better in the pocket now than he was two years ago. That was one of his biggest weaknesses. He didn’t move in the pocket well and he didn’t escape from the pocket well, he looked at the blitz, and all of those things he doesn’t do any more.“
Levi Brown has parlayed last year’s success into an even bigger 2009 season.
“He’s probably more improved than anybody we have,“ Neal Brown said. “He’s really worked hard in the film room and the things that were weaknesses for him last year, he’s done a complete 180.
“He’s playing really well and he was 91 percent in practice last week. We play with our scout team but I don’t care if you’re throwing against air, not many people can complete 91 percent on air. He probably had 10 drops and he could have been 93, 94 percent. He’s been lights out in practice and he’s played really well in the games. As good as his numbers were, they could have been better. That’s the thing we harp with him. He’s playing good, but he could be playing better.“
Pro scouts love guys with good pocket presence. I’ve always thought that since Levi became the starter, he’s been very good at this aspect.
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GETTING JARBOE INVOLVED: Freshman receiver Josh Jarboe is healed from his nagging injuries and the Trojans went to him a lot more last week, but he couldn’t haul in the big pass. Actually, if you saw the FIU game, he had a very good catch on a long bomb where the cornerback was on him pretty good.
Jarboe has 11 catches for 176 yards. It seems like he’s destined to have a breakout game at any moment.
“He’s playing,“ Neal Brown said. “I’d like to get him going. He’ll help us. He’s just a freshman and he feels everybody talking about him. He’s 19 years old and has played in six football games ever, really five since we barely played him at Arkansas State. He’s just learning how to practice and eventually it’s going to translate. It hasn’t yet. He’ll come and look unbelievable in practice and it just hasn’t translated yet into Saturday. It’s going to.“
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TUESDAY LINKS: I wrote this story on the kicking situation. I’m not sure how things will shape out here because I thought Glusman would be ready to go by now, but Taylor’s been kicking very well.
Also wrote this notebook, leading with players not forgetting last year’s loss to ULM
RADIO UPDATE: I should be on with John and Barry around 9:30 a.m. CST on 740AM in Montgomery. You can listen HERE
