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Thomas Darrah

U

Ugobama

Suspended
Jan 30, 2008
143
0
0
32
Mississippi
Who else thinks Thomas Darrah has been doing good in scrimmage? He was one of my least guesses of being a backup quarterback anyday, but he just may turn out to be good afterall. If he improves, I believe he could be our backup this coming year. Especially after McElroy's poor performances.

Edit: And get this...He wasn't ranked coming out of highchool!
 
The interesting thing with Darrah...

Most of the time, walk-ons lack the core physical make-up needed to play at this level. They are not big enough, too slow, etc. Most walk-on quarterbacks are generally too small with too weak of an arm.

Darrah, on the other hand, is a big kid and he seems to have a very good arm. He definitely sounds a lot better than your typical walk-on.
 
I asked this on another thread, why did he walk on at Alabama, WE were not listed in his top 6 in the recruiting services, I wonder who 'invited' him to walk on. He was a two star according to rivals. I have been impressed as well, but, keep in mind he's not going against the first or second team defense
 
Darrah had some smaller school offers, I think. It seems like I remember a friend of mine who is a Tulane grad talking about how they might sign him. I guess he turned down the smaller offers to walk-on at 'Bama though.

As for him not facing the first and second string, yes that's true. However, Fanuzzi is apparently seeing a fair amount of action against the third-team, too, so that should be considered in the Fanuzzi v. Darrah talk.

He's not a bad prospect, though. He was first team All-State in Georgia, has great size and a good arm. Plus he was a two-star prospect, which is a lot higher rated than most walk-ons out there.
 
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BigEasyTider said:
Darrah had some smaller school offers, I think. It seems like I remember a friend of mine who is a Tulane grad talking about how they might sign him. I guess he turned down the smaller offers to walk-on at 'Bama though.

As for him not facing the first and second string, yes that's true. However, Fanuzzi is apparently seeing a fair amount of action against the third-team, too, so that should be considered in the Fanuzzi v. Darrah talk.

He's not a bad prospect, though. He was first team All-State in Georgia, has great size and a good arm. Plus he was a two-star prospect, which is a lot higher rated than most walk-ons out there.
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He had uga, clemson, indiana, maybe SC listed, just wondering why he didn't walkon at those schools, anyway, He is a big kid, and could be a find.
Some of the Small school QB's make it big in the nfl, maybe a two star QB can make it big in CFB
 
bamaga said:
Some of the Small school QB's make it big in the nfl, maybe a two star QB can make it big in CFB
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Yep. It's a fact, the small schools have turned out just as many starting quarterbacks in the NFL as have the big schools as of late.

Ben Roethlisberger, Daunte Culpepper, Chad Pennington, David Garrard, Brett Favre, Tony Romo, Jeff Garcia, Tavaris Jackson, Marc Bulger, J.P. Losman, Kurt Warner, Steve McNair, John Kitna and others are all great examples.

And honestly, a ton of starting QBs have come from BCS programs that are far from elite football schools. A few examples: Jay Cutler (Vanderbilt), Matt Hasselbeck (Boston College), Derek Anderson (Oregon State), Philip Rivers (NC State), Donovan McNabb (Syracuse), Matt Schaub (Virginia), Kyle Boller (Cal), Trent Green (Indiana), Trent Edwards (Stanford), etc.

It's funny, all of these big-time schools continuously sign these Next Mr. Everything QB prospects every single year, and they so rarely pan out. The NFL is filled with starting quarterbacks from non-BCS schools and lower-tier BCS schools who never win anything big.

If you look at NFL starting quarterbacks that have started for 3+ years who were Mr. Everything QB recruits coming out of high school, they are very few and far between. Peyton Manning is obviously one, and from there... maybe Rex Grossman, assuming he doesn't get benched this year. You could put Carson Palmer in that group, but that's about it.
 
If McElroy and Fanuzzi keep struggling to the extent they have struggled, Darrah could very well move up to contend for the backup job. I doubt he'll challenge Wilson for the starting job, however, and with Star Jackson on the way I don't know how much of an opportunity he's going to get going forward.

Also remember that Darrah and FB Jacob Vane were the two players involved in the fight with a student late last year and missed the bowl game, so I don't know how much that will or won't play into the matter. Upchurch's off-field issues are still a factor in the RB fight, so who knows.
 
JessN said:
If McElroy and Fanuzzi keep struggling to the extent they have struggled, Darrah could very well move up to contend for the backup job. I doubt he'll challenge Wilson for the starting job, however, and with Star Jackson on the way I don't know how much of an opportunity he's going to get going forward.

Also remember that Darrah and FB Jacob Vane were the two players involved in the fight with a student late last year and missed the bowl game, so I don't know how much that will or won't play into the matter. Upchurch's off-field issues are still a factor in the RB fight, so who knows.
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Good points all around.

I think the main concern at this point is that none of the three players vying for the back-up job -- McElroy, Fanuzzi, and Darrah -- have given us any objective evidence whatsoever that would rationally indicate they can step in and play quality football at the SEC level. Complain all you want about Wilson, but I honestly have no clue as to what we are going to do if he gets hurt.

I don't think Star Jackson can beat out Wilson -- hard to beat out a senior with 26 consecutive starts on his resume, particularly as a true freshman -- but at this point I don't believe Jackson will have to do much in the Fall camp to secure the back-up job. If he can just consistently play competent football, that will probably be enough to win him the back-up job for 2008.
 
BigEasyTider said:
Good points all around.

I don't think Star Jackson can beat out Wilson -- hard to beat out a senior with 26 consecutive starts on his resume, particularly as a true freshman -- but at this point I don't believe Jackson will have to do much in the Fall camp to secure the back-up job. If he can just consistently play competent football, that will probably be enough to win him the back-up job for 2008.
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I'm not necessarily disagreeing with your take on the back-up QB situation, just find myself considering how incredibly difficult it would be for a true freshman to learn a complicated offensive system during the short fall practice period. Add to that getting used to faster game speed and more complex defensive schemes...and I guess its no surprise why what you suggest will happen so rarely does at SEC level.

I'm trying to imagine JPW going down with an injury on second offensive series against Clemson...and Star Jackson trotting onto the field for Bama. I don't know, but because of new offensive coordinator, may be he has as good a chance as McElroy and Fannuzzi.
 
Barring catastrophe, I hope Star will redshirt next year! I would hate to waste a year for a couple of plays, and wish no injury on a player. I can't believe he would have full command of the offense in a month, I would hope we have a QB on the roster now that would be a competent backup!
 
Here's a question to consider: When was the last time a Bama starting QB was really challenged by his back-up? Andrew Zow vs Tyler Watts? Its been a while and I can't help think both Brodie Croyle and John Parker Wilson would've been better had they been pushed by a real contender for the starting job.
 
Proxigean Tide said:
I'm not necessarily disagreeing with your take on the back-up QB situation, just find myself considering how incredibly difficult it would be for a true freshman to learn a complicated offensive system during the short fall practice period. Add to that getting used to faster game speed and more complex defensive schemes...and I guess its no surprise why what you suggest will happen so rarely does at SEC level.

I'm trying to imagine JPW going down with an injury on second offensive series against Clemson...and Star Jackson trotting onto the field for Bama. I don't know, but because of new offensive coordinator, may be he has as good a chance as McElroy and Fannuzzi.
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It's tough to do, no doubt about it. It's very rare to see it happen, and generally when you do see it happen it is a sign of poor quarterbacks on the roster more than anything else.

That is why I don't think he will beat out Wilson. However, with the back-up job it's a different story. At the end of the day, given as poorly as McElroy and Fanuzzi are playing, the bar is just set so low. Again, unless they start to improve, a semi-acceptable performance on a consistent basis should be enough.

bamaga said:
Barring catastrophe, I hope Star will redshirt next year! I would hate to waste a year for a couple of plays, and wish no injury on a player. I can't believe he would have full command of the offense in a month...
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Oh he won't have full command of the offense, no doubt about it. If it comes to that, much like with Stafford at UGA and Tebow at Florida, we will have to run a greatly compressed scheme that will be much more simple and user friendly for Jackson. It will be like instead of reading War and Peace, we instead analyze the the Cliff's Notes version of the story.

And I don't want to waste a redshirt year either, but if it happens, it happens. If he is better than McElroy and Fanuzzi, you may as well go ahead and play him. If nothing else, it will give him some experience going into 2009.

Proxigean Tide said:
Here's a question to consider: When was the last time a Bama starting QB was really challenged by his back-up? Andrew Zow vs Tyler Watts? Its been a while and I can't help think both Brodie Croyle and John Parker Wilson would've been better had they been pushed by a real contender for the starting job.
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It hasn't happened since 2001. Even in 2002 with Brodie and Watts, Brodie really never pushed him. He was a complimentary player that ran a fairly different package than what Watts did. It sucks, but that's part of it. We haven't had quality depth in a lot of positions lately, and quarterback is just one of them.
 
If Star learns the offense quickly he could play, especially if the ole "lack of confidence" bug suddenly strikes JPW again like it did last year. I don't see a total meltdown like last year going unanswered like last year.
 
BigEasyTider said:
Good points all around.

I think the main concern at this point is that none of the three players vying for the back-up job -- McElroy, Fanuzzi, and Darrah -- have given us any objective evidence whatsoever that would rationally indicate they can step in and play quality football at the SEC level. Complain all you want about Wilson, but I honestly have no clue as to what we are going to do if he gets hurt.

I don't think Star Jackson can beat out Wilson -- hard to beat out a senior with 26 consecutive starts on his resume, particularly as a true freshman -- but at this point I don't believe Jackson will have to do much in the Fall camp to secure the back-up job. If he can just consistently play competent football, that will probably be enough to win him the back-up job for 2008.
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All this does is make my argument with the poor job of recruiting our exHC did in what position he should have been good at evaluating talent(qb).:mad2:
 
KillianIrish said:
If Star learns the offense quickly he could play, especially if the ole "lack of confidence" bug suddenly strikes JPW again like it did last year. I don't see a total meltdown like last year going unanswered like last year.
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I really hope that Star can spend the year holding a clipboard. I, too, would like to see JPW pulled if he starts throwing off his back foot again but would rather put in McElroy, Fanuzzi or Darrah in than burn a full year with Star.
 
drjamesm said:
All this does is make my argument with the poor job of recruiting our exHC did in what position he should have been good at evaluating talent(qb).:mad2:
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To be fair, the QB's were used a little differently in XCMS's system that CNS's. Remember everyone was talking up McElroy under XCMS. He probably would have been a good QB if it weren't for the coaching change.
 
Unfortunately coaching changes tend to get quite a few players and QB is no exception. IMO CNS had and has no alternative but to play JPW since no other QB has any game experience. In all probability Fanuzzi will back up JPW since, it is my opinion that McElroy much like Jimmy Barnes, is a victim of the change in coaches and philosophies and does not figure into the team's QB plans. I also suspect Jackson will redshirt and compete with Fanuzzi in 09. It would appear that McElroy should have kept his commitment to Texas Tech, but we never can see what the future holds.
 
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