2015 Season Countdown: #1 Jake Rudock

2015 Season Countdown: #1 Jake Rudock


September 2, 2015

Jake Rudock


Name:
Jake Rudock
Height: 6’3″
Weight: 208 lbs.
High school: Fort Lauderdale (FL) St. Thomas Aquinas
Position: Quarterback
Class: Fifth year senior
Jersey number: #15
Last year: Rudock was a redshirt junior at Iowa. He started twelve games and went 213/345 for 2,436 yards, 16 touchdowns, and 5 interceptions; he also ran 67 times for 176 yards and 3 touchdowns.

I wrote up a post on Rudock when it was announced he was coming to Michigan back in April (LINK). He was Iowa’s starter for the past two years, but in the early off-season, Iowa head coach Kirk Ferentz named C.J. Beathard the starter. Rudock started thinking about playing his final season elsewhere. Michigan’s coaching staff was initially not interested until they got a firsthand look at what the current roster of quarterbacks offered; spring practice convinced them they needed another option.

Hit the jump for the rest of the post on Rudock.

MGoBlog has done a very helpful series of “Upon Further Review” on Rudock’s performances from last season:

The general takeaway is what we all pretty much knew, anyway: Rudock is a pretty good quarterback, but he’s not a dynamic one. He improved significantly from 2013 to 2014, and he goes from a pro-style offense to a pro-style offense, so I don’t think we can expect much regression from learning a new offense. The terminology will be different, but a lot of the plays and reads will be very similar. He has an above average arm, and he is mostly accurate. He will check the ball down to underneath routes frequently, but he can air it out a little bit on occasion.

Iowa fans were not very fond of Rudock, but they aren’t fond of many people these days. The Hawkeyes have been floundering since the days of yore when Bob Sanders, Chad Greenway, Tim Dwight, and Robert Gallery were there. A team’s fans often think the backup is better than the starter, just like some people thought Shane Morris should be the starter over Devin Gardner. I don’t know enough about Beathard to say whether he should be starting now or not, but I am pretty certain that Iowa’s struggles did not fall squarely on the shoulders of Jake Rudock.

Michigan needs a steadying hand at the quarterback position, and that’s what Rudock offers. Shane Morris isn’t really a hit-or-miss player – he has essentially been a miss so far. The other available quarterbacks on the roster aren’t ready and perhaps never will be (aside from redshirting transfer John O’Korn). The loss of Rudock would put the team in a very shaky situation, because the Wolverines would have almost no passing game (Morris has 0 touchdowns to 5 interceptions in his career). Furthermore, I would argue that if Morris wins the job or improves significantly, a lot of that could be attributed to the kick in the pants he received when he found out that a newbie was being brought in to take his place. Numerous reports this off-season have said that Morris is working harder than ever to be a leader and be the quarterback, even though he is unlikely to win the job, in my opinion.

I expect Rudock to use the tight ends a lot this season, especially Jake Butt. He will also have a good receiving threat out of the backfield in Ty Isaac, not to mention fullback Joe Kerridge. The receivers are a question mark, although Amara Darboh is a good possession guy and there have been glowing reports about Drake Harris, who has missed the last two years of football due to hamstring injuries. These options aren’t guaranteed to be great, but two or three guys should emerge as consistent targets. Rudock cut down his interceptions from 13 in 2013 to just 5 in 2014, and as long as he can keep the turnovers to a minimum, the Wolverines should be able to run the ball, play good defense, and dink-and-dunk their way down the field to some victories.

Prediction: Starting quarterback; 185/301 for 2,318 yards, 18 touchdowns, 6 interceptions

13 comments

  1. Comments: 48
    Joined: 8/11/2015
    Nick.
    Sep 02, 2015 at 8:02 AM

    I agree with you Thunder. We need a solid game manager who doesn’t create turnovers. Rudock can be that guy. Hopefully we see some OL improvement to give him some protection and we should be able to manage a semi-productive offense. Turnovers killed us the last two years, mostly interceptions, and a significant improvement in that department will lead to a more productive offense and a more productive defense.

    • Comments: 6285
      Joined: 8/11/2015
      Lanknows
      Sep 02, 2015 at 12:56 PM

      I think some of the turnovers were the result of Gardner taking risks he felt he had to take to score. There were times where the offense simply could not move the ball.

      The OL is absolutely critical to the the team in 2015 because we don’t have Denard, Devin, or Gallon to bail out the offense with big plays.

      • Comments: 48
        Joined: 8/11/2015
        Nick.
        Sep 02, 2015 at 2:13 PM

        I agree that the OL play is absolutely critical, but I think you may be downplaying Gardner’s ability to turn the ball over. Great kid but he committed 15 interceptions last year (11 the year before) and many of them were just out right terrible throws into places he should not have been throwing. He did force things from time to time to get the offense going (agree it was terrible at times), but as a game manager it is his responsibility to put the team ahead and not behind. He was downright reckless at times with his ball placement. The difference this year will be a guy who plays calm under pressure and takes calculated risks because his coach is going to demand it.

        • Comments: 6285
          Joined: 8/11/2015
          Lanknows
          Sep 02, 2015 at 3:20 PM

          Hope you’re right – I just think Gardner got a raw deal with that offensive system and OL. To me, his performance — which was not good objectively — was somewhat excusable, given the strain he was under. Gardner deserves blame for all those TOs but I’d lump most of those issues under “justifiably reckless” or at least “understandably reckless”.

          In other words, if you put Gardner in this Harbaugh O, I think there’s no way he throws 15 picks again. But that hypothetical is unknowable of course.

          • Comments: 48
            Joined: 8/11/2015
            Nick.
            Sep 02, 2015 at 9:31 PM

            I don’t disagree with you Lank. I think Gardner got a raw deal almost his entire time at Michigan. He was poorly coached by Hoke and never allowed to develop confidence behind a line that was left empty by Rodriguez. His play was exactly as you stated, justifiably or understandably reckless at times. The game seemed to move too fast for him and he quickly developed some poor habits because he thought he needed to for the better of the team. Between being poorly coached and then shooting himself in the foot he is lucky to be alive after the beating he took.

  2. Comments: 49
    Joined: 8/11/2015
    Blue in NC
    Sep 02, 2015 at 8:56 AM

    I think the key will be if the running game (with the help of the OL) will be good enough to be a weapon or only good enough to take some of the heat off the passing game. The former means other teams will be looking run and Rudock is good enough to hit open guys and move the team fairly efficiently. The latter means the QB would have to be more of a play-maker and the offense will probably sputter with the lack of elite WR.

  3. Comments: 6285
    Joined: 8/11/2015
    Lanknows
    Sep 02, 2015 at 10:23 AM

    Great job on the countdown this year Thunder. Thanks for all the work you put in. I enjoyed the whole thing.

    Go Blue!

    • Comments: 522
      Joined: 8/12/2015
      DonAZ
      Sep 02, 2015 at 10:53 AM

      Seconded … very nice job with the countdown.

      Tomorrow evening we see how all this comes together. I will then eagerly look forward to Thunder’s post-game recap.

      • Comments: 6285
        Joined: 8/11/2015
        Lanknows
        Sep 02, 2015 at 12:54 PM

        I’ll be at the game. Can’t wait. Go Blue!

        • Comments: 522
          Joined: 8/12/2015
          DonAZ
          Sep 02, 2015 at 2:21 PM

          I’ll be 771 miles to the south of you according to Google Maps. 🙂

  4. Comments: 2
    french_pedi
    Sep 02, 2015 at 10:52 AM

    How do you think Ruddock compares to Kevin Hogan? , or =?

  5. Comments: 1364
    Joined: 8/11/2015
    WindyCityBlue
    Sep 02, 2015 at 12:40 PM

    I can’t convince myself that Morris is ever going to be the man here, but hopefully with some decent coaching he can at least be a non-disastrous backup for the next two years. But if Rudock went down early in the season and Morris had to step in, it would probably cost us two wins, at least. In addition to his overall deficiencies in ability, he would not be well suited to the kind of short to medium range, touch and accuracy type of passing game that we’re likely to run this year. Rudock seems to be.

    • Comments: 6285
      Joined: 8/11/2015
      Lanknows
      Sep 02, 2015 at 1:00 PM

      I’m not a fan of Morris, but if you imagine a world were he is a just a strong-armed RS sophomore and getting coached Harbaugh and Fisch I think our perceptions would be different. I’m not sure there’s a better coach for a QB to have the opportunity to learn under than Harbaugh. Going from Borges to that is huge, and by this time next year, Morris could be a much better player.

      That said, if Morris has to play in 2015, I’m not sure this team is going to beat Minnesota, Maryland, even Rutgers-level teams.

      We’re going to ride with Rudock, for better or worse.

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