Lamb

[meganeck]

Lamb is putting up some good numbers this season, I know there is more season left but would Lamb be considered one of the better QBs to play at WIU or is it more of Davis's system?

Before this weekend I looked it up and Lamb and Matt Morrisey (last seasons QB who transferred) had similar numbers on the season. I imagine Lamb's are alot better now after Saturday.

[rocki]

Hasn't Lamb been around a while? I never could understand why we kept starting Connor Sampson instead of developing one of the backups. I thought Lamb was one of them, but I could be wrong.

[rocki]

My mistake. Lamb wasn't here then. I just remember wanting anyone but Sampson.
 

[NewNeck]

Davis has produced a ton of good stat lines as a QB coach with his system but I think the biggest difference is Lamb's running ability and play on 3rd down compared to Morrisey.

[ST_Lawson]

Davis has produced a ton of good stat lines as a QB coach with his system but I think the biggest difference is Lamb's running ability and play on 3rd down compared to Morrisey.


 

Exactly. He's no Lamar Jackson, but at any point, if a play breaks down or they want to pull a sneaky QB run, he's a threat to pick up solid chunk of yards on the ground. Defenses have to account for that, which helps open up the passing game.

We're still only averaging 134 ypg on the ground though, so I'd prefer to see our O-line step up more and be able to open up more space for our RBs to run with the ball. It is a lot better than it has been in the past though...2023 was 47.6 ypg, 2022 was 89.3...really we haven't averaged over 100 ypg rushing since 2019 and the last time we had over 130 for a season was 156 in 2017 when we went 8-4.

Obviously averaging 400 ypg total offense (where we're at currently) is something I'm pretty happy to see (last time we had essentially that was 397.9 ypg in 2017), but if we're looking at how we're getting those yards, I'd prefer to see it a little bit heavier on the run game. We're still getting stopped too early too often when we try to move the ball that way. That being said, it's pretty clear that offense is not really the problem (other than a few more turnovers than I'd like to see), and Lamb is a big part of that.

This is Lamb's second year on the roster (prior to that he spent 3 seasons at the College of the Sequoias in Californa), so unsurprisingly, it looks like Davis really knows how to get a QB to work to his fullest potential. The real test will be next year: who replaces Lamb, and what Davis decides to do about the defense (do we need new defensive staff, different players, different defensive scheme...D. all of the above?)

For reference, our current situation compared to the rest of the FCS (out of 123 teams):

Total Offense - 31st in FCS, 2nd in the OVC
Rushing Offense - 82nd in FCS, 5th in OVC
Passing Offense - 15th in FCS, 2nd in OVC
Scoring Offense - 39th in FCS, 3rd in OVC

Total Defense - 122nd in FCS, 8th in OVC
Rushing Defense - 122nd in FCS, 8th in OVC
Passing Defense - 97th in FCS, 5th in OVC
Scoring Defense - 120th in FCS, 8th in OVC

Turnover Margin - 85th in FCS, 5th in OVC
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