In Reply to: Clock, Slow Your Th*u*nking Process By Severalfold And posted by NYBruin on September 07, 2026 at 00:23:56
I just think we ought to be seeing more polish from such an experienced QB.
None of this is to say I don't like Nico or that he isn't by far the best we have. I'd take him on this team over any of the post-Cade UCLA QB's, except maybe Hundley. But we appear to have the skill players on offense to really hurt some teams, and he needs to play better to make it all go. Sure, as-is he can get us to 7-5 no problem, but this team could have more in it.
Another thing I worry about with him is that his best skill, his crazy athleticism, is going to get him hurt. It actually did get him hurt this past game, in fact, to the point where he missed critical game action. Thus, a critical benefit of him improving his passing/mental game is that it keeps him from running too much.
There were some extenuating circumstances, of course. He was in Game 1 with a new staff, new offense, new teammates. And the energy of the game/stadium created kind of a helter skelter situation with both teams making a lot of mistakes. JKS made a lot of mistakes, too.
Again, none of this is to say Nico is bad. But if he could be a little more consistent, we could win 9 games. I think the D will be solid. I think the run game will be good. I think special teams will be a strength. The spirit and aggression of the team are right where they need to be. We just need a little more out of the passing game. I personally found it significant that we scored 45 points (6 TD's), but did not record a single passing TD.
At home against very beatable opponents like SDSU and Purdue, I want to see Nico go off for 250+ yards and multiple passing TD's.