Originally posted by Phoenix49ers:Originally posted by Niners816:Coaching is the hope though. I remember reading an interview with Walsh and he said his philosophy was if you could do it once, you could then practice it and do it consistently. I know most of the WCO tree guys believe this. Hopefully at some point Blaine could put it all together consistently. However, I'm not holding my breathe.
The Dan Fouts model is a good one. He went from a QB that was seen as incredibly average to a Hall of Fame quarterback. Bill Walsh was OC of the Chargers in 1976 and from that year on, Fouts showed tremendous improvement and become a top notch starter for the Chargers, particularly during the Air Coryell years. Walsh consistently showed that with hard work and coaching, you could extract the utmost performance from a quarterback and no matter how shaky they might be, you could improve their consistency as passers.
From Bill Walsh's 'Building a Champion.'
"When I became offensive coordinator at San Diego in 1976, Dan Fouts and Jesse Freitas had been sharing the quarterback spot with only average results. It was thought that Dan wasn't a good enough athlete to play quarterback in the NFL, that he was an average thrower and too slow on his feet. We went to work immediately on his mechanics and the very basic fundamentals of NFL-style passing. We spent endless hours on the field for three full months. Like Ken Anderson, Dan was an enthusiastic student of the game.
Dan continued to work hard and it soon paid off. He had a great game against the St. Louis Cardinals, the best of his career to that point and that game really made him. Don Coryell had come to town with his "Air Coryell" attack; it was a homecoming for Don because he had been so successful at San Diego State before going to the Cardinals. The game matched our newly developing offense against their established wide-open attack. On this occasion we destroyed them, 43-24.
Dan Fouts's career came of age at that point. Dan is an outgoing person, humorous but caustic, and he hadn't been well received by his teammates. The team would lose and he would be critical and demanding of them, and they would say, in effect, "what have you done for us lately?" At that time, team morale was terrible. The losers syndrome was well established. But as Dan improved, his leadership qualities took hold and the players began to respond. He was setting a standard for everyone. He was making things happen.
The key was to develop his mechanics and skills to afford him the opportunity to be as efficient as physically possible. Dan is well coordinated but doesn't look it. He's tall and at times appears awkward. He can be in sync and under control but he's the only one who knows it.
He continued to improve all facets of his game. From attempting to function without any timing whatsoever, Dan became a sound, efficient, fully dimensional quarterback. As he began to perform more consistently and effectively, he could take advantage of his great courage and instincts. He couldn't scramble like Anderson but he could stay in the pocket as well as anybody and could throw the ball with great accuracy with pass rushers and blockers within inches of him. He had a knack for feeling the pass rush and seeing downfield.
Call it an instinct, a second sense, a skill:the ability to peripherally feel the pass rush and see downfield is the very basis of professional quarterbacking. If a quarterback begins looking at pass rushers instead of receivers, he is doomed. The instant his concentration reverts from the receivers to the pass rushers, he becomes a running back.
Also, a bit on Steve Young.
"While on a scouting trip, I discreetly found a way to be on the BYU campus when Steve just happened to be working out with members of the football team. I stood behind him and watched him throw just about every type of pass; I could see that he possessed a quick delivery and a fine arm.
We pursued him, but most coaches and general managers of other organizations thought he was too inconsistent to be a starting quarterback in the NFL, not realizing that with hard work on the mechanics and techniques, you can measurably develop a man's consistency. I envisioned a great one-two punch with Steve occasionally alternating with Joe, thus forcing opponents to account for both a right-handed and left-handed quarterback.
Our approach with Steve was the same as with our other quarterbacks, working with him for endless hours on the fundamentals of the game, and how they applied to the 49er offense. Our concepts were completely new to Steve, who had experienced only the most simplistic offenses. He was enthusiastic and excited about his career being revitalized. By this time, there was a 49er mystique, especially in regard to quarterbacking and passing offense.
Those are great book passages. I'm always reminded of how scatter shot Garcia was in his first stint as starter after Steve got hurt in 1999. I thought there was no way he could craft an NFL career. Talk about happy feet and jump throws and just looked lost. Then the "Stenstrom" era happened for a month....Jeff got it back and looked like a totally different guy. He built on that and molded a pretty nice niner career. That's always been my hope for Blaine.
