TSL Poll – How Would You Grade Brenden Motley’s First Start?

Brenden Motley made his first career start on Saturday against Furman.  How would you grade it?

How would you grade Brenden Motley's first start?

  • B - Good (68%, 1,657 Votes)
  • C - Average (21%, 499 Votes)
  • A - Great (6%, 155 Votes)
  • D - Needs Improvement (4%, 101 Votes)
  • I dont know/no opinion (0%, 12 Votes)
  • F - Failing (0%, 5 Votes)

Total Voters: 2,429

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21 Responses You are logged in as Test

  1. Tyrod Taylor just won his NFL first start….when he was the 2010 ACC POY, he LOST to an FCS team.

    To all 5 of those “fail” voters, Motley accounting for 270 Yds and 3 TDs in a 42-3 W is absolutely NOT a fail

  2. Those voting “fail”?? Man I sure am glad you’re not a teacher or professor, because nobody would ever pass.
    He left the game up 35-3 with zero TOs and accounted for 3 TDs. NOT a fail.

    Last I checked that Tyrod Taylor guy who just won an NFL Start lost to an FCS team the year he went on to be ACC POY

  3. Motley did fine…we need to focus on Running the ball with our new OL and hitting short passes to open things up down field for Ford / Phillips / Hodges…more passes to backs out of the backfield would be excellent…Don’t get him hurt early in games and USE the BOOTLEG to keep defense honest – we win by 21 at PERDOO! Go Hokies!

  4. Did anyone see the true freshman for UCLA against uva. I don’t think he was an early enrollee or a redshirt. He looked like he was a four year Senior. Granted, he is skilled and prepared for a freshman, but that is just what I am talking about. Motley is a junior, I think, and not even close to being a big time QB. I have nothing against Motley, but I can see why GT wanted him. I think I heard GT offered him. I cant see him beating a big time school. Why not give Lawson some extended playing time also. You may be surprised.

    1. did you see the game? The answer to your “why not” is that he simply isn’t ready. Motley can lead us to a win over anyone on or schedule. Lawson could lead us to a loss to anyone on our schedule. Lets do what we need to win, and get Lawson experience if/when we can.

  5. He made the TOP 3 QB LIST IN Frank Beamer’s era for stats. And played around 3 quarters. Not Bad at all. Critics will be critics… Hope the young man graduates and moves on….

  6. After getting through the first quarter it was good to see Motley start connecting on his throws although it looked like Furman didn’t have much of a pass defense. There wasn’t much pressure on Motley and our receivers seemed to be running wide open. As someone else mentioned it was Furman. I’ll feel much better about our chances with Motley when I see him do it against a good team. But I do feel a little better about our chances to move the ball against Purdue and ECU. Can’t say the same about Lawson yet – looks very raw right now.

  7. Like a lot of folks, I guess, I thought the season would be a washout when M. Brewer went down. Starting in the 2nd half against Furman things started looking up and by the end of the game , I thought the season might not be too bad after all. Motley through some great passes (yes, I know it was against Furman) and the O line seems to be coming together and the defense woke up. Now, if we can get the kickoff returners to stay in the end zone take a knee and start at the 25 0r 35 things may pan out. t of things can happen running the ball out of the end zone and almost all of them are bad.

    1. I don’t ever post, rather, just read. However, this last comment about taking a knee struck a nerve with me. Why, year after year do these kids not take a knee unless, that is, they catch the ball in the back third of the end zone. I apologize if my knowledge of what they’re taught is lacking, however if we did a study on where our starting field position is versus the 25yd line, I think I know what the answer would be. Are we alone or does everyone want to ask Frank why these guys are not taking a knee.

    2. Sounds like passing. Three things can happen, and two of them are bad. Go big or go home. CFB made his mark with special teams.

  8. I would have graded the Lawson in the C Range as well though. I would have to say Motley is better prepared to start at this point though.

  9. I would have to say D. We scored 7 points offensively in the first half vs a terrible D-1AA school, and multiple passes were pick 6’s (or a pick at the least) vs D-1, major conference caliber players. The 2nd half he looked like a B, but vs. a good to descent opponent we may have been already out of thegame because we left our defense on the field too long 1st half. While Lawson came in cold and didn’t connect on his first 3 balls while missing open guys, the key thing was he missed low on all 3 throws. Motley has his shoulders in an uphill manner (front left shoulder is elevated on all throws with his back right well below it), this tells me that he is going to have an issue of missing high. He is 6′ 2″, so height shouldn’t be an issue, but I like Lawson’s release, shoulder positioning, accuracy, arm strength, and how he throws downhill (6′ 6″ he should) better and think we might as well go with the future now. If Motley lit up the scoreboard early vs Furman I may have said stay with him, but we don’t play anyone near that low of caliber again, so we can’t afford to start playing in qtr 3. Motley is too late on throws and his style of throwing will lead to high balls that turn into picks….we are in trouble with him at QB I think…and this just isn’t some negative Nancy complaining about everything like some fans

    1. I think a point that most are missing with Motley at the start of the game , is the team at the start, they just played the number 1 team in the country and had to use so much emotion for that game………. so all of the team was a little flat, did you see the Ohio St. vs Hawaii game, they struggled as well… Give him the chance before you start pointing out all the negative. Lawson is far from ready, threw 3 passes in the dirt. It is two games into the season, who knows we may have a good year or we may lose 6 or 7 games. Let it play out, I sure the coaches would love to have you come in and detail your observations for what is wrong with the QB’S.

    2. Good Griff, what’s next… Motley is a pretty good athlete, give him a little time. Just because he wasn’t utilized as a drop back passer in HS doesn’t mean he can’t be one now, may take a learning curve, which is now on the go, but good athletes adjust. I think we will see that he is a very serviceable QB for the near future and possibly next year. We are lucky to have had him behind Brewer, I can think of some much worse, ie Auburn.

    3. I agree with you on performance. Play both of them the next two weeks and see where they are. If Motley continues to be late on his throws, then maybe we should go with Lawson. I think Lawson is the future starting next year, so let him play some or even more to get use to the college game. He needs some playing time. No time like the present. I guess Motley needs some playing time also.

    4. You, my friend, need a reality check.
      Certainly, Motley had the jitters at the start and was late on his early pass attempts. But that was corrected as the game went on and he settled down. He had several very nice passes hitting the receiver in stride & the 2nd TD to Ford was outstanding. His elusiveness was demonstrated many times as he made tacklers miss in open space. Obviously, we want to see him do it against better competition but he fully deserves the credit for getting it done at the QB job last Saturday. With some people, Motley will never do well enough. Those folks need to face it, he did very well, indeed, especially for his first start.

      1. Again…this was Furman. This isn’t even an average team in 1AA. Did he settle down to throw some nice balls to superior athletes in comparison to a defense that is full of guys that wouldn’t make backup defense on any ACC (or team we will play the rest of the yr)….yes. Would some of those late balls have been picked by far superior D-1 caliber secondary players. ..probably. I wouldn’t get too high on 1 of 3 qtrs being good vs Furman. I was glad to see the improvement, he will be in there until Brewer is back, but I just don’t see him being capable of leading us to anything better than the incompetent offense we have had the past few yrs (and hope I an wrong). While all of this hate raged on Brewer last yr, I supported him because he had the skilk set to be successful. ..I personally don’t see that skill set in Motley..I just hope he doesn’t turn it over and gets us enough 1st downs to let the defense win it and not wear them out. He can’t afford to wait to show up till the 3rd qtr for the remainder of his starts. And Hawaii would probably beat Furman by 30+ pts.

        1. Furman just lost by 3 pts to #1 in FCS. #2 in that poll just took Auburn to OT.

          I give Motley at minimum a B-, with the minus being due to his first 3-4 passes. In the 3rd quarter he was an “A” regardless of competition, because 9-10 for 120 yds and 2 TDs in a quarter is what you’d expect vs an FCS team. Put it this way, Motley was better than #6 Auburn’s QB…at least on Saturday he was

        2. OK, Griff I can’t figure out what fantasy world you live in. Help me out, please. Since Motley’s excellent QB rating score for the game, including a 66% pass completion with 2 TDs, and running success obviously wasn’t good enough for you since you gave him a D, what would you require in terms of QB performance for you to give him a C? What for a B? What for an A? Inquiring minds want to know!

  10. I think you can vote Great and needs improvement at the same time. He did what he needed to do to get the win and improve as he went on, but he needs to improve to take us forward. The start is an A in my opinion, but it is a start not an ending point. Go Brenden, I appreciate your hard work.

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