Grading The Auburn Quarterback

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 A top flight QB has to have four things, each equally important, to reach his full potential. They are:1.) Accurate arm 2.) Ability to call plays in the huddle and then audible out of those plays at the line, if need be. To be able to call those audibles a QB has to be able to 3.) read defenses. Last but not least a QB has to 4.) earn the respect of his team mates.

Kiehl Frazier has tremendous potential, and has yet to realize it fully. A good estimation is that he is only a fraction away from being the top notch QB we all hope that he can be. He has the respect from his team mates. We heard it all summer long, and once the season started. When things aren't going well for the offense, you can see all the players surrounding Kiehl with their support. They respect him, and want to see him do well.

 Frazier gets the plays called, and gets out of the huddle really well. We have not seen very many instances where someone is lined up wrong, or the dreaded time out being called because the personnel on the field are confused about what they are doing. All signs of a clear and defined leader in the huddle.

 Changing plays at the line has not seemed to be an issue thus far in this early stage of the season, so I see no indication that the Sophomore QB is not handling that part of his duties. In fact, I have been pleasantly surprised by the smoothness of audibles being called. So far, so good.

 That leaves us with arm accuracy. This may be the weakest part of Frazier's game up to this point. An occasional overthrow, and several floated passes that could have had a little more zip on them are really the only complaints we have seen thus far.  Kiehl Frazier has been much better delivering passes across the middle that I thought he would be. Of the back shoulder throws we have seen, I think most of them were by design.

 Interceptions have more to do with inexperience than accuracy. One of these interceptions looked an awful lot like a wrong route run by a receiver, than a bad throw from Kiehl. 

 While turnovers are party crashers, the best way to learn from them is to study film, work on those mistakes and then move on. Frazier seems to be doing that just fine. 

 As I look at this trying to be objective, I see Kiehl has three out of the four criteria items that it takes to be a good QB. That is 75% of the things we discussed that he does well. That is a C in any grade book. A passing grade, but plenty of room for improvement.

 Time will tell of course, but if young Mr. Frazier is learning and getting better as he goes, Auburn is in real good hands.

WAR EAGLE!