With Munchie Legaux At Quarterback I’m Having Flashbacks Of 2012, And That’s Not Good
By Chris Bains
(Courtesy AP)
Yesterday Tommy Tuberville opted to roll the dice with Munchie Legaux at quarterback. Color me surprised. Even with all of his concerns with Brendon Kay’s shoulder, I assumed there was no possible way Tuberville would go with Legaux against Purdue. All you’d have to do is go back and watch the Toledo, Louisville, and Syracuse games to understand where my head was at. Putting the stats aside, which are clearly in Kay’s favor, Cincinnati’s offense just seems more free flowing with #11 at quarterback.
Still, Tuberville went with Legaux against Purdue and it worked out fine. But the game was eerily reminiscent of the first portion of the Bearcats’ 2012 season. Remember that year? It was only nine months ago and overall one of the better seasons in Bearcat football history. Cincinnati won a share of the Big East title and beat Duke in the Belk Bowl, notching another 10-win season in their belts. But quarterback was one of the biggest areas of the concern for the first half of the year until Kay supplanted Legaux against Syracuse to rescue the Bearcats and solidified the position.
And watching yesterday’s game against Purdue I thought I was experiencing deja vu.
Like in 2012, the Bearcats leaned heavily on their strong defense and running game to guide them to victory. If you remember, against Pitt to open last season, Cincinnati held the Panthers to just 10 points, forced two turnovers, and bulldozed them on the ground to the tune of 259 yards rushing. But the passing game was still suspect with Legaux at quarterback. He did fine, completing 50% of his passes for two touchdowns, but did nothing more than “manage” the game.
Legaux’s saving grace is his legs. He’s one of the fastest, most natural runners on this team and displayed that on a 77 yd run against Pitt. But for every quarterback in the read-option offense, which the Bearcats are still implementing to an extent under new offensive coordinator Eddie Gran, it all starts in the head. Legaux had to “read” the crashing defensive end properly to make sure the play didn’t get blown up. If the end was honing in on the runningback, Legaux was to pull the ball back and run it himself. If the end was hanging back and focusing on the quarterback, Legaux was to just let the runningback take the ball. In theory it’s simple but under the live fire of a football game, with just a second or two to make the correct decision, making the wrong read isn’t uncommon.
That’s what happened to Legaux at an increasing rate as the 2012 season wore on. Against Pitt, with a month of the relative ease of practice under his belt, the UC quarterback had full confidence in his abilities. But when he started to make mistakes, and those mistakes started to directly affect the outcome of Cincinnati’s games, Legaux unraveled quickly.
Flash forward to Syracuse and Munchie Legaux is a completely different quarterback. He wasn’t reading the defensive end properly, his already funky throwing mechanics were looking worse and worse, and the offense struggled to find any sense of rhythm. Cincinnati’s defense was still playing as strong as it ever was but couldn’t be leaned upon to perform at a high level with the offense giving the ball away and sputtering in general.
Let me be clear, Legaux appears to have made strides in the offseason. He’s developed a bit more air on his deep ball and his mechanics have improved. But when plays started breaking down he made two huge mistakes that exemplify his major flaws that at this point in his career probably can’t be taught out of him. The first was the interception on Legaux’s first pass of the game. His low release point allowed for a defensive end to pop the pass up in the air allowing for a fellow defensive lineman to reel it in. The second was the interception in the endzone. Staring to his left, Legaux teed in on Shaq Washington in the corner of the endzone who was jockeying for position with a Purdue cornerback. But the problem was that even though the DB had positioned himself between the quarterback and the receiver, Legaux threw the ball anyways. It was perhaps that defensive back’s easiest pick of his career.
- Poor throwing mechanics
- Questionable decision making
The marks of Munchie Legaux’s failures that forced his dismissal from the starting quarterback position last season.
And it’s this precise reason is why I’m worried with Legaux at quarterback. His major redeeming quality in 2012 was his ability to beat teams with his legs and that worked extremely well in the beginning of the season. When teams realized he was as much of a pure passer as you or me, they started loading up the box, played tight man-to-man on Cincinnati’s receivers, and challenged Legaux to beat them with his arm. He wasn’t up to the task. As of now it doesn’t seem like Legaux has corrected the problems that haunted him last year. He’s made improvements but is still throwing passes low and/or behind receivers, releasing the football dangerously low, and making stupid decisions in the heat of the moment.
A strong defense combined with a strong running game is a formula that works in the beginning of the season. The Bearcats can clearly hang their hats on both right now but when defenses start making the necessary adjustments, Munchie Legaux will have to pass the football and prove that he can beat them with his arm. And based on yesterday as well as several games in the 2012 season, I don’t have the confidence he can accomplish that.