Washington State quarterback Connor Halliday is a walking, breathing enigma. The redshirt junior can dazzle in the first half, then struggle in the second half, or vice versa. He can look poised and confident, as he did last week through three quarters in WSU’s 52-24 loss to Oregon State, or he can throw three interceptions in five passing attempts, as he did when the Beavers rallied.
Halliday is third in the country in passing yards with 2,241, but he leads the country in picks with 13.
The Cougars (4-3, 2-2 Pac-12) face No. 2 Oregon (6-0, 3-0 Pac-12) Saturday in Eugene, their chances of pulling an upset slim. What chance does Halliday have of eventually grasping WSU coach Mike Leach’s Air Raid offense?
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4 Comments
Apodaca isn’t exactly expert in ball security either.. he’s arguably worse than Halliday.. now, if Halliday continues to be Beavers 4th quarter bad with the football, yeah, that’s epic meltdown territory, gotta bench him then.
Halliday’s talent is immense and his improvement in his second year playing for Mike Leach is substantial. He somehow needs to figure out a way to fight through the occasional emotional… lets call them setbacks… in order to realize his potential.
I recommend he go to his “happy place” when he makes a mistake.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9z5qpyxRR-A
Halliday has looked ugly all year! I don’t understand this need to keep him as the starter? He overthrows players all the time and makes way to many bad decisions. In the beginning of the game last week, I had true hope. The ball was flying out of his hand fast and on target. He made a dime throw down-field and showed that maybe he’s figuring out the offense, but once again he blows it.
Two stats I would love to know, but can’t find: How many dropped interceptions has Halliday thrown and how many YAC do his receivers and running backs have?
Apodaca hasn’t shown he’ll be any better than Halliday and no way should Bruggman lose a year of eligibility the way Tuel was wasted by Wulff. Like Adam says, Connor has all the talent in the world but he’s playing like, well, a college kid who isn’t a grown-up yet…in other words, he is exactly as advertised.
I think a lot of us have been spoiled by Russell Wilson’s maturity as a rookie and sometimes it’s easy to forget that very few quarterbacks in college are like that. It’s pretty obvious Connor Halliday is no Russell Wilson, but he hasn’t shown he’s another Jeff George or Todd Marinovich, either. I’d settle for another Keith Price.