[lawrence-newsletter]
Seth Galina of ProFootballFocus listed his seven “hidden offensive gems” for the 2020 football season last week and included Badger quarterback Jack Coan in his list.
Coan was one of two Big Ten names included along with Nebraska wide receiver J.D. Spielman, with the seven names rounded out by one power five conference player in Georgia Tech running back Jordan Mason and four players from a group of five conference.
“Only two of the top 10 quarterbacks who threw at least 200 non-play-action straight dropbacks return in 2020: former four-star recruit Sam Ehlinger at Texas and former three-star recruit Jack Coan at Wisconsin,” Galina wrote. “With their use of different personnel groupings, formations and pass concepts, the Wisconsin passing attack is not necessarily a plug-and-play system for quarterbacks, but Coan performed admirably.”
The paragraph on Coan continues to cite what frustrated Badger fans during his 2019 campaign: inconsistency.
“The senior quarterback will have to improve on his consistency,” Galina noted. “In terms of overall offensive grade, Coan posted five games graded above 80.0 but also eight below 70.0. There was almost no middle ground. Before putting up a 90-plus passing grade against Michigan State, he had tallied an awful 47.9 passing grade against lowly Northwestern only a couple weeks prior.”
These inconsistent games were often bailed out by dominant performances by Jim Leonhard‘s defense, most notably their three turnover, two defensive touchdown performance against the aforementioned Northwestern Wildcats when Coan only threw for 113 yards and one interception.
With offensive leaders Jonathan Taylor, Quintez Cephus and Tyler Biadasz gone to the NFL, Coan will need to find other options to throw to in order to repeat his 2019 production. But, if his year-to-year improvement and flashes of dominance have any indication as to what to expect from the senior quarterback, signs point towards an impressive senior season from the New York native and ProFootballFocus completely agrees.