Film Review – John O’Korn

With Michigan having a bye this past Saturday, I’m using this week to take a look at film of transfer QB John O’Korn. O’Korn had a very nice freshman year at Houston, then Doug Meacham left for TCU and O’Korn’s productivity went way down, ultimately leading to his benching.

I was only able to take a look at two of his games, both from 2014. I will keep my eyes out for more and update the chart below as needed. From the two games I watched, it was pretty clear that his lower productivity was not all his fault. First of all, Houston couldn’t block anybody. And then when Houston actually did block effectively, O’Korn’s receivers couldn’t always be counted on to get open.

Game Grades

(A “+” is awarded for a positive play, a “-” for a negative one. For big positive or negative plays, 2 “+” or “-“, respectively, may be given.)

How Excited Should You Be?

7.5/10. As stated earlier, Houston was awful in pass pro in the games I watched. O’Korn was having to get the ball out very quickly, so he made a bunch of short throws on which he was mostly pretty good. When he did have time, and when his receivers got at least semi-open, it was easy to see why Michigan fans are excited about him; he made some great throws. Unfortunately for him, those two things didn’t happen a whole lot together and he wasn’t able to do all he could. For the most part, Michigan has been pretty good in pass pro this year. They weren’t very good against Michigan State, but even that performance was better than either of the performances by Houston I watched. Michigan doesn’t lose any receivers after this year and they lose only one lineman to graduation – Graham Glasgow. Yes, that could hurt, as Glasgow’s been their best offensive lineman this year, but still, bringing back 80% of a good line isn’t bad. I believe in Patrick Kugler and these guys have some great coaches teaching them in Tim Drevno and, of course, Jim Harbaugh. O’Korn should have time and receivers putting themselves in position to make plays next year. Also, O’Korn can make plays with his legs, so there’s a lot to like here.

O’Korn can be overly-aggressive at times, though. He threw two interceptions against UCF. The first was not very good, but still only a -1. (The second was actually a +1 as O’Korn made a great throw, but the receiver didn’t haul it in and it bounced right to a defender.) He had a couple of passes that weren’t good ideas, but that’s the kind of thing I expect Harbaugh and Fisch to fix.

Twitter: @KSchroeder2325

E-mail: schroeder.giig@gmail.com