[2024] A Tale of Two Quarterbacks: OG Torres

[Jieret]

 

 

  Upon reading the title of this article you'd likely think "Two Quarterbacks" refers to OG and redshirt freshman Willie Robinson, Torres's main competitor for the starting QB position at Western Michigan.  But it doesn't, at least not now.

  Because we're starting with last year.  And last year there was another QB's name on everyone's mind, even though he wasn't there any more.  Theo.

  Theo Scribner.  Heisman winner, All-American, first-round draft pick, hauled the Broncos all the way to the National Championship Game.  At the beginning of the 2023 season, his shadow loomed large over everything related to WMU Football, and over OG most of all.  Coach Jieret tried to shield him from it as best he could, telling him to play his own way, but OG just couldn't help it.  He not only watched Theo carve up defenses in 2021 and 2022, knowing he would have to follow, but he also memorized the numbers from that sublime 2022 season.  
7,724 yards. 631 completions and a 67% completion rate.  454 yards per game.  55 touchdowns.  OG knew - he knew - that no one expected those video-game numbers from him, especially with Durham Simmons and Andy Anderson also graduated.  But those numbers stayed in his head, an impossible mental measuring stick.

  To no one's surprise, Torres did not meet those numbers.  But even though he knew it wasn't realistic, OG thought that he was letting the team and the fans down by not getting there.  And worse, the team was struggling.  As QB, Torres thought it was all on him and kept more and more pressure on himself to succeed.  To somehow will the team to win.  To be just like Theo.
  But he wasn't Theo, and he and the team sputtered to a 5-7 record.  Torres heard it all. 

• How it was the first bowl-less season in team history.
• How the number of losses in team history almost doubled because of 2023.
• How WMU let hated rival Central Michigan claim the Michigan MAC Trophy outright, the first time any team was able to do so.
• How Theo would never have let this happen.

  OG hated hearing it, who wouldn't?  But it hurt him more because they were all things he said to himself.

  A few days after that final game against CMU, Torres was summoned to Coach Jieret's office.  Torres had all kinds of worst-case scenarios running through his head - getting cut, Robinson was already named the starter for 2024.  Instead, the coach asked him a question.

  "Do you like to fish?"

~~~

  Coach Jieret knew there would be pressure on OG Torres.  When you're following Theo Scribner and all his accolades, how could there not be?  But he didn't know just how much it weighed on him until he caught OG repeatedly muttering some variation of, "What would Theo do?" during a film session following their week four loss to Toledo.  And this was a game where Torres completed 50 of 80 (!) passes for 446 yards and 2 TDs.  It became clear that Torres was trying to live up to a standard that wasn't there.

  There were a lot of things that didn't go well for the Broncos in 2023.  Torres struggled, and he took a lot of flak for that - way too much, in Jieret's opinion.  There was much more wrong with the team that just what his quarterback was or wasn't doing.
  But the coaching staff tried all kinds of things on and off the field to get Torres on track and keep him there.  More passing.  Less passing.  Scripting more plays to take stuff off of Torres's plate and get him in rhythm.  Game preparations alternating between more film and more drills.  None of it seemed to work, at least long-term.  Even games where Torres played well such as versus Akron, he continued to be hypercritical of himself.  And when the Broncos dropped three in a row to end the season, Torres's confidence shrank so much that he sometimes struggled to be heard calling plays in the huddle.
  "I can say it now," admits Jieret, "but I was so worried about OG that part of me was happy the season was over.  Because there wasn't time to get him right in the short amount of time between games, game prep, and classes.  We did what we could, but he straight up needed a reset."

  Coach Jieret still has no idea why he suggested fishing, "some train of thought thing thinking about the [Cowlitz] river running through OG's hometown, I guess.  I'm actually a terrible fisherman!"  But once he convinced Torres, they packed up the next weekend and drove out to fish the Dowagiac River.  Standing weekend invitations for the rest of the team and coaching staff would follow, but that first Saturday was just them.

  Torres, coach Jieret, and any others who showed up talked about anything and everything during those fishing trips - fish, television, anime, music, cakes vs. pies - anything, that is, except for 2023.  When the seasons turned warm enough, more of the team decided to come out on a regular basis.  Before you knew it, contests to catch the most trout and skamania became a thing.  "Danny [Courtney, wide receiver] caught a steelhead I swear was almost as big as he was!  Three of us had to help him land the thing," laughed Torres.  "He won our 'Fish of the Year' award - once he was able to hold it above his head without help!"
  And of course, catching so many fish meant fish fry parties.  So, so many fish fry parties.

OG calls those trips "literal lifesavers."  "I was so in my own head about everything [that happened last season], I needed a way to flush it all out of my system and start having fun again."  And the fact that his teammates joined him and the coaches in having a good time fishing also showed Torres something very important - they didn't hate or blame him for the 2023 season, something he admits he assumed as a matter of course.  He says that realization was the last metaphorical weight that needed to roll off his back.

"I'm ready," he says as we conclude our interview.  "I'm ready to show everyone the real OG Torres, and that last year wasn't him."

~~~

Now a redshirt senior, Torres is again the presumptive favorite to start under center for the Broncos.  But Willie Robinson has a year of development under his belt, both in the weight room and the film room.  He's not likely to concede the starting position without a fight, and there are certainly those among the fans and alumni wanting "WillieRob" to get his shot.  So does this article's title now refer to OG Torres and Willie Robinson?  Or is it about 2023 OG Torres versus a more confident and calm version of himself?

But either way, the title is not about OG Torres and Theo Scribner.  Not anymore.