FSU Football: Scouting Ole Miss QB Chad Kelly

FSU football will take the field on September 5th against Ole Miss and potential NFL QB Chad Kelly. We look at his strengths and weaknesses.

Kelly is arguably the best quarterback in the SEC as he has broken or tied 14 Ole Miss records. He was the Sugar Bowl MVP and the SEC passing leader with over 310 yards per game.

Kelly can get it done with his arm and is sneaky good with his legs as he rushed for 500 yards and scored 10 touchdowns.

He passed for 4,042 yards and 31 touchdowns while completing 65 percent of his passes last season. The Rebels will depend heavily on Kelly in 2016, even more than last season to reach 10 wins again.

There’s a reason why we listed him in our Top 15 Offensive Players FSU Will Face In 2016 post a couple of weeks ago.

Former NFL scout and current NFL media analyst Daniel Jeremiah released his first look scouting report for Kelly recently:

"Kelly has ideal size, arm strength and toughness. He is a big, sturdy pocket passer with a huge arm. He generates a lot of torque from his lower half and has the velocity on his throws to fit balls into very tight windows down the field. He flashes the ability to make “wow” throws deep down the field (see deep ball vs. Texas A&M). Kelly shows tremendous courage to stay in the pocket until the last second and absorb big hits from defenders. He is also extremely competitive. He is used on designed quarterback runs and he consistently lowers his shoulder to fight for extra yards. The effort he showed in making a tackle after throwing an interception against Florida last season was a play that will endear him to his teammates."

This is accurate from the bit of film study I’ve done on Kelly as well. When it comes how he can be successful against FSU Football I think Ole Miss will have to use Kelly’s legs more on designed runs similar to how Clemson uses Deshaun Watson.

That’s what Ole Miss went to late in the season in 2015, rushing Kelly for 11, 12, 11 and 10 times in the final four games that resulted in four wins against the likes of Arkansas, LSU, Mississippi State and Oklahoma State.

Those four games accounted for 68 percent of his total rushing yards on the season as well as 60 percent of his rushing touchdowns.

With their top receiver gone to the NFL and a young offensive line, expect Ole Miss to use this approach especially because of the second part of the scouting report:

"There are a lot of areas where Kelly can improve. I love his aggressiveness, but he forces too many balls into highly populated areas. He also has a bad habit of speeding up his process and missing easy layups underneath. He doesn’t like to give up on a play, which can lead to some unnecessary sacks and ill-advised decisions. His deep-ball accuracy is a work in progress. He had some beautiful connections in the games I watched, but also overthrew several passes."

FSU football will try to collapse the pocket and force Kelly to do exactly this which could result in turnovers against what should be an excellent secondary.

The first thing you’ll notice in the video is Kelly had a lot of passes batted down at the line of scrimmage which is something FSU does well typically.

It’s accurate to say that the deep ball isn’t accurate but also Ole Miss likes to dump the ball out in the flats or across the middle with short routes because Alabama’s linebackers were not great in coverage.

We’ll talk more about this when we preview the entire game, but expect the Ole Miss offense to try to keep the chains moving with these short passes and using Kelly’s legs on third and short or on first down.

Next: 5 Players FSU Football Can't Afford To Lose In 2016

It should be a great test for the FSU football defense to open up the season. Stay tuned to Chop Chat for more FSU football news and coverage.