Nick Arbuckle is a junior college transfer who enrolled at Georgia State in January. He participated in spring practice and emerged as the front-runner for the starting job at quarterback.
In an interview with The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Arbuckle talked about watching video to learn about opponents, his style of play and the playbook.
Q: How comfortable are you with the playbook?
A: I'm very comfortable with the playbook. I know it forward and backward. Everything we've installed is second nature to me. I feel like it's that way with a lot of the guys, especially with the guys in the spring.
Q: Because this is your first year at Georgia State, a lot of people have never seen you play. Describe your style.
A: I tend to prefer to be more of a pocket passer to be able to dissect defenses with my throwing ability and ability to read coverages. I'll improvise when I need to. I have enough athletic ability to get out of bad situations. I'll run when I have to. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to play a lot of my junior-college season completely healthy. I have had to work with being mobile. I do love to throw the deep ball.
We do look like we are going to have some good deep threats.
Q: You’re known as a gym rat. How many hours did you spend in the spring and summer watching film?
A: Too many to count. I've watched every play that Abilene Christian ran last year that we had available. I looked at New Mexico State's defense and Boise State's because some of their staff was there previously.
I’ve focused a lot on New Orleans and Patriots stuff because we have those films. I like (Drew) Brees’ and (Tom) Brady’s fundamentals and pre-snap reads. I try to copy what I like, especially Brees, we are similar in stature.
I love the way he does everything with quickness. His drops are so fast, stays so balanced and gets through his reads.
I love Brady’s checks, reads, and how he diagnoses defenses before the snap. I love seeing the way they both play. So the fundamental side that Brees has and the mental side that Brady has, (I’m) trying to combine them into one skill set.
