Joel Stave, the starting QB for the University of Wisconsin for last season and and most of the year before and the presumed starter for this year, had to be benched due to developing the Yips. You see this often in golf and fairly often in baseball (Steve Sax, Chuck Knobloch, Rick Ankiel) but has any other Quarterback had the same thing?
I’m not talking about some guy who just got old and beat out by a young stud, or a guy who blazed brightly for three games before reverting to mediocrity, but a full-blown case of the yips. People at the game in Houston vs. LSU last week said that during warmups he was unable to complete a pass to a stationary target from 15 yards - he was bouncing thee ball six feet short or throwing it over the receivers head.
It’s happened to LOADS of golfers (most notably Ian Baker-Finch) and several baseball players (like Steve Blass). But while it’s probably happened in football before, I’ve never heard of such a case.
It’s kind of like Tourette’s Syndrome with the muscles. People who have been performing a simple task for 20 or 30 years suddenly become unable to do it at all. Pro golfers make about 92% of 4 foot putts, but get the yips and you start missing the hole by six inches. A baseball catcher this year in MLB (can’t think of his name) threw seven balls in one inning that were uncatchable by the pitcher. Three bounced in the dirt in front of him and four sailed over the pitcher’s head into center field. That’s a 60 foot throw that a catcher makes over 100 of in a normal game, times about 150 in a season.
The timeline of the appearance of “the yips” is apparently still unclear. Some writers say they have sources that say the yips began before Wisconsin chose Tanner McAvoy as the starting QB, others are saying that it started only after McAvoy won the job. Given how badly McAvoy looked against LSU, I’d like to think it is the former, that McAvoy became the only viable starting option because Stave couldn’t throw accurately. Stave wasn’t Andrew Luck last year, but he looked like a quarterback at least. McAvoy looked like some of the long-forgotten QB’s of the pre-Alvarez “veer” era. Utterly lost and unable to run or throw. Hopefully it was just because LSU has a really good defense because it’ll be a long season for the Badgers otherwise with McAvoy behind center.
Also should point out that Stave had shoulder surgery after he hurt himself on a badly executed dive in the bowl game last year. Stave claims it isn’t a lingering surgery issue, but I wouldn’t be surprised if something went wrong during the rehab process and messed up his shoulder somehow.