Film Study: Colorado State's graduate transfer quarterback Faton Bauta

Faton Bauta. To Colorado State Rams fans, he’s a virtual unknown, as he is to many soon-to-be opponents on the football field this fall.

That’s because, Bauta didn’t play much at Georgia, and the graduate transfer is currently a “Co-No. 1″ with redshirt junior Nick Stevens head coach Mike Bobo said after the team’s Spring Game.

Our Andre Simone, who did wonderful work looking at the Rams’ NFL draft prospects, will be breaking down film of current CSU players this offseason to better help fans in analyzing their favorite players’ performances. The first player we’ll be analyzing is potential starting quarterback Faton Bauta, who Bobo knows very well (he recruited Bauta to play at Georgia), but who’s a relative unknown to all college football fans, Rams included. Because of this, Bauta seemed like a perfect subject for our first “Film Study.” Enjoy.

Bauta is a transfer from Georgia, he appeared in seven games as a quarterback for the Bulldogs throughout his career (prior to the game we’ll analyze) while also serving as UGA’s kick holder in 2015. In spot duty during the 2014 season, he totaled a 4/5 completions for 48 yards. His first and only career start at quarterback came last season against Georgia’s big rival Florida (ironically coached by former Rams coach Jim McElwain) while Georgia was going through a turbulent time and decided to switch things up, giving the backup QB a shot.

Putting the Florida game in context: Florida’s defense was one of the best in the country, leading the way to an SEC Crown with a Top 10 ranking throughout the year. The Gators have high-end talent at all three levels, boasting three first round prospects at DB, plus multiple potential NFL starters at linebacker and on the outside pass rushing positions. This wasn’t some easy first career start, but rather a baptism of fire. As if that wasn’t enough, an already struggling Georgia offense lost its star player in running back Nick Chubb for this game.

So remember this while we go through the notes, also remembering that coach Bobo knows Bauta far better than just this one start.

Analysis:

Strengths:

• Bauta is a smart, solid decision-making, pro-style quarterback. He has a high IQ, taking what the defense gives him (which wasn’t much against Florida’s talented defense). Not a risk taker.
• The Georgia transfer has sound fundamentals, which are put on display most in his sound footwork. Also has a quick delivery.
• He navigates the pocket well with his footwork, remaining unscathed under duress (took only one sack). Bauta is generally good at feeling pressure but still keeping his eyes downfield in these situations.
• One of the more surprising traits Bauta showed was an underrated athletic ability as a runner. He can make some plays on the run and even throw the ball well on the move. Was even used as a runner in read-option situations.
• Bauta shows the potential to be an accurate quarterback, with the ability to lead receivers. He was highly inconsistent against a top-notch defense in his first start in this regard. Showed some definite flashes towards the end of the game.
• While he struggled on almost every deep throw, shows promise on intermediate (15-20 yards) passes. Also shows some potential to put zip on these types of throws over the middle.

Weaknesses:

• Faton didn’t throw deep, either lacking confidence or arm strength. His only deep attempt was a complete grenade throw (a grenade throw is basically throwing up a 50-50 ball for your receiver to go up and get an inaccurate hail-mary type deep pass.) Lacked any tight window completions or attempts.
• He was highly inaccurate at times, ball placement was a struggle, as he threw behind receivers often, missing some potential big plays in the process.
• Bauta held onto the ball too long in the pocket and ran into trouble because of it.
• His arm, in general, didn’t look impressive. Accuracy was highly inconsistent with questionable strength. He also showed a lack of touch in this game, throwing passes too hard when he could have lofted them.
• Bauta was inconsistent with his accuracy, his decision-making got worse as the game progressed and pressure increased while UGA was forced to pass the ball more.

Summary:

Given the context of the game, and some very rough breaks (we’ll get to those in a second) Bauta both showed promise and polish as a Mountain West quarterback and also some important deficiencies.

Specifically, in the first half, he had some big opportunities that just missed: A 20-yard crosser that was dropped, an avoidable interception to a receiver who didn’t run his route exactly right (not entirely Bauta’s fault), he missed an open man for a surefire early TD (again should have been caught regardless), and had a tipped INT from behind as he was about to unleash a ball downfield. All those plays ended poorly and could have easily been big plays as opposed to negative plays/barely missed opportunities. Even though all these plays are marked as negatives, with another year of experience, more calmness should be the result while playing against lower competition. Through spring, he’s shown enough promise as a chain-mover.

While both interceptions weren’t entirely his fault in the first half, Bauta did force a pass that got tipped and intercepted in the fourth quarter. What hurts most is he was trying to get Georgia on the scoreboard, on what was probably their best drive of the game. The fourth and final interception was absolutely not his fault; he lead his target perfectly, the receiver bobbled the ball and that led a defender to snatch the pigskin. Again it’ll be scored as an interception but isn’t the QB’s fault. He did, however, throw a couple forced balls in traffic that could have easily been intercepted, and also had a complete mental lapse when he threw the ball directly to a Florida defender and was lucky to have the should-be interception dropped.

Bauta played some of his best football in the fourth quarter, in the two drives that ended with the aforementioned interceptions. He showed promise in a two-minute drill type setting and flashed the ability to make tougher plays beyond just dump-offs and short yardage passes that he’d done to that point. This seems important because during the Spring Game, in late April, Bauta started the game poorly, playing tight, but ended strong when he loosened up and just threw the ball around the yard.

Bauta’s upside lies primarily in his familiarity with Bobo’s offense and ability to play with fewer mistakes against lower levels of talent on defense, not so much in physical upside derived by arm strength or exceptional athleticism.

There’s certainly a strong possibility he becomes the team’s starting signal caller, but much will have to be determined in the summer. Check out our spring game breakdown of all the Rams’ quarterbacks and stay tuned at BSN for more scouting reports of your Rams.

Watch the entire game here: