Airing it Out

This past Saturday I went to the University of Hawaii football game against Charleston Southern. It was a pretty tight game the entire first half, especially since Colt Brennan didn't play the entire time. I did get to observe a lot of projectile motion, especially since Hawaii threw the ball for the majority of the game. I realized that Tyler Graunke, the backup quarterback, was missing a lot of his throws because of the angle he was firing the football at. Usually to get the most lift and distance on the ball, the quarterback needs to throw it at roughly 45 degrees above the horizontal. On the first play of the game, Graunke threw a deep pass that was intercepted because his angle was much lower than 45 degrees. Luckily, he finally realized that he needed to change his throws in the second half, and put some in the endzone.