QB controversy

Sep 8, 2014, 3:33 PM

I respect our coaching staff, but there is no way I can ignore the evidence i've seen that playing Watson gives us our best chance to win. Part of this I'm basing just on the eye test, which tells me that Watson is the first Clemson quarterback i've watched in my 25 years of going to Clemson games who I would be willing to bet will start in the NFL one day. It is also based on the stats they have put up so far. Stoudt is 38/60 with 7.4 yards/attempt, 1 TD, 1 INT, and a passer rating of 127.9. Watson is 10/13 with 16.4 yards/attempt, 4 TD's, 0 INT, and a passer rating of 316.1.

I know there are some reasonable people posting on TigerNet who disagree that Watson should start. I'm not trying to start an argument, I just want to understand where you think i'm wrong to think Watson should play the entire game or at least 75%+ of the game against FSU. Is it:

1. Watson's stats are based on the parts of the playbook he knows. His overall performance would drop to a point below Stoudt's if he ran 60 plays instead of 13.

2. Whether it is reason #1 or something else, the coaches see something in practice that makes them think Stoudt is the better option. If different than #1, what do you think this reason is?

2a. Even if we don't know what the reason is, the coaches have been around both players more and know better than us. We can't just assume Stoudt is better based on what we have seen.

3. Something else.

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You need to think long and hard why you think Watson should start, while Dabo/Morris don't. Are you basing your opinion on a tiny glimpse of Cole and DW playing? Have Dabo and Morris seen more of DW and Cole playing than you have at practice?

I think there are two big things that have helped DW look great, aside from being a supreme talent:

#1) The defense was caught off guard. They knew his was slippery, but good luck preparing for someone you have so little on at the college level. It's like how you see some Minor League pitchers come up and have a great few games before the scouting reports get around.

#2) DW's style is completely different that Cole's. It takes a few series to adjust to that. They were expecting a jab but DW snuck in a backdoor hook.

DW's time will come, but Dabo and Morris have a much larger sample size to base their decisions on. These are highly capable coaches that have done extremely well the last few years, so I trust them to make these informed decisions.

We may lose at FSU, but that'll be more a function of the OL than who starts at QB. If the OL play like they did the last two weeks, nobody can save us at QB.

QB controversy

I don't think you should look to others to justify Cole

QB

The most important thing you said is...

You don't respect our coaching staff. If you did, you would

The only logical reason I can come up with

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