Was not starting Watson from week 1 a mistake?

Nov 11, 2014, 1:48 PM

(As ever, this is a long post. If that's an issue, feel free to not read it. No one is forcing you. This is not a mandatory reading of War and Peace in English Lit. Move along. No one will judge you.)

I've seen this put out there a number of times: should the coaches have been starting Deshaun Watson from Week 1 on...and if so, would we have been undefeated?

I'm back and forth on the question, myself. There are those who say: "Watson was clearly better and the coaches should have known that." Well...maybe.

Couple of thoughts on that. Thought #1 is, your veteran guys, the ones who have paid their dues, have to know they're going to get first crack at the job. If they know some true frosh can come in and push them aside from Minute 1 without the vet ever getting a chance, it poisons your locker room. Vets have much less incentive to go out and grind in the weightroom and work their tails off in the offseason. And it makes for a lot of hostility towards incoming freshmen. So just starting a true frosh from Minute 1, if he's superbly talented, might get you some wins, over the short term. But an analogy someone posted here on T-net a bunch of years back comes to mind: it's like pouring 30-0-0 fertilizer on your lawn. Gives you a nice green lawn...for one season, but it also burns up your root system. Over the long term: it's a bad, bad practice. Stoudt wasn't the only beneficiary; DJ Howard got first crack at the RB job, followed by junior CJ Davidson...and Gallman and Choice had to wait for their chances.

Thought #2 is, there's gotta be a balance, and I do think Dabo's achieved it. Seniority can't be the end-all/be-all; your freshmen have to also know, they'll be given a real chance to win the job if they're better, so you have to afford them some chance to prove their bona fides on the field. That didn't happen much, for instance, under Tommy Bowden. Under Bowden, the veteran started, almost always. Which produced immense frustration among the younger guys who knew they were better...the clearest example I remember was 4-star C Dustin "Biggie" Fry sitting on the bench...while the 5'9", 260-pound former walk-on Tommy Sharpe started ahead of him. I liked Sharpe; he gave everything he had on the field and then some. But it took one look at the film to realize he was simply nowhere near as talented as Biggie Fry was. And that happened under Bowden, a lot.

Stoudt got first crack. But Watson got his opportunities - which would never have happened under Bowden - and he made the most of them, and by the third game, against FSU, Watson had established he was the better starter and was in by the 2nd quarter. We had ample opportunities to win that game; Cole Stoudt, assuredly, did not lose it for us. Similarly, Gallman was busy making the most of his own opportunities as well.

I also wonder: how healthy it is for a true freshman to get the whole merciless load dropped in his lap all at once? All of a sudden, you're in a fishbowl, every move is scrutinized on Facebook and Twitter as well as by the national media, you're an instant BMOC, and every ounce of psychological pressure is dropped in your lap. When you're 18. Which is a heavy trip to get dumped on you all at once...and Deshaun Watson didn't have to find out what that was like all at once, because Dabo shielded him from a lot of it and brought him into the lineup in increments. And the fact is, Watson's still sharing a lot of that burden with Stoudt. Watson knows it's not all on him. Stoudt may not have won a lot of style points but he improved every week and did win four games in a row for Clemson...and so Watson does know, he's not solely responsible for carrying the team. Which is also huge.

Just my own thoughts.

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he only needed 2 passes to get a touchdown after stoudt and the offense was struggling just to get a first down going 3 and out back to back to back then gave away the ball through a pick on the next play was the biggest mistake of the season IMO. Since that series with cole stoudt in that resulted in a pick the offense never recovered and played awful the rest of the game, I agree with stoudt being the starter the first few weeks but when a player regardless of who they are or how loyal they've been is playing bad give the other guy a chance, everyone has bad games but leaving them out there to get humiliated isn't going to help anything except the other team throw up points. IMO deshaun should not have been benched immediately after the touchdown but to hold him out and watch the offense struggle after the way watson looked and only put him in when the games over looked a lot like conceding the victory to me and that's the most frustrating part, if it were a flat out #### beating we couldn't do anything about that's one thing but to lose against a team that isn't anything special when you have what looks to be the solution on the sidelines was very frustrating and still is honestly. That game right there was as frustrating as any game ive ever watched, it's up there right behind the game tommy Bowden stopped running reggie merriweather and we pi$$ed away the game against USuCk. But it seems we've got it right now so it's not too big of an issue but frustrating nonetheless

Was not starting Watson from week 1 a mistake?

Re: Was not starting Watson from week 1 a mistake?

Hindsight says "yes" ... if Watson starts from Day1

Re: Hindsight says "yes" ... if Watson starts from Day1

Duh?***

Watson broke his collar bone before the Spring game

Re: Watson broke his collar bone before the Spring game

thanks for forcing me to read that.. stupid

I would hope the coaches would play the best players

Starting stoudt was the right move, taking watson out when

Man, let it go! I think these coaches, whose jobs depend

Re: Was not starting Watson from week 1 a mistake?

Well we are not NC or ACC champs and the Seniors are happy

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