mtgrizrule said:
You are right about nobody getting style points. With that said, what upset me against CWU and UNC, our staff had perfect opportunities to work on refining offensive execution and have unproven QB's do more than just hand the ball off. They pissed the opportunities away. I get it and understand that, if and when a team is already peaking. However, this offense has a lot of work to do for improvement to make this team a true playoff contending team.
If our offense does not improve, we are nothing more than a pretender. I hate to admit it, but I really enjoyed seeing Ash bring in his back up qb and actually run an offense. Our offense is not even to that point. As a unit, we are struggling even with a very talented SR qb. There was so much the offensive side of the ball could have worked on. It is upsetting knowing they chose to not work on the necessary improvements their players had earned.
I agree with you it would have been nice to see the younger QB's get real game experience. I was actually hoping to see a young QB for a couple series in the 2nd quarter of the UNC game. I doubt there are many head coaches that would take out the starting QB in the 2nd quarter to get a young QB game experience (in the absence of an injury) for fear of losing momentum, but I was still hoping. However, I think the comparison of Ash in the UCD game and Delaney in the UNC game is a little unfair based on the game circumstances.
In the UND game JJ was in at QB for 3 series in the 2nd 1/2 - the first went for a FG, the second ended on a bogus fumble in UNC territory, and the 3rd ended on a punt (after a missed pass on 3rd and 3) in UNC territory. I suspect if the first 2 drives had turned into points MD would have changed QB's for the 3rd drive based on comments made after the game by JJ and MD about hoping for better execution, but of course we will never know.
SSH took over for the 4th possession of the game, with 8:19 left in the 4th quarter and the Griz handed the ball off the rest of the game, using young running backs.
In the UCD game Prukop was in the game for the first 4 possessions of the 2nd half, scoring TD each time. Bleskin came in for the 5th possession, with 12:42 left in the 4th quarter. He was allowed to pass on this 1 possession. The 6th possession started with 7:24 left and he just handed the ball off. The 8th possession 'Cats ran out the clock.
So in reality, when you look at the time left in the game and number of possessions, MD and Ash were similar in how they handled the QB change and calling off the dogs, with the big difference being the incredible long TOP for UNC in the 3rd quarter, and the false fumble call on the Griz 2nd possession. It is my belief that most likely had the Griz scored a TD on this drive JJ would have been replaced earlier and the younger QB would have had a least 1 chance to run the offense.
