It's been a weird ride to get here at QB for sure. It could have been handled better by Choate but to me there wasn't much left to work with when he was hired. And to Choate's defense he tried to fix it by signing Tyler Bruggman who on paper seemed like he could at least be a competent Big Sky QB, but that was a big recruiting whiff as we know now.
Prukop left before Choate had a spring ball. All that was left at the end of 2015 was Jordan Hoy, a freshman, and Brady McChesney, a serviceable backup talent. It's not like there was a QB sitting on the roster waiting in the wings, although Hoy might've been that guy. Spring ball in 2016 consists of Tyler Bruggman, Brady McChesney, and freshly back from his LDS mission Ben Folsom. Jordan Hoy started spring ball but quit like the first week.
Choate is thinking we're okay since Bruggman looks really good in practice. Turns out he's one of those practice superstars, but we won't find this out until the 2016 season starts. Murray and PWO Kamden Brown join the team in the fall as true freshman, so we have Bruggman, Brown, Murray, McChesney, and Folsom trying out at QB.
At this point I'm okay with what transpired so far, but the offseason after the 2016 season is where Choate should've tried to land a JC or dropdown QB. Bruggman was clearly not going to be it and transferred out before the 2017 season starts, and Murray is clearly not a Big Sky level QB throwing the ball. Instead he signs his hopeful QB of the future Tucker Rovig, Callahan O'Reilley who I don't think he had any intention of actually playing at QB, and Luke May transfers from Minn to throw his hat into the ring after not playing QB for a few years, or even football. Essentially he puts all his money on Murray to be the guy in 2017.
After 2017 comes to another losing end, he then goes out and signs a highly ranked high school QB in Casey Bauman, but he's a true freshman from a small school classification. So he brings in Travis Jonsen, a former 4 star recruit and a top 5 dual threat out of high school, who transferred from Oregon to JC to MSU. Jonsen breaks his foot before spring ball even started this year so the coaches never got to evaluate him. If he doesn't break his foot, maybe the coaches realize he's not the answer in spring ball and hit the "free agency" again. Murray has academic issues and has to leave the team and Tucker Rovig is a redshirt freshman who just isn't ready yet. But the staff probably still thinks either Jonsen or Rovig will be able to handle the job, but they go and talk to Andersen just to see if he can provide some depth. And while they work in Rovig as the season progress, just about to name him the starting QB moving forward he gets his foot stepped on in practice and is out for the year.
Obviously you have to hold him accountable at some point but there has been a host of factors that have contributed the situation we are in now. Prukop leaving for his senior season, Jordan Hoy transferring out, Tyler Bruggman being a bust for lack of a better word, Travis Jonsen breaking his foot not long after setting said foot on campus, and Tucker Rovig's disappearance in spring, reemergence in fall and into the season and then season ending injury.