I love the tears of the haters in this thread. I'm embarrassed to share fanhood with a lot of you. I really really wish you were fans of a different team. However, I love that JG is coming back, just because I know it bothers you all so much.
I kind of wish that folks who don't mind a QB losing games.... would be fans of another teams.
I don't mind JG coming back. I just hope that they see through his practice performance and demand MUCH better play from the starter. I hoped he had turned the corner late in the season. Vandy was unsettling but it was rainy and he'd lost his grandmother. IU confirmed that whatever improvements we thought we saw... were either illusions or not permanent. "Late" was the key word. It has been his whole career. However you explain it... he's just late.
Maurer is too reactive. He sees and throws on instinct. He's not the answer either unless they can get him to slow down and go through progressions.
Shrout could surprise everyone if he can learn the O and how to manage it. It is disappointing that they felt Maurer had already passed him before mid-season this year in managing the O. When he played, that was Pruitt's big criticism. It was enough to keep him from getting more time. Still yet... a big arm on a decisive QB makes up for a lot of shortcomings.
Hill has experience and bum knees. He doesn't have a great history but who knows what a new situation could bring.
People are putting a lot of stock in Bailey. Many of the same people will call him a bust if he doesn't nail down the job by the end of the season. We know he was a very good HS player. We don't know how well it will translate.
Personally I see Holiday at another positions. If he stays at QB then he is a project.... unlikely to compete this year.
He will be the starter and be given a chance to lead this team in 2020.
Pruitt said specifically that he would have to compete for the job. Maybe he meant to say "he will be the starter"... but that's not what he said. That was a completely different message than what Pruitt said this time last year. He explicitly said that JG was the starter. He never allowed that to be questioned or challenged from January until the beginning of the season. He did all he could to build JG's confidence and skill. JG's performance... now has Pruitt willing to have an open competition in spite of having a rising RS Sr returning starter.
If he fails, he will lose the opportunity. Simple as that.
He's already failed. He has to win the job now. He has to improve in some areas that look a lot like innate weaknesses. He knows the O and managed it well by the end of the season. Experience helped him. But it isn't enough. Maurer, Shrout, and Hill have now had another year in the system. They can study film and do simulations to help them catch up. If they all work hard... he's in trouble.
Coach Cornbread, Coach Moo Moo or whatever derogatory comment some of you have used for him will make the choice that best benefits this football team. I know this is a forum, and discussion is the purpose, but the lot of you who think you're a better college football coach that Pruitt or Chaney sound ridiculous.
And if he were making decisions you disagreed with... you'd criticize them too.
I like Pruitt. I don't think he had a bias against starting Maurer or Shrout. JG simply managed the O better. He should have. He had more experience. But Pruitt also got fed up with JG's poor play and tried a true Fr who was nowhere near being ready... and he threw him out there against the best D UT faced all year.
I hope JG throws 30+ TDs next year. I hope he has the best year ever, unlike you fools hoping he fails so you'll be right. I don't give a blank about whether you're right or not, I want to win football games.
I share this hope. I hope that UT's QB throws 30+ TD's regardless of who it is... or if it is a combination of 2 or 3. I want to win.
But the fact is that JG's inconsistent play overall and consistent weakness in anticipating throws and being too slow in his reads... loses games.
