He has made choices that has resulted in some of his QB's not developing as much as they might have. It was a a choice he had to make when Chaney arrived. Either he had to try to "fix" JG or else he had to start over with Maurer or Shrout.
We cannot really know where the program would be right now if the time and resources poured into JG leading up to the '19 season had been poured into one of the others instead. All that we can really know is that the investment in JG has not worked out.
With Chaney on board, I am not so sure Pruitt is making the call. Regarless, Maurer was given a shot, early, as a Freshman and probably would have taken the job ultimately had he not suffered three concussions.
Enter this year. We have no spring camp and Bailey gets sick during the summer. Considering he is a Freshman, he is out for at least half a year of development due to those two factors. Makes sense he isn’t ready at this point. If it were someone who already knew the offense, that would be a different story.
So, HB is understandably out. What about Maurer? He’s injured. Understandably out. So, now you are back to JG or Strout. Well, he got a shot right after JG threw two interceptions. What does he do? He throws an interception on his first play. We are back to JG.
JG played OK. You will see him again. This was a free year for Bailey anyways. He will still have a redshirt if he wants it. Maurer could very well end up being our next guy.
Regardless, might as well keep Bailey safe and develop him over time. This year is simply a wash for me and I have to wonder if that is what many of our players are thinking at this juncture. I still think we need a thriving, proven S&C coach. If I am Pruitt, that is what I am working hard to line up at the end of the year along with a tremendous DL coach. He is not going anywhere.
There are a lot of things going on right now that are not Pruitt’s fault. Like this QB stuff. I was frustrated with Pruitt, but after thinking about it, not much he could do here.
Some things are his fault though.
His comments about closing the gap against Bama were awfully inaccurate. It is like he has forgotten just last year we had the momentum in the 4th and were 1 yard shy from being within one score of them before the bonehead he has to play made the mistake he made to put Bama up 21. I mean HUH???
Second, his promotion of Art Giles was his worst hiring decision he has made. I understand that he had to bring in guys that had never coached where they were hired to coach initially, but this is year three. Maybe Fitz left at the wrong time and Pruitt couldn’t find anybody, but it was still his worst hire. We need to stop being a proving ground for coaches. We are NOT Bama.
Third, firing Brum 4 games in was ridiculous. Our HC is now a DL coach who apparently will not let Ansley call plays. This means he has zero time to have any real pulse on the offense. So, it should not be his call as to who plays at QB, and as I said earlier I doubt it is.
Regardless of whose decision it is, they have been stuck with JG up until maybe this point. They put in Freshman early last year, and the best one got hurt. They don’t want to let that happen again in a throw away year. I mean, they could, but they probably don’t want to. I respect that.
