Aaron Murray disagrees.
Tyler Bray disagrees.
Peyton Manning disagrees.
Johnny Manziel disagrees.
AJ McCarron disagrees.
Eric Ainge and Brent Schaeffer disagrees with you.
Jeremy Johnson at Auburn has a package to play this weekend in the Iron Bowl. That's Auburn's biggest game of the year and Malzahn isn't scared to roll the dice and give him some snaps.
Tebow came in as a true freshman and split time with Leak.
You've got guys all over the country like Mariota, Hundley, Bridgewater, O Brien at Maryland etc who started and did well as freshmen.
Playing a freshman quarterback isn't ideal, but it isn't the kiss of death for most teams like it is for the Vols. You can at least get something positive out of them.
All of those guys I mentioned cut their teeth under difficult circumstances and offered positives for their teams. We've seen absolutely nothing out of Dobbs so far.
Either way, it's on Jones and his staff.
They are either slow at getting Dobbs up to speed, who everyone was touting as knowing the playbook backwards and forwards already.
Or it's that Dobbs just ins't very good which means Jones and his staff have trouble spotting talent in recruiting.
He has shown he has good game speed and a strong arm already so I think the talent is there. That leaves one other part of the equation that must be missing.
Your examples are, with rare exception, very poor. Let's compare apples to apples by not comparing Dobbs, a true freshman, to redshirt freshmen who have, at a minimum, an extra Spring practice, an extra summer and fall camp.... that eliminates Murray, Manziel, McCarron, Mariota, and Hundley.
Next, lets eliminate Brent Schaefer... he was a JUCO... He had a full season as a Jr College starter at QB before getting to UT. Besides, he wasn't very good his first year at UT.... 2 tds, 1 int, <50% completions.
It's inaccurate to say that Tebow "split time" with Leak as a freshman... he didn't. He pretty much came in for redzone/goal line packages... threw all of 33 passes for 358 yds and 5tds as a freshman... It was Leak's team- 2900+ yds, 23 tds... they hardly "split time"
Next, Auburn "has a package" for Jeremy Johnson this weekend.... you're kidding right? This is your example of a really good freshman producing? Hey, UT has an entire game plan for Joshua Dobbs.....
Danny O'Brien was a good example.... as a freshman, threw like 22 tds or so. However, he absolutely sucked as a Soph when he threw 7 tds and 10 ints. He wound up transferring to Wisconsin. Ok, never mind, it's not a good example.
Teddy Bridgewater is a pretty good example. He played some crap competition in a lesser conference but at least his freshman stats weren't bad... 14 tds, 12 ints
That leaves us with 3 UT QBs remaining, I saved the best for last....
Erik Ainge was very good as a freshman, I agree. He made some fantastic throws vs some excellent teams. I remember a few in that Florida game. 17 tds, 9 ints... really good. However, as I just heard him say a few days ago, he was surrounded by elite talent on both sides of the ball. On O- Arian Foster, Robt Meachem, Jayson Swain, Arron Sears to name just a few; on D- Jason Allen, Robert Ayers, Parys Haralson, Jerod Mayo, all NFL players, again just to name a few.... it makes a HUGE difference to have this talent all around a freshman QB... Ainge had it, Dobbs does not.
However, Erik kinda lost his starting job to Clausen as a sophomore... 5 tds, 7 picks as a Soph.... so what does the freshman season really mean if he didn't grow as Soph and couldn't keep his job?
Peyton Manning- he had a good, not a great Freshman year. 11 tds, 6 ints. Many if not most fans were calling for Brannon Stewart to play, not Peyton, after a couple of Manning starts. Remember also that Peyton did not start the season as the starter- he was 3rd string and only played because Colquitt and Helton were injured. Even if I do give you this one, Peyton is an all-time great, a collegiate HOF'er, multiple all-American, multiple heisman trophy candidate QB.
Tyler Bray- he had good #s as a freshman, but iirc, his 3 starts came at the end of the season, vs Memphis, Vandy and Ky.... not exactly Bama, Mizzou and Auburn. That being said, he didn't have an absolutely rotten start like Dobbs just did vs vaginabilt. But he also had some established, talented receivers to throw to like Denarius Moore, Gerald Jones and Luke Stocker to go along with 2 very gifted freshmen in Justin and Da'Rick. Again, Dobbs has no one remotely to throw to like these guys.
In conclusion, of the 13 examples you gave, only 5 were even remotely legit comparisons.
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