Who wins the QB competion?

Who wins the QB competition?

  • Jake Merklinger

    Votes: 48 17.6%
  • George MacIntyre

    Votes: 8 2.9%
  • Joey Aguilar

    Votes: 224 82.1%

  • Total voters
    273
#26
#26
Man, I’ve got a worried feeling about this. After all, CJH picked Milton over Hooker and, further back, CJP wasted the season of that one time transfer.

I hope the one that really gives us the best chance to win starts and plays.

Saying all of that, would it be awesome if it’s one of the freshman and we have four years of winning like the old days?

Manning/Clausen/Ainge
Ainge was a mess for a while. I’ll never forget that throw he had in his own end zone against LSU. I thought he was done playing ball after that as he was broken between the ears. He only got back on track when Cut came back. He had a far different journey than the other 2 you mention.
 
#27
#27
The obvious answer is Aguilar. But I think the timeline is too compressed for him to learn CJH's complicated O in such a short time.

Merk gets the nod Day 1, but Aguilar could be the man by mid-season. Or Merk kicks ass and stays the starter. I like his accuracy and lack of INTs.

The good news is we have the quarterback whisperer as Head Coach.

What in Merklinger's past performances gives you the confidence to say that you like his accuracy? Was it the nine total passes last year or the 6 for 15 Spring game?
 
#28
#28
Another name for gamers. Known many of them across my career. They look completely unimpressive in practice, but once they set foot on the pitch it was like a light switched on. Give me those guys all day long.

Yep. But you don’t know till you know and it’s difficult to preach to a team about practice while you let Johnny bad practice player start and get the ball early. Have to juggle it somehow to get your best game players on the field.
Some players just inherently step it up when it comes time to win or lose a game in front of people. Others can’t hack it. Every sport.
 
#29
#29
If Heupel was comfortable with the two guys he had, he would not have gone out and basically recruited over them bringing in Aguilar. If Aguilar is not what CJH thinks he should be, he'll roll with what he has but if that turns out to be the case this season could get pretty doggone bumpy.
You always try to get the best guy you can but they had to have more than 2 guys.

In one way, JA is pretty close to ideal. I would put the "odds" 80-10-10 in his favor right now. But he isn't so talented/certain that one of the others can't change that. If a "no chance" guy had come in then Merklinger more than likely leaves. MacIntyre would also have to think hard about his future considering he'd be in a squeeze between JA and Brandon.
 
#31
#31
I'll be shocked if it's not Aguilar. Most coaches don't like starting younger players because they make too many mistakes and are still learning, etc. Not to mention the fact that they gave him a decent NIL deal to come here and he's got a ton of experience as a good QB.
 
#32
#32
Hoping Heup can work magic and 6’7 frame to see the field is a coaches dream. He’s another qb in 7 v 7 who looks unreal. BA OL didn’t help but his OC was worse as they had weapons but it was like they ran Madden all go routes every play and didn’t get the ball out of his hand. That’s an exaggeration of course but basically he has some work to do and a lot of weight to gain which will be a battle for him for a couple of years at least.
 
#33
#33
I'll be shocked if it's not Aguilar. Most coaches don't like starting younger players because they make too many mistakes and are still learning, etc. Not to mention the fact that they gave him a decent NIL deal to come here and he's got a ton of experience as a good QB.
Aguilar has alot of experience in the SBC, but SEC has a different look to it. The great thing for whoever wins the job is that they will have one of the best overall teams in the SEC to play with.
 
#34
#34
This poll wouldn't exist if Nico were still here and yet some of you insist we're better without Nico and that's ironic.

No one thought Merk or G-Mac would beat out Nico. No one. Our QB room definitely took a hit when Nico left yet I see insistence on VN that it didn't every day, then I see a poll like this.

Then some of you will demean Coach Heupel and insist Nico was "only starting because Heupel had too much invested in him" then think it's great Heupel said a couple of days ago that "the best QB will start" for UT. You can't believe him now if you didn't with Nico.

Some of you guys are coated in so much orange that you can't stand to look at the reality. Nico could pull his crap for money because he knew Heupel didn't WANT to roll with Merk or G-Mac at QB1, nor did he WANT to roll with JA at QB1 (no evidence Heupel so much as sniffed at him in the portal while Nico was here.)

It is what it is. I hope our QB situation sorts itself out as well as it can and we're back in the playoffs. I expect a step back because of our QB situation.
 
#35
#35
What in Merklinger's past performances gives you the confidence to say that you like his accuracy? Was it the nine total passes last year or the 6 for 15 Spring game?

Naturally just his HS stats and scouting report. Obviously CJH will know who brings what to the table... we're all just bystanders guessing.
 
#36
#36
I look for JA to be named starter BUT whoever comes out of fall as backup to divide up the playbook and get significant snaps to validate the camp findings. Maybe give each QB a different set of receivers due to the inexperience levels for most to create some synergy. That 3rd game could be tough but…..,

Then you can reserve mop up for the 3rd guy.
 
#38
#38
Some of you guys are coated in so much orange that you can't stand to look at the reality. Nico could pull his crap for money because he knew Heupel didn't WANT to roll with Merk or G-Mac at QB1, nor did he WANT to roll with JA at QB1 (no evidence Heupel so much as sniffed at him in the portal while Nico was here.)
Heupel's a known quantity; he's loyal to a fault. I'd probably have some loyalty quirks too if I got canned when I wasn't the problem and Bob Stoops couldn't/wouldn't point the finger at his little brother. But Heupel's our head coach now and Mike Stoops coaches ILBs at Kentucky. And Bob Stoops coaches something called the Arlington Renegades. So there you go. No need for message board opinions to say who's got the faith of an athletic department that they can produce wins.
 
#39
#39
I think JA will probably win the job but throw too many INTs to keep it.
Idk maybe it's just me but it seems like QB's don't throw a lot of int's in this system. I don't remember if Milton or Hooker threw a lot of int's at their previous stops, but I do remember them hardly throwing ints here. Over the last few years the picks almost always were the "wtf is he doing" type of picks. I think the type of route patterns they call usually keeps the ball out of harms way.
 
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#40
#40
Heupel's a known quantity; he's loyal to a fault. I'd probably have some loyalty quirks too if I got canned when I wasn't the problem and Bob Stoops couldn't/wouldn't point the finger at his little brother. But Heupel's our head coach now and Mike Stoops coaches ILBs at Kentucky. And Bob Stoops coaches something called the Arlington Renegades. So there you go. No need for message board opinions to say who's got the faith of an athletic department that they can produce wins.
I'm not at all anti Heupel and very much agree that he's got more class and talent than Stoops, Bob or Mike.

With Heupel we can expect him to ride his choice until absolutely proven otherwise. We saw Milton being replaced by Hooker "while he's injured" then seeing that Hooker "has it" for the offense and Heupel did the right thing.

Has Heupel now chosen JA? I kind of doubt it. Will Heupel know from practice who our best QB1 is? Looking at Milton and Hooker, possibly not.

Was Nico our best QB if he'd stayed? Most likely, yes. He's not here so we're back to square 1 and Milton, Hooker, Bailey and Maurer competing for QB1. Definitely Heupel picked the two best from that group and I think he'll pick the 2 best for QB1 and QB2 this year too.

I'm not worried about Heupel's pick but I'm also realistic that none of this is according to plan. Everything turned upside down after Nico left.
 
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#41
#41
Idk maybe it's just me but it seems like QB's don't throw a lot of int's in this system. I don't remember if Milton or Hooker threw a lot of int's at their previous stops, but I do remember them hardly throwing ints here. Over the last few years the picks almost always were the "wtf is he doing" type of picks. I think the type of route patterns they call usually keeps the ball out of harms way.
We've complained consistently that every QB except Hooker held the ball too long so no...... they didn't throw the INT because they took the sack or threw it away.

That's been the complaint with Joe and Nico: they don't know what to do with the ball so they take the sack or throw a useless dump pass or throw it out of bounds.

JA is a gunslinger who likes to throw it so if he's our guy he's supposedly NOT going to hold it too long so we'll see whether Joe and Nico were correct in "holding it too long" if JA does throw a lot of picks.
 
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#47
#47
Man, I’ve got a worried feeling about this. After all, CJH picked Milton over Hooker and, further back, CJP wasted the season of that one time transfer.

I hope the one that really gives us the best chance to win starts and plays.

Saying all of that, would it be awesome if it’s one of the freshman and we have four years of winning like the old days?

Manning/Clausen/Ainge
I watched Milton in practice and it's hard to knock coach on his decision to start him over Hendon, he looked incredible but as we all found out he just didn't have it come game time
 
#48
#48
Man, I’ve got a worried feeling about this. After all, CJH picked Milton over Hooker and, further back, CJP wasted the season of that one time transfer.

I hope the one that really gives us the best chance to win starts and plays.

Saying all of that, would it be awesome if it’s one of the freshman and we have four years of winning like the old days?

Manning/Clausen/Ainge

Milton is in the NFL now.

Y’all got to stop acting like he was some bum.
 

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