A great QB does wonders for a terrible OL and can keep the defense in games. We only have to to look back to 2020 Kyle Trask for this example. As far as the NFL is concerned, that OL has only one backup (Stone Forsythe) and one practice squad player (Richard Gouraige) in the starting 5. Heggie, Reese and Delance all didn’t make it. That team had a horrible defense, but gave Bama a run for its money in the SEC Championship.
It doesn’t matter who starts the game. Give each of them a few series and keep the more productive player on the field against A&M and potentially the rest of the season.
On Shane’s show today, Scott Carter was saying he’s never seen Lagway make those throws in practice. Said that DJL was very raw…so giving Napier the benefit of the doubt here as maybe like us, he hasn’t seen the Lags with the lights on. Lagway is a gamer and you can see the guys rally around him. I do believe he gives us the best chance to win. This isn’t a Treon Harris where the fans were wanting to start as there was no arm talent there. Lagway is a special player.
Here's the history of our best QB's after Tebow left. Grier got run off after half a season, Trask only got his shot after Franks went down, and Richardson couldn't get on the field until EJ moved on. Now we have a guy who may be the best of the four, and here we go again. We just hate to give the keys to a game changer, that's all.
Being slow to make obvious decisions has been Napiers trademark.. Almost everyone on the planet thinks thinks he needs a top notch oc and almost every basement dweller would start DJ Saturday. Spurrier switched qbs quicker than underwear until he he through the roster. DJ should have come in much earlier in the Miami game be fire it got out of hand. If he starts DJ and beats A&M , he would look like a fool. His ego is alway in his way. He likes standing on the sideline calling plays and being the guy more than winning itself.
Jalen hurts was the established starter at Alabama and saban benched him for Tua after one game if I remember correctly. Spurrier had no problem making the change at quarterback if needed. The great coaches play the best player. The mullens of the world stick to their guy. I love Mertz and I’m grateful for his efforts as a gator, but we need DJ.
No shit. Play the damn star players, don’t save them to the last year. It’s not a reach, he was the top rated qb in the nation . The top guys can start as freshmen sometimes. Recognition of when you have the guy is kinda important if you’re a coach. All those mishandled qbs had coaches that were fired. Go figure. You have AR and he sits on the bench for two years by the decision of a so-called genius? Nope, too much ego to get out of their own way. The players said it was obvious at practice that Trask was better than man Franks. Grier wasn’t Mr Ed’s qb. These guys go against public opinion because they won’t listen to some guy in his basement but you have Spurrier sitting there shaking his head in disbelief and saying, for god sakes man, try something different. It’s been obvious to most fans for several years who our best qbs weee but we haven’t had a coach that will play them. How many qbs did sos go through to get to Mathews and how long did it take? That’s a completely different approach and it worked fairly well.
I agree to a certain extent and we are lucky to have Mertz. I wouldn’t label him as excellent though. Trask was excellent. AR was pretty good and could have been excellent had he been given the ball at an earlier point in his career. Mertz has been an average sec qb which is nothing to sneeze at but he won’t be in the Heisman race. Excellent qb at least are in that discussion. DJ can be that guy but it can’t happen on the bench. Everyone knows DJ could throw three picks and blow this game before halftime as he is very green. He also wouldn’t be the first true freshman to be elite either. I’m just for getting the future started yesterday instead of wasting time that could be used to make that future come sooner. The faster DJ gets up to speed, the better off our team will be. I don’t care if we lose 70-0 Saturday if it gets DJ ready to beat fsu at the end of the year and makes DJ the Heisman front runner starting next year.
His style keeps tge defense close to the los and makes everything tougher too. Defense will try to pressure DJ too but as he gets his feet wet and becomes more comfortable, he will make them have respect because he will take the top off. He will loosen the los .
Those two guys cared much more about winning than their egos or players feelings. Winning was everything.
I think Napier should start both quarterbacks. Then, if a play doesn’t work, people can complain it was because the quarterback they didn’t want was in.
Disagree. With NIL, any pretense of this being a sport and not a business has been removed. If Mertz had performed well in the Miami game before being injured, then it would look bad for him to lose his position. But if the backup comes in and performs better than the starter and the offense has a flow, then the backup has earned the opportunity to start. This has parallels to the Franks/Trask QB situation. Franks starts against Miami and looks pedestrian in a win. He gets injured against UK and Trask comes in and sparks the offense to a comeback win. If the Franks injury had been less severe, should he have gotten his starting job back over Trask? Imagine how differently Mullen’s tenure at UF would look without that Trask led offense.
I think BN will have Mertz play the large majority of snaps and only put Lagway in for short yardage situations, ala Tebow as a freshman. And then run Montrell in the wildcat.
