mthoopsfan said:
Bok_Choi said:
Marvelous question. May I add one? How about who's responsible for developing the kids on the roster?
Who on the roster, given their time and place on the roster, was underdeveloped this year?
Brown for one. You'd tell me that the kid who got yanked from the quarterfinals game the season prior, because he wasn't getting it done, was the best option for backing up the guy they brought in to play in front of him, because he wasn't good enough to be the starter? You know, the fourth year sophomore, Kris Brown? If he was, I missed on it, because he looked a hell of a lot like the Brown of 2021. You know, the guy they pulled in the quarterfinal and was relieved by the guy who took almost all his prior snaps as a special teamer. Did he make a quantum leap one season over the next, or were the coaches too busy elsewhere?
Britt for two. The scout team player of the year in 2021, and a guy from all reports, ran a very similar offense to what was on the field at Montana, when he was in high school. I'm told that, along with his many accolades and achievements while in high school, running a similar offense and being successful at it, was the reason they asked him to come to Montana. His skills are more akin to Johnson's than Browns so when it was time to pickup some yards on the ground, he could maybe do that. Hold on.. am being told the coaches felt he wasn't as good as Brown in fall camp. Why is that, because neither of them were important enough to waste any time on because they brought in a starter that needed their full attention to get him up to speed for the season? See the circular argument here.
Hauck benched Brown again this season. Not because he was injured, but because he wasn't good enough, like in 2021. If they had invested that time in Brit, or in Brown to really improve their skills, there may have not been the dramatic drop-off there was when one or the other hit the field for the oft-injured Johnson. Or maybe, just maybe, the guys they have entrusted with the job of developing the QB's, just suck at it. Wait, that's being unkind. Maybe they struggle with it. In either case, I'd suggest there is more than enough room for improvement here.
Please also let me know if this isn't really relevant because QB isn't the most important position on the field. Hauck brings in transfer QB's every season. Not for the sake of competition, but because he knows the hasn't got a starter he'd trust to lead the team into the new season sitting on the bench. Though he ls hopeful that by osmosis, that they'll be able to take in enough to make them viable backups, when invariably, the starter goes down. It's football, not tennis as Bobby is fond of saying. Guys get injured, sometimes they just don't have it and shouldn't be on the field. What's a coach supposed to do then, if they didn't invest in plan B in the first place?
You saw it in spades, all over the last half of this season.