re: Expectations

quote:

---

We just need a mature, game-manager type QB. We get that, and our running game opens up, and our defense is able to pin their ears back more often.

---

Yup. Agree.

We are going to be using a short-strike, quick-tempo offense with built-in safety-valve throws.

We aren't going to be asking our QB to memorize a massive playbook with complex route-trees and make tough or long throws.

We are asking for primarily: consistency, good decision-making on the fly within the confines of a system that should dictate those decisions and be easy to grasp conceptually, and leadership.

I think Knight can do that, and we'll be successful as a result. We are asking him to do pretty much what Leach asked of his guys (who didn't start until they were seniors... because being mature and knowing the system are more important to him than talent): manage the freaking game, be a leader, and make the correct decisions as dictated by the system.

Were B.J. Symons, Sonnie Cumbie, or Kliff Kingsbury very talented? Not really! Primarily they were like plant operators - turning the right valve and flipping the correct switch here and there to properly run the machinery while the WRs and RBs did all the work and damage.

As an aside from the main point here, the great sad irony of Sumlin's tenure is that we went AWAY from that offense just as he GOT super-talent at the QB position. Everyone thought we were going to, for the first time, see a Leach-type offense paired with a 5* talent. The hype was "now we see the super scheme paired with the super talent as never before!" Instead, Spavital installed more and more West-coast type schematic elements, complicated the philosophy, asked for NFL-like throws at times, and slowed everything down.