re: How Bad?

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Everything you said is pure conjecture.

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Some of it, but not everything. It's also educated based on history, strategy, and some old-fashioned common sense.

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How do you know Fields wasn’t ready?

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He couldn't beat Fromm for the starting job and he clearly wasn't given the entire playbook to use during his stints on the field. He did OK but didn't wow anyone except with his ability to run the football, which was impressive but not really where we were with our offense.

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How do we know he wasn’t better than Fromm.

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We have to define the word "better" here. He was clearly "better" in terms of natural talent, but that's not the criteria coaches use to name their starter. He was unproven, which was a fact at the time. Fromm also had proved his capabilities as a true freshman with less natural talent.

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Based off practice?

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Practice is one thing, yes. There are a lot of things a QB has to do. It's not just throwing the ball and handing it off. Fromm was able to read defenses very well as a freshman, which is something most freshmen simply can't do. It was noted often. Whether Fields could do that as a freshman was unknown but clearly Fromm had a veteran status in that department and others so Fields was behind the 8-ball by default in just about everything except his natural talent.

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You mean the same practice analysis that had Mathis ahead of Bennett?

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It's more than that. There are limited snaps and each QB only got certain numbers of reps with the 1's, which provided a better picture than those who were throwing with 2's, 3's, or the scout team, for instance. The coaches knew what they had to some degree with Bennett but he was also untested under the lights in meaningful game time. Mathis had better measurables and likely had more time with the 1's which gave him a step on Bennett. Bennett simply rose to the occasion when it mattered against Arkansas and proved he could lead the team in the huddle. That wasn't necessarily an evaluation issue as much as lacking foresight into performance during game time. All coaches struggle with that because it's tough to simulate the real thing without throwing them into the fire, which is a risky proposition.

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Tool set is great, too bad the quarterback position isn’t just tool sets or Ryan Mallett would’ve beaten out Tom Brady in New England. Mathis having a bigger arm and being faster means absolute dick. A good coach should be able to determine that playing QB has multiple factors involved.

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This was my point with Fields and Fromm. There was more to it than raw talent and measurables alone.

And like I just said, Bennett was able to rise to the occasion while Mathis didn't in their first games, and that is something coaches can't easily simulate.

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I hope Kirby corrects this. I know he’s a DGD. I know he bleeds red and black. His glaring issue is QB evaluation. And saying Choosing Fromm was the correct choice is a joke. Dabo went with Trevor Lawrence over an experienced Senior QB and they won a national title. It’s a part of coaching to be able to evaluate and know what you have in your QBs.

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Different contexts and apples-to-oranges. Fromm gave CKS no reason to bench him for Fields except for arguably against LSU (and afterwards Fromm played his best football of his career), yet Fields got quite a bit of playing time as #2, which is something that most backups don't get outside of injuries or mop-up duty.

Seriously, it's like this fan base struggles with critical thinking when it comes to football.

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Kelly Bryant didn't play poorly enough to get benched either. Clemson was undefeated when Dabo pulled the trigger. He just saw that he had a clearly more talented QB on the bench.

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This isn’t true. Lawrence was outperforming Bryant through the first 4 games. Also, the reason why Dabo went with Lawrence after 4 games was to preserve Bryant’s redshirt which allowed him to transfer out.

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just saw that he had a clearly more talented QB on the bench.

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This is 100% true

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just saw that he had a clearly more talented QB on the bench.

This is 100% true

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Definitely not disagreeing with that lol.