metafour

I told you all months ago why the traditional HS QB recruiting model will need to be seriously re-evaluated, and Nico was the literal example I gave at the time.

Tennessee threw millions of dollars into a garbage can and set it on fire by choosing to placate a young QB who wasn't even ready to take them to the next level. And because they did that the kid and his family felt that they held all the power over the program, and started coming at them with nonsensical salary increase demands. Now the kid leaves, and Tennessee didn't even win anything while he was there because they were playing the Freshman and Sophomore version of Nico...not the "fully developed" Junior or Senior version who may have been able to lead them to a title.

You are making a strawman argument. Nobody is talking about "taking a year off" or not continuing to sign QB's. We are specifically talking about spending the time and money to sign a "5-star" QB every single year, which is going to prove to be the college football equivalent of throwing money into a dumpster and lighting it on fire. I can't think of a worse way to attribute NIL funds, which in case everyone forgot, are not unlimited.

There is zero upside to committing millions of dollars to players who are never going to even step onto the football field for you. Proper roster building and NIL management moving forward will also have to include the TIMING of acquisitions.

The team is not going to fold if you follow Deuce Knight with a Top 250 QB from HS instead of another 5-star. The money that you save in doing so can be spent to protect and increase the probability that the two 7-figure QB's that we just brought in at the same time (Arnold & Deuce) actually succeed.

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The picture angle of that RB is peculiar. Are they selling him as 5'4 speed back?

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Narrowest shoulder to head ratio I've ever seen lmao.

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I don't think Hugh was a bad gameday coach... sure we wanted more running from Cowboy, but he ran for almost 1300 yds. Top 5 passer, 2 Top 10 receivers, a top 2 rusher.

Hugh didn't fumble or throw a single pick.

Clock management wise... we had a 5-6th year Sr that throws a pass inbounds or takes a sack when's not supposed to, or throws a pass on a RPO when he could just hand it off... again.. not all on Hugh.

But I get it, results based business.

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Your points here are laughably simplistic and lacking any sort of nuance.

#1) Hugh Freeze's QB's have committed an above average number of turnovers in basically every season of his career. You can look this up yourself. Since we are talking multiple different QB's at multiple different schools, the reason for this can not simply be outright "bad luck". Have you considered that the offense that he chooses to run could inherently lead to more turnovers? Saying "yeah well he didn't throw the interception himself so it has nothing to do with him" is idiotic. Putting a QB in an inherently high-risk position is going to lead to a higher likelihood of that risk going against you. Every play that you call has a risk/reward ratio dependent on the situation that it is called in.

On the flipside, Gus Malzahn's QB's barely committed any turnovers while he has here, primarily due to his limited offense. If all you ever call are runs, screen-passes, and bombs deep down the field along the sideline, you inherently present little opportunity for the QB to be picked off. Most interceptions come when you ask the QB to throw down the middle of the field into traffic, and Malzahn's offense famously did very little of that.

I can give you the perfect example: Freeze had the lead against late against Oklahoma, and instead of handing the ball to his RB he goes 5-wide with nobody in the backfield to protect Thorne on 3rd down and asks him to pass. The OT gets absolutely abused and Thorne rushes a throw (due to pressure) which the LB picks off and returns for a TD. Under your logic, Freeze "didn't throw the interception". But was that the correct play to call given not only the situation in the game (you have the lead), but also the talent limitation at both OT and QB? This isn't Madden, you can't just say that Thorne should have sensed the pressure and done something smarter. He was actually baited by the defense into making the throw, because Venables clearly read the play and was prepared. So both the QB and OT made a mistake, but the play itself was flawed and foolish from the get-go. This team's OL has not proven to be able to block without extra help in pivotal situations for the entirety of Freeze's time here; thus don't you think it would be stupid to expect them to not fail in that scenario against a good Oklahoma defense?

#2) "Clock management wise... we had a 5-6th year Sr that throws a pass inbounds or takes a sack when's not supposed to" - Again, this is the same as above and a gross misrepresentation of what actually happened. Auburn had two catastrophic blown FG attempts this past season (trying to sprint the FG unit on to the field as the clock is running). Both of which were the direct result of timeouts being wasted in stupid fashion, and then inexplicable plays being called with no time outs in moments of the game where the clock has your nuts in a vice-grip. For this to happen twice in a season is nothing other than coaching failure. There are coaches who go 4+ seasons at a school without something like that happening even once.

Also, I love the casual "the QB takes a sack when he's not supposed to" rhetoric. When is a QB ever supposed to take a sack? Are sacks easily avoidable? If they are, then why does anyone ever get sacked in the first place? Why doesn't every QB simply just safely get rid of the football? But even if your QB takes more "bad sacks" than normal; shouldn't that prompt you to rethink your offense and call plays that make it less likely for this to occur? So using this as a scapegoat excuse for the HC who took over play calling is stupid in and of itself.

If you truly believe that Thorne alone was responsible for all of the sacks; why are we then spending 7-figures to bring the VTech transfer LT here? You are silently proclaiming that the OL did its job; in which case they shouldn't have needed to go out and target so many transfers. But they did. Why?

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Is this some gotcha im missing here?

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The "gotcha" that you are missing is this: the difference between an SEC starter at a ~Top 25 school who struggled (Arnold) and ~4th string quarterbacks at ~Top 25 schools (Noland/White) is massive.

Your attempted logic here is to suggest that because Arnold hasn't proven it yet, he therefore falls into the same "bucket" as players like Noland and White under the pretense that they also haven't proven it yet. Since all three "haven't proven it yet", they are therefore comparable.

But this is obviously silly, because this isn't how actual evaluation works.

And before anyone tries to argue otherwise: no, OSU did not have ~4-5 SEC-starter caliber QB's on their roster this past season (in case someone wants to try to suggest that Noland is actually amazing, but he was buried in the bestest QB room of all time). In the case of Walker White, if we are to believe Jville's evaluation, he was actually deemed to be 3 whole depth chart tiers worse than one of the worst QB's in the country (Thorne). And we know it wasn't some crazy conspiracy as to why he was sitting so far behind Thorne, because we got the chance to see him put up a dazzling 0.5 QBR performance against a ULM team that was just trying to go home. This is why depth charts matter; because Thorne put up an 85.8 QBR against that same team. That's the difference between QB1 and QB4.

Now it isn't entirely fair to judge a 2nd year player (Arnold) to two 1st year players (Noland/White), so what we can therefore do is look at Arnold's standing as a 1st year player vs. those two at comparable stages of their careers. As a 1st year player, Arnold was QB2 on a 10-win Oklahoma team and appeared in 5 regular season games, and then started in the Alamo Bowl against a 9-win Arizona team. Again, this is the player that we are comparing against Noland/White who had a combined 5 pass attempts between the two of them and were QB4/5 on their respective teams.

The gap was already clearly established in their true freshmen years, and it is important to remember that a true freshman sitting as a QB2 on a 10-win ~Top 25 team actually isn't very common. But not only was the gap already established, it has actually widened since then because Arnold has accumulated real starting experience and the other two have essentially never even played in a real game. So for the hypothetical purpose of Auburn in 2025, this really isn't even close. These are not hypothetically comparable players.

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South Carolina just signed Air Noland with a returning redshirt freshman starter. Baylor just signed White with a returning starter. There are multiple other examples of teams doing this. It is what it is though. We have our QB room filled now.

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Your logic is all over the place.

Noland and White signed with schools wherein the pretense is that they will step in as the "heir apparent" (ie: next in line) starter. Sawyer Robertson at Baylor is a Redshirt Junior with only one season left. Their backup this season (Dequan Finn) transferred out, leaving them with only a low 3-star Freshman in the room from the same class as White (Nate Bennett) and a low 3-star true Freshman that they just signed for the 2025 class. This means that Walker White is expecting to immediately step in as their #2 QB, which would put him in line to be the starter in 2026.

Its pretty much the same story for Noland at South Carolina. Their backup (Ashford) left and the #3 QB (Davis Beville) is out of eligibility. All they have left behind Sellers is a low 3-star redshirt Freshman (Dante Reno). This means that Noland is expecting to immediately step in as the #2 QB, and while Sellers is only a redshirt Sophomore, he is actually Draft eligible after this season. Given how he progressed this season, it isn't out of the question for him to leave after this upcoming season if he lives up to the hype. This would potentially open up the starting role for Noland in 2026.

Again, both of these guys transferred to schools wherein from a recruiting "talent standpoint" they have little to no competition and a clear path for starting time in the near future. They are competing with low 3-star talents.

Walker White left because he couldn't unseat 3-star Hank Brown on the depth chart, and we brought in a QB behind him who is even more talented than he is (Deuce Knight). Given the fact that Arnold has two years of eligibility remaining and White clearly didn't impress the staff this year, the likelihood of him ever starting here was LOW. Hence why he left. This isn't hard to understand. You keep rambling about these idiotic "QB battles" as if coaching staffs go into each season with no idea who their starting QB is going to be and expect 4 guys to "battle it out". In reality, the pathway is almost always very clear. At Auburn the path is as such: Arnold is going to start, and Deuce Knight is expected to follow. If Deuce Knight shows up and looks like shite, you best believe that they'll start planning alternate pathways behind the scenes.

Now, back to your insistence on bringing in a QB to "battle with Arnold": Arnold is a talented SEC starter. The only QB who is going to "challenge him" is going to be an actual starter from another team. Can you see the problem here? Some other team's proven starter isn't transferring to a team where he is "competing for the job". Its not happening when they can get paid to walk in as the #1 guy elsewhere. Air Noland and Walker White are NOT "challenging" Arnold for the starting job. The fact that you keep subtly suggesting this is absurd. These two were ~#4/#5 on the depth chart as true Freshmen at their previous schools. Jackson Arnold was Dillon Gabriel's backup as a true Freshman and instantly became their starter once Gabriel left. He started their Bowl game in 2023. Walker White couldn't even operate our offense against a cupcake opponent in his true Freshman season here. He couldn't even unseat Hank Brown and was behind Geriner. Apply your own damn logic: White was nowhere ready to challenge even Payton Thorne who you think is horrible, so what business does he have "competing" against Arnold lol? The same thing was the case for Noland at OSU: he was basically dead last on their depth chart and made zero movement. Hence why he left. A guy who left OSU because he was #4/#5 on the depth chart is not challenging Jackson Arnold for shite.

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Harsin and Co dropped the ball on him big time.

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I mean, what ball did they drop lol? He signed South Carolina out of HS and made zero movement on their depth chart. He entered the Portal on December 4th, 2023 and then essentially "retired", so clearly there wasn't much interest in him (otherwise why "retire"?). He is now coming back in a position that basically confirms that he will never play a snap (#4 QB) and is essentially just there for numbers purposes.

It looks like Harsin was correct in his evaluation on this one lol.

Appy State WR Kaedin Robinson has been offered.

1,745 receiving yards the past two seasons.

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You are dealing with jealous, entitled brats.

Logic and reason is blocked out by their emotions.

Every single one is selfish as frick or they wouldn't be whining like 8 year old girls over this.

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Its all cognitive dissonance.

Guys who would never work their real job for free and would give zero fricks about leaving their employer and "teammates" in the middle of a project if a better offer was presented to them getting holier-than-thou about players in a hyper-physical sport looking out for their own self interests in a pointless exhibition game that is literally only being played so that the system can extract every last drop of profit from the football season. No, when it comes to the game of college football these kids are GLADIATORS and should be going out on their damn shield!

Its idiotic. I bet everyone here has taken a sick day when they really weren't that sick. They've probably taken a sick day so that they could attend or watch one of these football games LMAO. But does anyone consider that the "teammates" at work probably had to work even harder to fill in?

Also, the complaint about how "its all about money and profits for the players" as you are watching 5-7 Louisiana Tech play 11-2 Army in the "Insert-Corporation-Name Home Insurance Bowl" in Who-Knows-Where Stadium is next level hilarious.

Why exactly do you guys think these games are even being played? For the love of the game? :lol: