Doege insertion lights fire in Falcon Nation

Well, give Mike Jinks credit.  He's got everybody talking after a 49-7 loss that had virtually no redeeming features.  With just a few minutes left in a game which had been over for literally hours...Coach Jinks pulled the redshirt off of Jarrett Doege and put him into the game in place of Morgan.

I have lots to say.

First, you cannot make that move if you don't plan on playing Doege.  John Gibson said that he expects the change to be permanent, and that's what you have to expect.  Doege has all the tools and you aren't going to blow a year on mop up duty in Evanston.

Beyond that, with the shitshow the season is right now, you could play Doege and still be awful.  And you're going to spend a year of eligibility on ... that?

The general comment in the Falcon Nation is that Coach Jinks doesn't care about four years from now, he's trying to save his job this year.

Let me tell you something.  We could go 0-12 this year....and that's possible.....and Coach Jinks will be back next year.  The only chance that doesn't happen is if he does a Dan Enos and goes to another school to be an assistant.

Which I believe is extraordinarily unlikely.  When we charge onto the field to start the 2018 season, you should expect to see Jinks leading the team out there and nothing this year will impact that.  Doege, Morgan, Loy....whatever.

After the game, Coach said that he has been saying that all the jobs on the team are open.  In his Monday presser, he said that if we can't get guys to do what we need, then it is their job as Coaches to get someone else in there.  And, true to that word, he played a bunch of guys last night.

So, obviously, with Doege red-shirted, there was no real competition for Morgan.  Now there is.  How much?  That remains to be seen (stand by for that).  But, Morgan is now no different than anybody else, including the WRs who saw Jared Wyatt making catches late in the game.  Or the linemen (Malik Brown in the house!) or the d-backs.

Coach said "we needed a spark."  We have to have needed more than that for this to happen.

This sets up a very difficult situation for a team.  Doege is a true freshman, and as much as he certainly looks like a player, they rarely step up and perform right away.  And while he had some success in Evanston, he was throwing high percentage passes against backups who were playing soft.  The first Q against Middle Tennessee will not look like that.

Here's the thing.  James Morgan made only his 10th start Saturday.  Lots of QBs don't develop in that period of time.  It is a very tough position and he has had chaos around him.  And yet it feels like they wouldn't put Doege in unless they were giving up on that potential at some level.

And that's another wow.  I have to wonder if our assistants on the offensive side have the skill and ability to develop a QB.  Morgan certainly isn't better than he was at the end of last year.  That's a problem you can't change QBs to get away from.

Anyway, the other thing you have to wonder is whether this is just a matter of Doege being "our" guy and Morgan being Dino's guy.  At some level.  Maybe not consciously.

One last thing.  It is possible that you were close to losing the offense behind Morgan's QBing, which was ineffective by any measure.  You did see much crisper execution with Doege in the game...much like you saw when Morgan replaced Knapke last year.

So, what happens next for sure is that Morgan and Doege battle for the job this week.  We don't see practice.  It is possible that Doege has been pushing Morgan already.  I expect Doege to start Saturday and we go from there.

Here are two scenarios where it gets worse.

One, if Coach decides he's going to alternate QBs.  And two, if no one claims the job and the team is playing this game week by week until we get to the end.

What gets it better?  Either Morgan responds to the competition and turns into the QB he has the physical skills to be or Doege claims the job and performs effectively when he's in there.

Either way, Jinks is not going gently into the good night.  Whether this is panic....or delusion...or a miscalculation by guys who are not ready for prime time..he's made the decision to regret something he did rather than something he didn't do.