Obviously, the first question was about the QB. He claims it will be a game-time decision, but I don't think it sounds very much like that. I'd be shocked if Doege isn't the starter Saturday.
Here's why. Coach acknowledged that Doege was in the game mostly against reserves. However, coach says he has "earned the right to show what he can do when the bullets are real" and that they "want to see what he can do before conference play."
So, you know. If you want to see what he can do, you can't mean practice because you were seeing that before. You have to mean in a game and there's only one more game until conference play starts.
We are looking for efficiency....and that seems to mean a higher completion percentage. They will split reps for a couple days and then later in the week someone might get more.
On the redshirt. He still has it. This is a good point. You don't have to redshirt your first year. Now, if you want my opinion, the chances of him redshirting again after this year are not very good, but who knows, maybe Morgan improves and they think they can do it. Or Doege shows he needs the time.
He notes that Doege dropped his first collegiate snap but then he picked the ball up and threw a "dart." He's got "moxie"
Says he has been doing "a lot of thinking" in the last 48 hours, but when asked about it he claimed he was thinking about "consistency," which is an odd thing to think about that for that long.
He says we are better than last year. Deeper and more talented.
He said we made some changes on defense, too., which were noted here and elsewhere. Also, he said we played a lot of man early in the year, and we're re-evaluating that. As I recall, trying to ask guys to play man was half of the problem last year and he made a similar announcement after the Memphis game.
The defense is giving up too many big plays. What you want is to force them to make long drives and then you get a stop or a turnover. He says this will "pay dividends" for us in the conference season.
As for MTSU, we all noted that they got blown out by the Boat Rowers. Coach notes that their all-star QB Brent Stockstill didn't play in the game and is day to day, and their all-star WR (James) went out as well.
First and foremost, thanks for your sacrifice. One item I wanted to comment on was Doege's passing. I personally don't feel whether it's against tired first stringers or 2nd, as that is how they practice anyway, his passes seemed to be mostly spot on. He threw to inside and outside shoulders where they could be caught. That to me says a lot about his mechanics on throwing and I wouldn't expect to much difference if it were the beginning of the game. He is still placing the ball and not slinging it. For Morgan, he was recruited by babers for his slinging ability, my guess, to go with his type of offense and it could have worked with babers easy style of offense.
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