BCWRECK said:
RB was the 8th leading rusher in the conference at mid season (including all running backs and all QBs). We stayed with him in tight games, and comeback games, and were 9-2 and went to the Championship Game (with lower level talent around the QB, except for one).
Do you take this QB out of a tight game where the lead goes back and forth (knowing you have come back to win in several games earlier in the year?). (Any sane coach will say NO. In the case of a loss, second guessers will always say yes.)
Actually, you don't have to answer. We experienced the answer:
TB came into the Gator Bowl and played well in the first half with CJ (analogous to RB's first half of the season) and ended up losing the game in the second half. He did not come back!
Should we not have considered pulling TB in the second half of the Gator Bowl?
Why not, Second Guessers, we lost?
Further, it is interesting that people think our defense was better than the offense last year. That is simply not true. The records shows that Tech's offense last year (with RB) was 3rd in the conference. The defense was 6th. This was also displayed in the Gator Bowl. The O played well against a poor D(early), and the D played poorly against a 1/2 speed (no Steve Slaton) offense.
There is no doubt, the biggest question mark for Tech next year is with the defense, just like this past year.
The questions you pose aren't as tough to answer as you believe. The score doesn't tell the story about an
individual player's performance. So, do you pull a QB when you are winning in a tight game? Yes,
if the QB is performing poorly and we are winning
in spite of him instead of
because of him. Do you pull a QB if you are losing, no matter what the margin? No,
if the QB is performning well and the troubles are elsewhere (defense, special teams, running game, etc.)
If we were winning a tight game with Tashard Choice rushing for 1 yard on 15 carries then I would say it is time to try a different RB, regardless of the score.
Quite SANE
and effective coaches pull QBs
all the time when that QB is having trouble, and at other times just to change things up for the defense. The change up works quite well when you have different styles of QB. I recall Clemson did a number on us when
they changed QBs and our defense never adjusted. [I would bet that Reggie would have played
better overall if he had been pulled a few times.]
No second guessing here on the Gator Bowl. We didn't lose
that game because of QB performance.
P.S.
I agree that the
perception of our defense outstrips the reality. They stopped some teams cold, but could not diagnose others. It is a high risk defense, and I accept that. I also accept that high risk defenses often are hiding deficiencies in one area or another. If we played a vanilla defense things would have been much worse IMO.
