Put Green in but rarely have him dropback. He should be doing rollouts and play-action. Beat into his head not to throw picks, if a guy isn't clear tuck and take what you can get. Don't force the passes, be willing to punt, the D will hold. Use the damn TE's.
This is exactly correct.
I spent the better part of this season saying Lee should be our quarterback and that it was the right choice. However, it's become clear that Lee has not progressed through the season, and the argument could be made that he has regressed. If Lee is not capable of moving the offense, we are better off putting Green in now.
There is nothing to play for this season. We have some recruits to impress and it would be nice if we were ranked at the end, but we're not gunning for any kind of title. It costs us nothing at this point to put Green in. If he's the guy we're banking on for the next three years, it's foolish to have burned his redshirt for (by my guesstimate) 86 plays. That's barely more than one game's worth of snaps. We're fools if we burned his shirt for that.
Green should start this game. If he doesn't, he should see significant playing time. If not, this season is a blunder on the part of our staff.
(emphasis mine)
knapplc, I respect you a lot and enjoy reading your posts, but I could not disagree more here.
If only it were as easy as "beat into his head not to throw picks." Or stare down receivers. A QB does not simply decide to throw a pick, or to stare down receivers. They do it because the game is too fast for them, because the defense is too good, because their throws not good enough, and a host of other reasons.
If he's just going to try to tuck and get what he can whenever he doesn't see a clear, easy throw (or what he thinks is one but isn't because he doesn't recognize the D), he may as well just take a knee from the snap. Less yardage lost.
I also wonder if rolling out makes the job
easier or harder on Green. It buys time, but he's also throwing on the run. Can he do that at the college level? Lee has done a fine job with the short passes off of rollouts actually.
And the TEs, well, we would use them if he could. I don't think Watson just forgot that McNeil is one of our best players. After all, he was the one who featured him last year and watched the guy breakout. I think opposing defenses know they can take away the TE because they aren't worried about the sacrifice they make in doing so; our WRs and QB don't scare anyone.
Lastly, there is plenty to play for this season. If our coaching staff ever treats a
single game as one that doesn't matter, they deserve to be fired. That would be the real blunder.
