Sauron

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If you would like to pretend that NIL would have no effect on where guys like Ingram, Julio, Hightower, Upshaw et al decided to play CFB if it had existed then, knock yourself out. I prefer not to live in fantasy land.

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I have no dog in this fight, but ...

You do realize that your first sentence proposes a hypothetical situation that didn't exist and can't be proven, and your second sentence asserts that you live in a grounded reality.

The two scenarios are mutually exclusive.

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5-10 for 71 yards that included the 43 yard prayer that should have been picked against Mercer doesnt scream great to me.

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To be fair, Simpson was playing behind the second-string offensive line, throwing to Rico Scott, Caleb Odom, Jaren Hamilton, and others. One of his incompletions was dropped by Daniel Hill, one was dropped in the end zone (but was thrown into double coverage, so not a great decision), and another was thrown while he was flushed from the pocket and under pressure.

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I'm not tied to anyone as far as who should be the starter. Simpson, Mack, Russell, some wild card ... after last year, I want THE BEST QUARTERBACK to have the job, period.

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I agree completely. I like Simpson, because I think he's better than people give him credit for and I admire his loyalty, particularly in this day and age. But I want the best guy for the job.

My only fear is if we start Russell, we likely nuke our QB depth.

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I just disagree that Simpson has shown anything worthy of the confidence people have that he's going to light the CFB world on fire ...

I just also struggle rationalizing that Saban signed off on a freaking lacrosse player starting before Simpson at USF.

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I've been a proponent of Simpson's for a couple of years now, so my view of the situation is likely biased. Just wanna be up-front about that.

I'm not sure anyone is saying Simpson will "light the CFB world on fire" if he starts. I guess It's possible he could have a Mac Jones type of year, which would be phenomenal ... but my expectation is he'll be a good QB who provides a great play occasionally. Which, frankly, would be a step in the right direction for us.

I don't think Simpson has been able to show everything he can do within the offense at this point. The biggest advantage he has over Milroe, in my opinion, is his ability to process a situation and make a quick decision. To my eyes, the offense just seemed to be more efficient and operate more smoothly with him vs. Milroe. There were far fewer explosive plays with Simpson, but there also seemed to be far fewer big busts. Admittedly, that's an uneducated feeling -- I don't have any stats to back that up. He just seemed to have a better understanding of the offense and where to go with the ball in general.

I'm not terribly concerned about Buchner getting the starting nod over Simpson in the 2023 USF game. I'd guess Rees made that recommendation to Saban rather than Saban doing an in-depth evaluation of the two and making the call himself. Since Rees was more familiar with Buchner, having coached him at Notre Dame, Buchner got the start.

I wonder if Auburn/Freeze are kicking themselves for investing in Jackson Arnold?

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I may have missed it but any word on D Jackson?

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Domani Jackson has announced he's coming back.

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The pressure is on the opposing offenses as well. Long drives must end in TDs. If you run 25 minutes off the clock on 2 drives and kick 2 FGs you can be beaten by one play.

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I don't disagree with this at all. A coach electing the ball-control option for his offense has to be completely confident in his team's ability to execute and not make mistakes. It's like investing in bonds vs. stocks -- it's a low-risk and usually a low-reward approach, but it pays dividends.

The coach also has to bank on his defense being able to get stops or turnovers. Unfortunately for us, Alabama was Jekyll-and-Hyde offensively this year. Even a small improvement in offensive consistency would have had us at worst 11-1 at the end of the regular season.

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No coach we hire is going to "run the bawl Pawll and 'make their asses quit'"

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I'm not sure that's 100% accurate. Two teams with significantly less talent beat us this year by running the ball consistently, controlling the clock, and taking advantage of our turnovers. With the relatively new clock rules, teams are getting fewer possessions overall. Controlling the clock and limiting turnovers have increased in importance compared to explosive plays.

I'm not saying explosive plays aren't important, but when you can bleed more than five minutes off the clock just by getting one first down and eat up half a quarter with two first downs, you're putting tremendous pressure on the opposing offense to be very efficient when they have the ball.

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1. Our coach is soft. He let a player tell him no on national tv.

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I agree this was one of the low points of DeBoer's early tenure.

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3. If Sark can take his paid high draft prospective qb off the field and put a freshman on it because his qb wasn't playing well any coach can. Quit giving me that shite.

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Sark is going into his fifth year as the head coach of Texas, and he had his team in the semifinals last year. Texas is fully his team -- he recruited all the players. He's earned the right to make those calls in the NIL era.

DeBoer, who I think is a very good coach, was in his first year at a perennial power with a very unstable roster. Making significant changes could have been a disaster.

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4. None of our loses were to good teams, this was an underperforming team led by coaches that didn't game plan and couldn't adjust. The same plan we used against OU was the same game plan we used against Michigan.

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This also was one of the most concerning issues with DeBoer's first year. While none of the losses were acceptable, Oklahoma in particular and Michigan were the most puzzling and unforeseen. Until the Michigan game, we'd seen our offense come out on fire after a bye week.

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5. In the NFL a coach took his number 1 draft pick qb and replaced him with the back up. And it helped the #1 draft pick.

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In the NFL players are bound by contracts with teams. That's not the case in college.

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If you don't see issues with our development, our recruiting, our coaching not sure what to tell you.

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Kalen DeBoer hasn't been our head coach for a full year yet. I'd say give him some time to adjust to the situation -- which, frankly, was unprecedented in major college football. And if you have issues with his recruiting, after having just signed one of the top two or three classes in the nation, then frankly I don't know what to tell YOU.

I'm going to put my own finer point on the supposed loyalty to Milroe: I think it was centered on the offensive line specifically.

This is my own interpretation, and I could very well be wrong, but I suspect they (or the upperclassmen on the line) were the main Milroe supporters. The skill players may have been part of the club at the beginning of the year, but the body language and reactions from them in the second half of the year seemed to indicate frustration and irritation at multiple times.

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Okay, but they weren't concerned about a repeat of the Tennessee game, the South Carolina game, the Auburn game, or the Arkansas game from last year?

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I wonder if Jalen is one of those practice-field and film-room warriors who do everything right all week long, but go into a rapid downward spiral in a game when things don't go well. If I'm a coach, I'm gonna be hesitant to make a change, even after a debilitating loss, if the guy looks like a world-beater at practice the following week, and is correcting the mistakes he made on game day.