Boy oh Boy…

[Madbiker]

Filardi makes Collins look like a QB.
I can't believe they started Filardi -- and let him play the entire game. Do the coaches not have eyes?

 

[CuseBlood44]

Fran made an adjustment mid offseason to get Angeli after seeing Collins wasnt the answer. Angeli, had he not been hurt, was on pace to be a Heisman candidate. He got hurt. Bad luck. Fran pulled off a miracle ask that otherwise we couldnt dream of.

Fans have to wake up. Its year 2 of a rebuild and we got hit with a devastating injury. You move on.

Half of you would’ve been ecstatic with 6 or 7 wins at the start of the season, if our starter never got hurt. If Steve doesnt get hurt, its easy to argue we’re top 20 right now.

This is some crazy logic. We are an ACC team our drop off from QB 1 to what we have on the bench should not be THIS drastic. We should have someone who has game experience and can throw a ball

 

[RF2044]

Filardi makes Collins look like a QB.
I can't believe they started Filardi -- and let him play the entire game. Do the coaches not have eyes?

Again, I'm not disputing that Filardi was abysmal today. He was. But I don't think it was that the coaches believed that Filardi was > Collins. It's that they'd given Collins a LOT of chances, and he hadn't produced. He was 0-4, with only maybe 1 half of reasonably quality play.

There is no doubt in my mind whatsoever that Collins would have been better than what we saw today. But the coaches know that he isn't the answer, and they gave the other guys a shot. And they flopped worse.

To me, this is the definitive answer to the "how could it get any worse" position many have expressed. It certainly can, and it did. And that's not to imply that Collins would have helped us get a "W" today. He had his chances, and he blew it.

 

[STEVEHOLT]

You know how many teams want two starting caliber QB’s? Not that easy.

I still cannot get over them starting a lacrosse player at QB. What I saw tonight, the only explanation is Fran wanted to say I told you so by playing the least capable QB. There is no way that he is the second best QB on the team.

So he wanted to tell us something and in the process throw his kids under the bus by setting them up to fail. Thats a fireable offense and not the way leaders of men behave .

 

[CanadianSU]

Starting to think every qb looks good in practice vs the Erob d

 

[OttoinGrotto]

I'm not giving the coaches the benefit of the doubt on any of the decisions made at QB until I see Carney be allowed to face plant the way Collins and Filardi were.

 

[tep624]

This is my big question he was allowed to throw the ball last game but can’t be allowed to throw the ball at home? Why? Why is someone clearly incapable of playing QB allowed to throw the ball but Carney can’t?

Yeah I don’t understand why Carney can’t just be given a half and run the actual offense. It can’t be any worse than what we’ve seen so far.

 

[Chip]

Good: easiest winning bet of my life. Wish I put up more.

Bad: imagine being Jakhari Williams right now.

 

[Rufus_13th]

Very difficult to justify this coaching staff even after only 1.75 seasons on their belt.

Boy oh boy indeed.

 

[tptcuse]

Fran made an adjustment mid offseason to get Angeli after seeing Collins wasnt the answer. Angeli, had he not been hurt, was on pace to be a Heisman candidate. He got hurt. Bad luck. Fran pulled off a miracle ask that otherwise we couldnt dream of.

Fans have to wake up. Its year 2 of a rebuild and we got hit with a devastating injury. You move on.

Half of you would’ve been ecstatic with 6 or 7 wins at the start of the season, if our starter never got hurt. If Steve doesnt get hurt, its easy to argue we’re top 20 right now.

I generally agree with this take, but the defense is a serious issue.

 

[Irishsecra1]

You know how many teams want two starting caliber QB’s? Not that easy.

I still cannot get over them starting a lacrosse player at QB. What I saw tonight, the only explanation is Fran wanted to say I told you so by playing the least capable QB. There is no way that he is the second best QB on the team.

What is truly bizarre is he was our sixth string QB at the beginning of the year.
Probably got no attention at all in preseason and probably got only a tiny bit since Angeli went down.
Yet he leapfrogged Collins, Carney, Beilein and Jakhari to get the start.
If Carney doesn’t know the playbook, how can this poor guy who plays lacrosse for us and is a walkon for football besides.

I did think he kept his poise, seemed a lot more calm and in control.
Timing was definitely off but considering how many passes he has probably thrown to our starters, frankly understandable.
His best throw was to his fellow frosh who he probably has practice experience with,
For whatever reason, he was Frans sacrificial lamb.

I still have no idea if Carney is any good because he didn’t even throw.
For whatever reason, he is Frans yo-yo.

I doubt if I will even watch the ND and Miami games as we will be slaughtered.
Though I find the Filardi experiment oddly interesting, I fear he could be badly injured in those games and jeopardize his future on our lacrosse team.

 

[FloridaCuse]

A few weeks ago, right after the Clemson game, I said we should extend Fran. I still believe that. This season would have played out completely differently with Angeli. When you lose your starting QB — who was leading the country in passing — you’re going to get worse. That’s just reality.

With that said, I can’t begin to explain how disappointed I am in a couple of things.

First: this may be the worst QB performance I’ve ever seen. What have the coaches been seeing in practice that convinced them Filardi was ready to start? This has been gut-wrenching to watch. His accuracy has been atrocious. They truly thought he was the answer? That honestly worries me even more about the rest of the QB depth. Collins hasn’t been great, but this was the best option we had to put out there?

Second: I’ve said this before — I expect more from our defense based on how Fran talks and carries himself. The tackling, the pursuit angles… everything is just so bad. How can you be the rah-rah, hard-nosed guy and tolerate this level of tackling effort? I lost count of how many times we had a UNC player dead to rights in the backfield or at the line of scrimmage, only to give up extra yards. It’s sickening.

As I said from the start, I knew the season was going to take a rough turn after the Angeli injury. Honestly, I lost faith in finishing .500 the moment that happened. But these two issues above are unacceptable. They need to be corrected, and they’re the only things giving me real concern about Fran moving forward.

Cause maybe Fran is mostly talk. And some of it really isn't truthful. To us or to his players. "QB1 was a close contest"

 

[FloridaCuse]

You know how many teams want two starting caliber QB’s? Not that easy.

I still cannot get over them starting a lacrosse player at QB. What I saw tonight, the only explanation is Fran wanted to say I told you so by playing the least capable QB. There is no way that he is the second best QB on the team.

Do you think Fran is so stubborn that he did it to spite the fans calling for a change at QB. So, if so, his comment early in the week that someone else in the QB room may be the best one was just more Fran B.S. to set us up? Really?

 

[MGraves5]

Do you think Fran is so stubborn that he did it to spite the fans calling for a change at QB. So, if so, his comment early in the week that someone else in the QB room may be the best one was just more Fran B.S. to set us up? Really?

I absolutely think Fran wanted to show everyone that he was right starting Collins for four games, so he puts in a walk on and then puts a scholarship player in for a few plays but doesn't let him really get a chance to throw the ball. I absolutely believe this is true.

 

[Dr. Bill]

How could Carney, a kid who threw for 10,000 yard in high school be worse than Filardi? Tell me that. In the minimal time he had out there at least he looked more confident.

None of us know the answer to your question except the coaches.

 

[Dr. Bill]

The fans calling for Ricky to be benched, were not calling for a walk on qb. They were calling for Carney to be given a real shot or for the 4 star qb Jakhari Williams. The only reason I can think Fran started and played Filardi most of the game is to prove to fans he was right about Collins being our best option. But really we don't know if Carney or Williams aren't given real playing time...

Why does it have to be more complex than what we see? Collins was the best of the QB's behind Angeli, but he is not very good...and all of the QB's behind him...all of them are worse???

 

[SanDiegoCuse]

My opinion only, but I always feared that this year would be a challenging schedule to follow up last season's brilliant debut from Fran. We needed to replace some key offensive personnel -- many of whom are in the NFL [and one of whom opted to bail for penn state], and the most prolific QB in program history. We also lost key personnel on the defensive side of the all -- Wax, Diggs, and some key guys in the secondary. So it was going to be an uphill climb.

Anglei proved to be a godsend. He was leading the nation in passing. Shouldn't Fran and the coaching staff get credit for bringing that generally unproven guy in, throwing him to the wolves against a team in Tennessee that was fresh off the playoffs, and having him thrive [despite the struggles in his debut]? He was leading the nation in passing, in only his first couple of starts. To me, that PROVES that the offensive system is terrific. Now, I get the frustration with where we are today, but I think people need to take it down a notch.

Willis panned out. And the three WRs who were stepping into bigger roles looked dominant, until Angeli went down. They literally ran circles around the Clemson secondary -- and two of their CBs are being projected as potential first round picks. Villari was leading the nation in receiving yardage for TEs -- that was no guarantee, he had big shoes to fill replacing Gadsden.

The bigger issue -- again, I own that this is my opinion ONLY -- was that our defense sucks. First of all, we didn't adequately stockpile DEs, it's been a position of weakness all year. Even though we've gotten decent play from Delaurries, Samuel, and Peal, we just don't tackle well enough. That's on ERob, who was always someone who I thought was overrated. At a blue chip program, like where he'd been before, he could be "hidden" as a DL coach, where his recruiting compensated for him not being a plus defensive strategist. But given the defensive challenges, we needed to be able to score and wrack up lots of points to compensate, and also to keep the defense off the field. With Angeli, we could do that. Without him, not so much.

Now, the QB play post-Angeli has been absurd. Collins deserves credit for helping us finish the game against Clemson. He threw a key touchdown, and helped us escape with a win. Credit where credit is due. And I hoped -- knowing that he wouldn't be able to replicate Angeli's success -- that Collins would be "good enough" to help us scratch out a couple of wins. And we had some chances, namely against SMU and Pitt. But his limitations and turnovers sunk us.

I don't "blame" the coaches for his failure. QB recruiting is such a crapshoot -- even blue chip programs, that recruit highly rated guys -- have most of their QB prospects not pan out. A guy like Collins had a good pedigree, he was a worthwhile roll of the dice, but that's all he's ever been. When he joined our program in December, practicing with the team before our bowl game, McCord noted his flawed footwork and mechanics. The hope was that with spring ball and an offseason to work, that he'd iron out some of those kinks. But as we've seen, he didn't. He was given a LOT of rope, and he hung himself, going 0-4.

Is anyone really surprised that the alternatives -- true frosh QBs -- aren't ready? I was as excited to see what Filardi might do tonight as anyone, but deep down I thought that it was highly unlikely that he'd produce. What surprises me is that the coaches believed that he was a "better" option than Carney, who similarly looks overmatched. He led one quasi-decent drive, that stalled and led to no points. It was a run-heavy drive, so he didn't even do much throwing the ball.

Now... do the coaches deserve "blame" for not having a backup QB ready? Maybe, but I think they did what they needed to, bringing in not just one but two transfer QBs this offseason, from big time programs. And one of them panned out. It is just bad luck that he sustained a non-contact injury.

And the offensive struggles have exacerbated the defensive flaws. Fast forward to today, and not only can we not stop anybody, but we now struggle to move the ball. Perfect storm of shiiiiittttty circumstances.

And our once dominant WR corps have been rendered irrelevant by the QB ineptitude. Stinks.

I know that it is tempting to expect that QBs can just "next man up" and execute, but we're down to our 3rd and 4th string QBs, hoping to catch lightning in a bottle. Maybe things with Carney / Filardi or both would be different if they were a couple years more experienced. I guess we'll see down the road. But they aren't ready now.

Again, my opinion only, but I am not going to go overboard criticizing Fran. I do however think that some scrutiny needs to be aimed at the coaches on the defensive side of the ball. And I'd expect that there will be some changes this offseason, ranging from portal transfers to bolster the personnel, to addressing the systemic coaching deficiencies.

I also think it's important to keep some perspective here. Fran has catapulted us into a different stratosphere in terms of recruiting. We get Angeli back next year. It doesn't make sense to view what's transpired this year as a head coaching failure, when it all blew up due to a non-contact injury.

I can’t read all of this in my inebriated state while wearing a luchador mask but you are always reasonable so I’m sure I agree.

 

[orangencpolice]

Why do you think they won't let Carney Throw...not one pass!! the coaches see Williams in practice everyday. If he could play...he would be playing. Why can't we as fans, just bite the bullet and recognize our QB room, behind Angeli is terrible...and that will not change until we get better players..

But it is not our fault as fans that behind Angeli that the quarterback room is terrible. It is the coaches responsibility and that is why they coach and get paid to coach. I don’t believe all this rhetoric about it being hard to have a “decent serviceable” backup quarterback. Many teams go through the same thing we have this year and their season hasn’t become a debacle. One example look at Texas Tech…

 

[swish7]

Possibly the worst planned game of football I’ve ever seen. If you’re going to do this go with Villari wildcat all game

That would be admitting his program is no better than it was under the former guy.

 

[su4life25]

ALL is see QB QB QB.. The offensive line is maybe the worst in the ACC if not the country.

 

[dan7800]

I truly think Fran will get better from this. I do. He can recruit. I think he will let Elijah go. WB will be more prepped next year.

At the start, it was hype and promises. You eventually need to back things up on the field. They haven't done it this year.

 

[Aqua2050]

Coaching stinks. If Fran Brown puts out a QB according to what fans want, we got bigger issues here than just the offense being bad.

 

[tbonezone]

I still cannot get over them starting a lacrosse player at QB.

it reminded me of the baseball game that's gone deep into extra innings and the back up shortstop has to take the mound and try to lob 60 mph tomatoes over the plate.

 

[Orange315]

If they thought Filardi was the best option they need to find a new line of work. There is no possible way they could think this. I think Fran is afraid of Carney making him look bad for sticking with Collins.

 

[tptcuse]

ALL is see QB QB QB.. The offensive line is maybe the worst in the ACC if not the country.

It is horrifically bad. We can't run or throw behind that line.