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.
