Just to give everyone an idea of what other schools do at the QB position.
Tennessee signed 2015 ESPN Top 300 QBs Sheriron Jones, who had offers from FL, AZ, AZ St., and Jauan Jennings (Alabama, Auburn, Ohio State, Penn State, + everyone) and another QB Quinten Dormady who had offers from TCU, Oklahoma State & Houston.
They already moved Jennings to WR (sound familiar? [Womack]), and Dormady is the primary backup. Will be interesting to see if either one of them play - my guess is they won't redshirt both.
Here's an article - doesn't sound like Tennessee coaches are worried about 5 years down the line:
http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/...dormady-ready-whenever-vols-backquart/321331/
But in the future, the received a commitment from 2016 QB Jarrett Guarantano, who incidentally was the top guy on our board for next year. And just received a verbal from the top 2017 QB in the country, Hunter Johnson.
Silly to redshirt to save a kid for 5 years down the line. A lot can happen between now and then.
Pasqualoni was in the same situation and gambled that in 1995 the team around a freshman QB would be good enough to win some games early in the year - it paid off. It may not pay off that well if the same thing happened this time.
A lot of people are forgetting that McNabb wasn't that great at the beginning of 1995 - he made mistakes and the defense carried the team (held UNC to 9 pts., had key INT that set up go-ahead score) and a sound running game with Malcolm Thomas, Rob Konrad & Tebucky Jones. Also lost at home to what ended up being a pretty good East Carolina team. Fumbled late on a center exchange, threw a pick at end of 1st half that changed complexion. He showed signs of being all world, don't think that I forget that, but he also had some growing pains early and had a much more veteran group that had won in prior years to help make the transition more smooth.
Also, McNabb made the choice to come back for his 5th year. He could have easily left for the NFL a year earlier. Would he have been a top 5 pick? Who knows. But the conversation was certainly out there. As I said and many others have said, 4 years is a long, long time.