Rickie Collins

[RMH44]

That’s a great question. People all learn at different rates and in different ways. It’s very common to have to teach a lesson 2-3 times before somebody really gets it, but it could be after 5 or 10 times they still don’t get it.

The trick to the latter isn’t to try again the same way nor to give up, it’s to try in different ways. You hope eventually the lesson is taught in a way that strikes a chord. Whatever development LSU did seems to have missed on telegraphing, so now we need HCFB et al to try and teach it another way. The good news is Fran is a developer and will surely do that. The bad news is that means Rickie is a project.

Sadly, I honestly feel what Rickie lacks can't be taught. He simply doesn't have a "feel" for the QB position. I think developing "feel" can happen but it requires rep after rep after rep. Is the staff and the fan base willing to invest the time necessary for this to evolve?

Hopefully, Rickie comes out Saturday and plays great. We will see.

 

[sufandu]

There are a lot of reasons to roll with Rickie as long as you possibly can. At this point, I wonder whether he was brought in to be QB#2. Maybe we had a real good feeling that Angeli would come here once it was confirmed that he would not be getting the QB#1 job. But Rickie was brought in as a project to see is we could take advantage of his upside while waiting that out. I don't know.

As a team, the best scenario is Rickie becoming serviceable and finding 3 more wins to get to a bowl. Carney preserves his redshirt, confidence, and his body for that matter. Our QBs are taking some hits this year. Angeli had been wounded a few times before the Clemson injury, including earlier in that game. Carney might need some more size/strength to avoid an injury. And he does not put any tape out there for people to try to steal him from us. If he does adequately, will he want to stay? A lot of college football gets played in Texas or nearby and a lot of money flowing. Someone could offer him bigger bucks just to be in a real competition for QB#1. Oklahoma State, Arkansas, etc.

Meanwhile, if we do not give Rickie every chance to succeed, why bother keeping for next year? If/when we pull him, he is likely "done" here in this NIL environment. If he wants to drop down to C-USA or Mac, so be it. But we need to know one way or another whether he is worth the ongoing investment of time and money. I think that is 3 games minimum, especially to see if he makes progress between SMU and Pitt during the bye week.

EDIT: Personally, I think he is going to be the type of QB that is up and down. Up and down plays. Up and down drives. Up and down games. 1 or 2 What turnovers a game. Just when you think he has turned the corner, he regresses. Just when you think it is time to give up, he shows you something. He is QB#2 and not QB#1 for a reason. It is up to the rest of the offense, the defense, and the special teams to keep the games from getting away from us during those bad plays and drives.

There's really only one reason to roll with him. The coaches are afraid to put in a young guy because they don't want him ruined psychologically or physically hurt.

I don't think we keep Rickie for next year.

I would love for him to prove me wrong.

 

[bnoro]

If I’m hcfb im scripting telegraph misdirection on every snap. Force Ricky to look the other way before locking in a receiver. Of course that means the first 2 seconds of the play are “dead time”.

We don't have the OL for that, he'd get killed.

 

[anglerman]

There's really only one reason to roll with him. The coaches are afraid to put in a young guy because they don't want him ruined psychologically or physically hurt.

I don't think we keep Rickie for next year.

I would love for him to prove me wrong.

I think the exact opposite may be possible. Maybe Luke Carney is really good and they may want to keep other programs from wanting to steal him away

 

[TheHaze315]

I think the exact opposite may be possible. Maybe Luke Carney is really good and they may want to keep other programs from wanting to steal him away

They would 100% prioritize winning over being afraid of other teams poaching a good player

 

[690West]

They would 100% prioritize winning over being afraid of other teams poaching a good player

Exactly. But you misspelled 1,000,000%

 

[upperdeck]

interesting watching the orange nation show, It was mentioned that the majority of the routes su ran with collins were 1 person / 1 zone routes. So perhaps locking on the WR was not really a thing as much as a function of trying to limit what he had to think about?

 

[HeaterCuse22]

Or spiking it on 4th down to end the game. *cough cough Cullpeper*

 

[orange44]

interesting watching the orange nation show, It was mentioned that the majority of the routes su ran with collins were 1 person / 1 zone routes. So perhaps locking on the WR was not really a thing as much as a function of trying to limit what he had to think about?

Great point. I noticed not only would he lock in on one receiver, but he also hesitated throwing the ball even when the receiver's body was completely turned, waiting for it to be thrown.

 

[RF2044]

Yeah, not sure if they realized they had a problem or not, as I'm not sure Fran would officially announce Collins as the # 1 in the Spring if he wasn't happy with his skill development and his plan was to immediately recruit over him in the Spring portal if possible??... Or maybe he just figured he's here and the best we got at the moment, so we'll announce it after Spring ball??

Obviously HCFB did what HCFB does and went after Angeli when he went into the portal, as you always upgrade where an if you can at skill positions (and especially QB) - if you can do it with the portal and have the NIL to do so nowadays...

My opinion only, but I think people read too much into the "QB #1" designation he got after the spring. He was the best of the QBs on hand, thus he was atop the depth chart.

But what Fran Brown and this staff recognize is that it is their JOB every year to recruit over the players already on the roster every year, leaving no stone unturned. And if that means bringing in a portal player, that's just the way it is.

It is also up to the incumbents to fend off newcomers to retain their starting roles and / or PT. And if they don't, then that's a good situation for the team.

That's why I thought it didn't make sense when people were up in arms about bringing in Rickie Collins because it might induce Williams to transfer. In my mind, Williams is either good enought, or he isn't. And if he isn't good enough to fend off Collins and challenge for a starting role, then we did the right thing by recruiting over him.

Ditto Collins, when Angeli became available. And nothing against Williams / Collins -- its just that QB is such a difficult position to project, and even blue chip factories landing highly rated QB recruits often have most of them not pan out.

 

[RF2044]

Agreed. I feel like folks here throw around the "special arm" compliment far too often. I'll never forget someone here raving that Perry Patterson had "the strongest arm in college football". I believe that's around the time I started goofing on the annual "deepest QB room in years" take, and that was 20 years ago!

Most guys who are P4 QBs can huck the ball fairly far. That's why they're at a P4 program. But precious few are very good passers. Collins is absolutely not a very good passer. There's no evidence of that.

Agreed. I saw a video one time when offensive guru / former NFL coach Bill Walsh talked about how so many teams fall into the trap of falling in love with arm strength. At the combine [which has admittedly changed over the years], he laughed about how some teams talk themselves into QBs over dumb reasons, like a guy being able to chuck a football 50+ yards from their knees. His take was that when is a QB ever going to throw from their knees, so who cares? His other take was that yes, arm strength is somewhat important, but as long as a guy hits the minimum threshold, he sets that criteria aside and doesn't worry about it. He was much more worried about their ability to process information quickly, and accuracy in terms of short and intermediate throws.

So whenever I hear a QB described, and all anybody talks about is their arm strength, I know that it likely means that they lack their other attributes Walsh was talking about. And I think that's what we're seeing with Rickie Collins.

 

[upperdeck]

Arm strength matters when saving plays. if you throw on time its less of an issue.

I think one issue many kids with great arms have is they tend use it too much and don't develop some of the other traits as they grow up. In HS you can save every play with a great arm. But the higher the level the harder that becomes.

 

[Blanko97]

We haven’t really seen carney or Williams play. It’s absolutely worth giving it a go with either guy.

Backup QB is always the answer until theyre not

 

[MadNY3]

I think the exact opposite may be possible. Maybe Luke Carney is really good and they may want to keep other programs from wanting to steal him away

There is no way the coaches are going to keep a better player from playing to hide them if winning is in the line. Heck, Fran called his FR OG a potential Top 10 pick. He ain’t insecure.

 

[Blanko97]

I think the exact opposite may be possible. Maybe Luke Carney is really good and they may want to keep other programs from wanting to steal him away

I think that would be a great way to ensure he transfers. You dont leave a great guy on the bench

 

[IthacaBarrel]

There is no way the coaches are going to keep a better player from playing to hide them if winning is in the line. Heck, Fran called his FR OG a potential Top 10 pick. He ain’t insecure.

agreed, everyone on that roster is here for 1 year, they can come and go at any time. Play, don't play so many will come and go for various reasons. The top 10 pick Fran spoke of will have several suitors in a few months as well. Just the world they all live in and I think Fran understands and accepts that better than so many coaches out there

 

[JRHEETER]

I really just think the game is too fast for him right now and that is okay, that is expected with a qb in their first ever start.

Lets give it a few weeks and see if he can get it before we judge him.

 

[upperdeck]

This is week 2. then a bye. He will be in week 4 when we see him again.

Maybe he improves 10% with 2 games and 4 weeks of running with the ones.

And for all the stuff that happened last week. If Cook doesn't drop 2 fumbles and We dont screw up the first end zone trip we are a reviewed pass away from probably getting into the 20s with that effort.

The D was a much worse effort for most of the game.

 

[Capt. Tuttle]

I happened to play about 5 holes at Drumlins with Carney. The kid has a quiet confidence about him. If he is a accurate a passer as he is a golfer ( hit the flagstick on the fly on the uphill par three 8th, from the tips, about 190 yds), I think he will do well.

 

[CbusCuse]

I think most people are being too harsh on the critique of Rickies play. I was in the camp of thinking Angeli would win the starting role as he was more polished and ready with his past experience. He has more leadership qualities and more of the it factor as well. He won it and did OK to start the season and early on there were many times where people didn't think Angeli was going to be any good. This includes games against Colgate and Uconn. Then comes Clemson, his 4th start of the year, and after that, everyone thinks OK he is legit.

Rickie was not all that far behind Angeli for QB1. Now I have a feeling it wasn't quite as tight as Fran lead on, but that is just a guess on my part. I certainly didn't think a win against Duke was likely considering it was Rickies first start. And I was frustrated watching that, but after a rewatch of the game, a lot of the problems were not Rickie. The team laid a dud.

A lot of peoples negativity on Rickie started with the first drive. Where he actually had a couple nice plays before the interception. But that interception was not just a bad pass, contrary to what nearly everyone thought. Duke got his arm on his throwing motion. That has to way in heavily on judgements and helps calm me a bit.

We had 4 drives that were killed by turnovers or a fumble with a large loss of yards. These were plays that were largely not exactly Rickies fault or were what i would call fluky.

1) First drive Rickies arm gets pulled on the pass, interception. MOSTLY not Rickies fault. I feel better after rewatching that.
2) Targeting/Personal Foul shot to the head of a defensless player. Flag waved off and results in Cook fumble. BS call. Not Rickies fault.
3) Cook's second fumble. Tough play all around. Cook has to tuck it better, but just a nice play by the Duke defense. Not Rickies fault and made a nice pass.
4) Rickies lost ball fumble on his windup pass attempt. We recover but with a large loss. Rickies fault but really just a weird fluke play. Will that really happen again?
5) The drive where we are driving and inside the 10, Duke blows up the play. Rickie has nobody to hand it off to and tries to break free for a run. Everyone says Rickie should have thrown it away but that was a RUN play. We surely would have gotten an illegal man down field call if he throws that. Hopefully that played into Rickies decision to keep it and try to make a play.
6) The play in the second half where Rickie scrambles right to avoid pressure and makes a longish throw to the sideline where JRS catches it just out of bounds near the 5 or 10 yard line. That play is on Rickie. He had him open for a completion but the pass went a bit short and outside. Tough throw but that pass was on him.

I mean with as bad as the OL was, the turnovers, the bad defensive play, Rickie's stat line was stil:
24 for 37 for 229 yards, 65%, 0 TD, 1 INT where his arm was hit. This was his game 1. What is he realistically going to do. Have you seen some college QB's this year and what they are doing? This was game 1.

I do think Rickie has to get rid of the ball earlier. Not sure if the play calling changed or what, but seems strange to try to change it unless Rickie can't process those plays fast enough. Which could be the case. But If that was what is happening, then he should not be playing. End of story. He's been here since last winter. God knows I'd be horrible at processing all that information that fast and I have a bad memory to boot. Some people process info faster and I think Angeli is really great at that as was McCord obviously. But hopefully that is not the case.

The OL sucked and didn't help him at all. The tackles got beat outside around the edge all day, even with many 4 man rushes. Duke did a lot of jumping routes and also often still had safeties over top. It was reminiscent of the Pitt game last year in ways. Not an easy situation for a QB's first start. I think he throws a nice ball and was pretty accurate all in all for a first start. I would like to see a better job going through progressions when he does have some time. But did you see players running open that he just missed? I don't really remember it happening. He does need to be able to read the safeties breaking over the top though on those late passes when nobody is open. Even if we are down big and your trying to make some plays. FYI, RIckie is an average runner. Didn't run all that much in HS even. He can scramble a bit while evading pressure but his legs are not going to be much of an asset. I actually think Carney is going to be a better runner than Rickie. That kid is an athlete and a gamer.

This was game 1 for him. He will get better, more comfortable and more confident. Will it be enough to be considered a good QB, I'm not sure. I think he can get to adequate and possibly a bit better with some experience. Hopefully we can get 3 more W's with some improvement. Although, against SMU this week is not likely.

I don't think Rickie will ever be great, but you have to give him some time. I have a feeling Rickie can improve enough to where he is not unplayable, but decent to possibly somewhat solid. I really have a feeling Carney will be really good in the future, but i'd prefer him not playing as a true frosh for a couple reasons. For one, get him more time and confidence before throwing him in there and using up a year of eligibility. And I'm not sure he will be all that much better as a true freshman, than Rickie is now, assuming Rickie improves some. I would guess there is a decent possibility Rickie may be gone after this year though. But i want Carney going into 2026 as a redshirt freshman with 4 years. Angeli will have 1 or possibly 2 left, TBD. I think there is a much bigger possibility we lose Carney if he comes in and uses a year of eligibility this season which would suck. Then besides Angeli, we are left with what for QB depth and for the future?? If Carney is here and in a good situation I think there is a good shot he stays in Orange for his career. But if over the next 2 games Rickie looks really bad, you probably have to make a move. I just don't want it to come to that.

 

[BKCuse]

We are never going to have two good QBs
We usually don't have one
Who is going to sit here when you can transfer anywhere
This year is going to stink now and I'm not gonna hold it against brown because no one is going to succeed here with a back up QB

We will likely never have 2 good QB’s both with starting experience but we absolutely will have 2 good QBs with the 2nd being a younger, less experienced player.
We may very well have that right now with Carney, and possibly Rickie if he can improve with experience

 

[HRE Otto IV]

I think most people are being too harsh on the critique of Rickies play. I was in the camp of thinking Angeli would win the starting role as he was more polished and ready with his past experience. He has more leadership qualities and more of the it factor as well. He won it and did OK to start the season and early on there were many times where people didn't think Angeli was going to be any good. This includes games against Colgate and Uconn. Then comes Clemson, his 4th start of the year, and after that, everyone thinks OK he is legit.

Rickie was not all that far behind Angeli for QB#1. Now I have a feeling it wasn't quite as tight as Fran lead on, but that is just a guess on my part. I certainly didn't think a win against Duke was likely considering it was Rickies first start. And I was frustrated watching that, but after a rewatch of the game, a lot of the problems were not Rickie. The team laid a dud.

A lot of peoples negativity on Rickie started with the first drive. Where he actually had a couple nice plays before the interception. But that interception was not just a bad pass, contrary to what nearly everyone thought. Duke got his arm on his throwing motion. That has to way in heavily on judgements and helps calm me a bit.

We had 4 drives that were killed by turnovers or a fumble with a large loss of yards. These were plays that were not entirely Rickies fault or were what i would call fluky.

1) First drive Rickies arm gets pulled on the pass, interception. MOSTLY not Rickies fault. I feel better after rewatching that.
2) Targeting/Personal Foul shot to the head of a defens;ess player. Flag waved off and results in Cook fumble. BS call. Not Rickies fault.
3) Cook's second fumble. Tough play all around. Cook has to tuck it better but just a nice play by the Duke defense. Not Rickies fault and made a nice pass.
4) Rickies lost ball fumble on his windup pass attempt. We recover but with a large loss. Rickies fault but really just a weird fluke play. Will that really happen again?
5) The drive where we are driving and inside the 10, Duke blows up the play. Rickie has nobody to hand it off to and tries to break free for a run. Everyone says Rickie should have thrown it away but that was a RUN play. We surely would have gotten an illegal man down field call if he throws that. Hopefully that played into Rickies decision to keep it and try to make a play.
6) The play in the second half where Rickie scrambles right to avoid pressure and makes a longish throw to the sideline where JRS catches it just out of bounds near the 5 or 10 yard line. That play is on Rickie. He had him open for a completion but the pass went a bit short and outside. Tough throw but that pass was on him.

I mean with as bad as the OL was, the turnovers, the bad defensive play, Rickie's stat line was stil:
24 for 37 for 229 yards, 65%, 0 TD, 1 INT where his arm was hit. This was his game 1. What is he realistically going to do. Have you seen some college QB's this year and what they are doing? This was game 1.

I do think Rickie has to get rid of the ball earlier. Not sure if the play calling changed or what though, but seems strange to try to change it unless Rickie can't process those plays fast enough which could be the case. But If that was what is happening, then he should not be playing. End of story. He was here since last winter. God knows I'd be horrible at processing all that information that fast and I have a bad memory to boot. Some people process info faster and I think Angeli is really great at that as was McCord obviously. But hopefully that is not the case. But the OL sucked and didn't help him at all. The tackles got beat outside around the edge all day, even with many 4 man rushes. Duke did a lot of jumping routes and also often still had safeties over top. It was reminiscent of the Pitt game last year in ways. Not an easy situation for a QB's first start. I think he throws a nice ball and was pretty accurate all in all for a first start. I would like to see a better job going through progressions when he does have some time. But did you see players running open that he just missed? I don't really remember it happening. He does need to be able to read the safeties breaking over the top though on those late passes when nobody is open. Even if we are down big and your trying to make some plays. FYI, RIckie is an average runner. Didn't run all that much in HS even. He can scramble a bit while evading pressure but his legs are not going to be much of an asset. I actually think Carney is going to be a better runner than Rickie. That kid is an athlete and a gamer.

This was game 1 for him. He will get better, more comfortable and more confident. Will it be enough to be considered a good QB, I'm not sure. I think he can get to adequate and possibly a bit better with some experience. Hopefully we can get 3 more W's with some improvement. Although, against SMU this week is not likely.

I don't think Rickie will ever be great, but you have to give him some time. I have a feeling Rickie can improve enough to where he is not unplayable, but decent to possibly somewhat solid. I really have a feeling Carney will be really good in the future, but i'd prefer him not playing as a true frosh for a couple reasons. For one, get him more time and confidence before throwing him in there and using up a year of eligibility. And I'm not sure he will be all that much better as a true freshman, than Rickie is now, assuming Rickie improves. I would guess there is a decent possibility Rickie may be gone after this year though. But i want Carney going into 2026 as a redshirt freshman with 4 years. Angeli will have 1 or possibly 2 left, TBD. I think there is a much bigger possibility we lose Carney if he comes in and uses a year of eligibility this season which would suck. Then besides Angeli, we are left with what for QB depth and for the future?? If Carney is here and in a good situation I think there is a good shot he stays in Orange for his career. But if over the next 2 games Rickie looks really bad, you probably have to make a move. I just don't want it to come to that.

If Carney plays in 8 games this year it isn't a waste or a burn of eligibility. Next year he isn't likely to play in 5 games. And same for 2027 (assuming Angeli gets the year back). So what is the harm in having him use a year of eligibility by actually playing football? The bigger waste would be saving him this year and then having him not play the next two years.

And this is all assuming he stays here 5 years which in today's world is a huge assumption.

 

[Cuse On 3]

I think most people are being too harsh on the critique of Rickies play. I was in the camp of thinking Angeli would win the starting role as he was more polished and ready with his past experience. He has more leadership qualities and more of the it factor as well. He won it and did OK to start the season and early on there were many times where people didn't think Angeli was going to be any good. This includes games against Colgate and Uconn. Then comes Clemson, his 4th start of the year, and after that, everyone thinks OK he is legit.

Rickie was not all that far behind Angeli for QB#1. Now I have a feeling it wasn't quite as tight as Fran lead on, but that is just a guess on my part. I certainly didn't think a win against Duke was likely considering it was Rickies first start. And I was frustrated watching that, but after a rewatch of the game, a lot of the problems were not Rickie. The team laid a dud.

A lot of peoples negativity on Rickie started with the first drive. Where he actually had a couple nice plays before the interception. But that interception was not just a bad pass, contrary to what nearly everyone thought. Duke got his arm on his throwing motion. That has to way in heavily on judgements and helps calm me a bit.

We had 4 drives that were killed by turnovers or a fumble with a large loss of yards. These were plays that were not entirely Rickies fault or were what i would call fluky.

1) First drive Rickies arm gets pulled on the pass, interception. MOSTLY not Rickies fault. I feel better after rewatching that.
2) Targeting/Personal Foul shot to the head of a defens;ess player. Flag waved off and results in Cook fumble. BS call. Not Rickies fault.
3) Cook's second fumble. Tough play all around. Cook has to tuck it better but just a nice play by the Duke defense. Not Rickies fault and made a nice pass.
4) Rickies lost ball fumble on his windup pass attempt. We recover but with a large loss. Rickies fault but really just a weird fluke play. Will that really happen again?
5) The drive where we are driving and inside the 10, Duke blows up the play. Rickie has nobody to hand it off to and tries to break free for a run. Everyone says Rickie should have thrown it away but that was a RUN play. We surely would have gotten an illegal man down field call if he throws that. Hopefully that played into Rickies decision to keep it and try to make a play.
6) The play in the second half where Rickie scrambles right to avoid pressure and makes a longish throw to the sideline where JRS catches it just out of bounds near the 5 or 10 yard line. That play is on Rickie. He had him open for a completion but the pass went a bit short and outside. Tough throw but that pass was on him.

I mean with as bad as the OL was, the turnovers, the bad defensive play, Rickie's stat line was stil:
24 for 37 for 229 yards, 65%, 0 TD, 1 INT where his arm was hit. This was his game 1. What is he realistically going to do. Have you seen some college QB's this year and what they are doing? This was game 1.

I do think Rickie has to get rid of the ball earlier. Not sure if the play calling changed or what though, but seems strange to try to change it unless Rickie can't process those plays fast enough which could be the case. But If that was what is happening, then he should not be playing. End of story. He was here since last winter. God knows I'd be horrible at processing all that information that fast and I have a bad memory to boot. Some people process info faster and I think Angeli is really great at that as was McCord obviously. But hopefully that is not the case. But the OL sucked and didn't help him at all. The tackles got beat outside around the edge all day, even with many 4 man rushes. Duke did a lot of jumping routes and also often still had safeties over top. It was reminiscent of the Pitt game last year in ways. Not an easy situation for a QB's first start. I think he throws a nice ball and was pretty accurate all in all for a first start. I would like to see a better job going through progressions when he does have some time. But did you see players running open that he just missed? I don't really remember it happening. He does need to be able to read the safeties breaking over the top though on those late passes when nobody is open. Even if we are down big and your trying to make some plays. FYI, RIckie is an average runner. Didn't run all that much in HS even. He can scramble a bit while evading pressure but his legs are not going to be much of an asset. I actually think Carney is going to be a better runner than Rickie. That kid is an athlete and a gamer.

This was game 1 for him. He will get better, more comfortable and more confident. Will it be enough to be considered a good QB, I'm not sure. I think he can get to adequate and possibly a bit better with some experience. Hopefully we can get 3 more W's with some improvement. Although, against SMU this week is not likely.

I don't think Rickie will ever be great, but you have to give him some time. I have a feeling Rickie can improve enough to where he is not unplayable, but decent to possibly somewhat solid. I really have a feeling Carney will be really good in the future, but i'd prefer him not playing as a true frosh for a couple reasons. For one, get him more time and confidence before throwing him in there and using up a year of eligibility. And I'm not sure he will be all that much better as a true freshman, than Rickie is now, assuming Rickie improves. I would guess there is a decent possibility Rickie may be gone after this year though. But i want Carney going into 2026 as a redshirt freshman with 4 years. Angeli will have 1 or possibly 2 left, TBD. I think there is a much bigger possibility we lose Carney if he comes in and uses a year of eligibility this season which would suck. Then besides Angeli, we are left with what for QB depth and for the future?? If Carney is here and in a good situation I think there is a good shot he stays in Orange for his career. But if over the next 2 games Rickie looks really bad, you probably have to make a move. I just don't want it to come to that.

I haven’t read a sentence yet but I noticed your novel long post didn’t receive any likes and I felt bad. So here’s a like

 

[CbusCuse]

If Carney plays in 8 games this year it isn't a waste or a burn of eligibility. Next year he isn't likely to play in 5 games. And same for 2027 (assuming Angeli gets the year back). So what is the harm in having him use a year of eligibility by actually playing football? The bigger waste would be saving him this year and then having him not play the next two years.

And this is all assuming he stays here 5 years which in today's world is a huge assumption.

8 games? Are you listening to what the coaches are saying? I seriously doubt they pull the cord on Rickie after 1 start.

So say they give him 3 games. it would be a waste if he plays the entire season after that and is not much of an improvement as a true freshman over a Rickie in his 3rd season, and then that year of eligibility plays a large part in his decision to transfer out. Perceived opportunity and eligibility are the biggest factors in that.

But hey, maybe after 3 games we decide to go with Carney and see what he has. He can play up to 3 games more. If it doesn't go much better than Rickie, I guess they can put Rickie back in. You got Carney some experience and he still has 4 years to boot.

 

[tptcuse]

I think most people are being too harsh on the critique of Rickies play. I was in the camp of thinking Angeli would win the starting role as he was more polished and ready with his past experience. He has more leadership qualities and more of the it factor as well. He won it and did OK to start the season and early on there were many times where people didn't think Angeli was going to be any good. This includes games against Colgate and Uconn. Then comes Clemson, his 4th start of the year, and after that, everyone thinks OK he is legit.

Rickie was not all that far behind Angeli for QB1. Now I have a feeling it wasn't quite as tight as Fran lead on, but that is just a guess on my part. I certainly didn't think a win against Duke was likely considering it was Rickies first start. And I was frustrated watching that, but after a rewatch of the game, a lot of the problems were not Rickie. The team laid a dud.

A lot of peoples negativity on Rickie started with the first drive. Where he actually had a couple nice plays before the interception. But that interception was not just a bad pass, contrary to what nearly everyone thought. Duke got his arm on his throwing motion. That has to way in heavily on judgements and helps calm me a bit.

We had 4 drives that were killed by turnovers or a fumble with a large loss of yards. These were plays that were not entirely Rickies fault or were what i would call fluky.

1) First drive Rickies arm gets pulled on the pass, interception. MOSTLY not Rickies fault. I feel better after rewatching that.
2) Targeting/Personal Foul shot to the head of a defens;ess player. Flag waved off and results in Cook fumble. BS call. Not Rickies fault.
3) Cook's second fumble. Tough play all around. Cook has to tuck it better but just a nice play by the Duke defense. Not Rickies fault and made a nice pass.
4) Rickies lost ball fumble on his windup pass attempt. We recover but with a large loss. Rickies fault but really just a weird fluke play. Will that really happen again?
5) The drive where we are driving and inside the 10, Duke blows up the play. Rickie has nobody to hand it off to and tries to break free for a run. Everyone says Rickie should have thrown it away but that was a RUN play. We surely would have gotten an illegal man down field call if he throws that. Hopefully that played into Rickies decision to keep it and try to make a play.
6) The play in the second half where Rickie scrambles right to avoid pressure and makes a longish throw to the sideline where JRS catches it just out of bounds near the 5 or 10 yard line. That play is on Rickie. He had him open for a completion but the pass went a bit short and outside. Tough throw but that pass was on him.

I mean with as bad as the OL was, the turnovers, the bad defensive play, Rickie's stat line was stil:
24 for 37 for 229 yards, 65%, 0 TD, 1 INT where his arm was hit. This was his game 1. What is he realistically going to do. Have you seen some college QB's this year and what they are doing? This was game 1.

I do think Rickie has to get rid of the ball earlier. Not sure if the play calling changed or what though, but seems strange to try to change it unless Rickie can't process those plays fast enough which could be the case. But If that was what is happening, then he should not be playing. End of story. He was here since last winter. God knows I'd be horrible at processing all that information that fast and I have a bad memory to boot. Some people process info faster and I think Angeli is really great at that as was McCord obviously. But hopefully that is not the case. But the OL sucked and didn't help him at all. The tackles got beat outside around the edge all day, even with many 4 man rushes. Duke did a lot of jumping routes and also often still had safeties over top. It was reminiscent of the Pitt game last year in ways. Not an easy situation for a QB's first start. I think he throws a nice ball and was pretty accurate all in all for a first start. I would like to see a better job going through progressions when he does have some time. But did you see players running open that he just missed? I don't really remember it happening. He does need to be able to read the safeties breaking over the top though on those late passes when nobody is open. Even if we are down big and your trying to make some plays. FYI, RIckie is an average runner. Didn't run all that much in HS even. He can scramble a bit while evading pressure but his legs are not going to be much of an asset. I actually think Carney is going to be a better runner than Rickie. That kid is an athlete and a gamer.

This was game 1 for him. He will get better, more comfortable and more confident. Will it be enough to be considered a good QB, I'm not sure. I think he can get to adequate and possibly a bit better with some experience. Hopefully we can get 3 more W's with some improvement. Although, against SMU this week is not likely.

I don't think Rickie will ever be great, but you have to give him some time. I have a feeling Rickie can improve enough to where he is not unplayable, but decent to possibly somewhat solid. I really have a feeling Carney will be really good in the future, but i'd prefer him not playing as a true frosh for a couple reasons. For one, get him more time and confidence before throwing him in there and using up a year of eligibility. And I'm not sure he will be all that much better as a true freshman, than Rickie is now, assuming Rickie improves. I would guess there is a decent possibility Rickie may be gone after this year though. But i want Carney going into 2026 as a redshirt freshman with 4 years. Angeli will have 1 or possibly 2 left, TBD. I think there is a much bigger possibility we lose Carney if he comes in and uses a year of eligibility this season which would suck. Then besides Angeli, we are left with what for QB depth and for the future?? If Carney is here and in a good situation I think there is a good shot he stays in Orange for his career. But if over the next 2 games Rickie looks really bad, you probably have to make a move. I just don't want it to come to that.

Yeah, that's a good post. But I am equally open to the possibility that this week could again be rough. This SMU game will tell us a lot.