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Message: [QUOTE="CbusCuse, post: 5520608, member: 507"] 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. [/QUOTE]

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