Should JC start against Air Force?

[SteveM]

Clausen instead of Sharpley?

It’s not as easy as all that. First of all, both the coaches and the players want to play to win. And that means putting your best 11 on the field. If any of you guys ever played ball, playing a guy who is not as good as an existing starter just to “get him ready for next year” never happens. You never put a win at risk in exchange for some ambiguous future value.

Now I know you’ve noticed the “not as good” insertion above and draw an inference about Clausen. Well yeah, it just may apply to Clausen, but I don’t know. But you have look at the totality of performance in both games and practice by both those guys to get an understanding of where the coaches are coming from. I can tell you from experience, the rest of the players and coaches know who is the better quarterback from that more complete assessment that has developed over months of competitive observation.

If there really is not a lot of discrimination between Clausen and Sharpley, I’d say yeah, give Clausen the ball. But he’s a true freshman and it was obvious that as of now, he has not adjusted to the speed of I-A football. And it could be that Sharpley throws a better ball at practice. If it is true that the coaches see a notable difference in ability between Sharpley and Clausen in both practice and game venues, well then you go with what you got, even if what you got is not very good.

P.S. I want to be fair to Jimmy Clausen. I hope he matures and turns into a great quarterback. But let’s admit that he’s not there yet.

 

[goldandblue]

No, he's not there yet for sure.

 

[irish4ever]

I'd start as many underclassmen as possible! Get them some good quality PT at the start of a game in prepping for next year!

 

[Sureal]

Start Jimmy.

 

[bluegold06]

Just start Jimmy, Weis has said Sharpley couldn't do it in practice. Give the ball to Jimmy rest of the year and let him and Crist fight it out next year.

 

[LOVEMYIRISH]

from my perspective his passes wernt too bad, but i did not have a good angle for that to mean too much... i still need to watch the game on my tv tonight or tomorrow..

Definitely fire up a copy. He was very disappointing to say the very least. He was not horrible on every pass, but he missed some EASY ones and did his best to overthrow the receivers a LOT.

 

[elkona]

Yes, start Jimmy! And Rudy, too! And while we're throwing rookies to the dogs, let's invite Demetrius Jones back and let him play, too!
Wheeee!!!! Isn't this fun?
Where in coach-training-school does it teach you to play musical quarterbacks for the sake of it? Sharpley has a higher QB rating; more passing TDs; and fewer INTs in two starts. Clausen had 6 starts.
The nature of this post assumes that Clausen would get crucial game-time experience and somehow be an incredible quarterback next year. We don't know that. Clausen may be Ron Powlus. In any case, Sharpley is currently the better player. You play the QB who gives you the best chance to win.
They can always fight it out next spring. For now, I'll take a win versus Air Force. So Evan Sharpley, please.

 

[stonebreakerwasgod]

Yes.

 

[SoCalDomer]

Discussion over. News reports state Clausen is named the starter.

 

[Junkhead]

I say Jimmy needs to get some action against lesser D's. Gain some confidence, maybe even have a running game. He was thrown to the wolves earlier. Its time to build for next year. Evan is all ND, and a hard worker, but he is not the future.