Naming Golson the starter had almost zero risk. First Malik is not going anywhere, why in gods name would he transfer and sit a year when he plays plenty this year and owns the team the next two , that's a red herring and would never happen.
Naming Golson the starter is not letting the inmates run the prison, after all he has the resume to start absolutely , that's why he is shopping his services so successfully. The irony here is if Golson had stayed all things being equal , its still more likely then not, he would have started against TEXAS in any event. Kelly was very likely going to use both QBs and knowing Kelly how he makes the exact decision is always problematic.
Naming Golson the starter with Malik only having a single TD to his credit and not even ONE FULL game would not have been a reach by any stretch , and would not have been seriously questioned by anyone....the issue would simply be could Golson produce without turnovers and keep the job or would Kelly go to Malik sooner rather then later....and how many packages & snaps would Malik get assuming Golson was playing strongly , would he be called in redzone, would he get a drive each half or how would Kelly do it.
Naming Golson the stater would not have really changed anything , Malik still could have taken over in totality if Golson started to put the ball on the ground, or could have played situationally with EG in the fashion Kelly was probably imagining. Naming Golson the starter simply preserved the options and depth at the QB spot.
Its very easy right now to wish EG a fond farewell no worries at all, but that's because the season has not started yet. It will be abundantly clear within those first six games that we could have really used the passing and play of Golson. Even against LSU , with Golson suffering PTSD from his fumble issues, and Malik being named the starter, Kelly still had more confidence in Golson on the drives that called for deeper routes and over the middle routes.
Knowing how to handle individual players , especially the quarterbacks, is one of the key jobs of any coach , and psychology is always a big part of that. Kelly mishandled this , and although its easy right now to simply say we didn't need EG, Malik is Tim Tebow, Tony Rice, everything EG was and a great leader as well.....and after all he hit Fuller in the spring game so no worries if and when we get behind.
Hopefully that thinking is correct but my instincts tell me we will regret not having Golson sooner rather then later in 2015 , and when that happens much of what I am saying will not be controversial but will be conventional wisdom that in hindsight seems obvious.
