uh_no
12-30-2014, 06:25 PM
transfers aside...
For the first time since I've been following duke football, we have a real bonafide battle at the QB position. After Thad graduated, the heir apparent was Renfree, and he had gotten some minutes previously (brilliant game vs army if i recall). After renfree, Boone was the choice, having gotten snaps during the renfree tenure, mostly in the redzone (the much maligned at the time "boone" package). When boone was out with injury, there was some rumbing that connette may get the call, but it was clear that boone was the go to guy moving forward.
Now we're in an interesting situation.....except for sirk in a few select situations, it's been boone boone boone....and suddenly we have no boone, and three quarterbacks raring for a shot, most of whom haven't seen a snap of play...aside for short-yardage-sirk.
I think my first question, looking back, is why didn't we see more of anyone else? It became very clear that sirk was the short yardage runner, with the occasional pass to keep the D honest, but he was rarely if ever in in longer yardage situations, and the passes were mostly quick dumps. as a RS sophomore i would have expected him to at least understand the offense. ESPN gave his "strengths" as arm strength and athleticism....so it's possible that he simply didn't have the tools to function as a passer in the offense we had.
A more intriguing question, however, is why Parker Boehme saw no snaps (like 3 in reality or something). ESPN gave HIS strengths as accuracy and reads...which interestingly enough is what boone seemed to struggle with. as a RS freshman, I'd also expect him to be familiar with the offense. Had he gotten a few drives in in earlier games, might he have taken the pressure off boone later in the year, allowing us to have at least some passing when boone was off? who knows. Perhaps he wasn't practicing well enough to warrant time.
The last guy, is of course Nico Pierre, who is a 4 star RS freshman with "strength, athleticism, and delivery". As he was redshirting the year, it's obvious that we wouldn't see him play. He's the most highly touted of the three guys, and the youngest...but that doesn't necessarily mean he'll be the choice...especially when he hasn't seen a down of college play.
So first, i'm hoping I can get out to see the spring game at wherever they end up playing it....since seeing these guys in action will be a first for most of us.
But ultimately I can see this going one of several ways....again ignoring transfers clouding anything...
1) Pierre is that much better than everyone else, it becomes obvious he's the long term starter...and since there'll be growing pains anyway, might as well give him the reigns now. Boehme gets 10-15% of drives, in much the same way that boone would get drives while renfree was starting, hedging against injury or boehme proving to be more effective. Sirk gets the same short yardage role he had this year, perhaps with an expanded arsenal in the red zone, much how connette started making some cool plays.
2) Pierre isn't ready to lead the team now. Boehme becomes the starter, pierre gets drives here and there. The effective opposite of situation 1)
3) Both QBs are good and effective and bring different skill sets. They have an equitable split in drives early in the season, perhaps leaning one way or the other as the season goes on...tons of opportunities for multipe QB sets (like we'd run with boone and connette), with sirk in the backfield, pierre out wide....who knows...allows for a very flexible offense seeing as we could give 3 different looks with 3 different QBs
4) without much prior game action, neither QB is ready to lead. Sirk as the most tenured guy steps up to the plate and leads the team, with the other two getting drives here and there to allow them to get that experience they need to be the QB in the future
So as I said, without having seen any of them really do what they're capable of, it's impossible to say. But that doesn't mean we can't argue about it anyway.
So the comedy fifth option is we get a transfer, who likely will view Duke and Cut as their road to the NFL....and will want playing time. Then we'll have 4 viable QBs fighting for time. I'm guessing in this situation, the transfer would be the starter, and pierre and Boehme would get drives here and there so their development doesn't stall despite not playing major minutes. I wonder if Cut will have the ability to put off a decision on accepting a transfer until after the spring game has happened, allowing him to better understand the in house guys' readiness before bringing in a ringer. (not that he doesn't have an idea already...)
So there it is. Let the games begin!
For the first time since I've been following duke football, we have a real bonafide battle at the QB position. After Thad graduated, the heir apparent was Renfree, and he had gotten some minutes previously (brilliant game vs army if i recall). After renfree, Boone was the choice, having gotten snaps during the renfree tenure, mostly in the redzone (the much maligned at the time "boone" package). When boone was out with injury, there was some rumbing that connette may get the call, but it was clear that boone was the go to guy moving forward.
Now we're in an interesting situation.....except for sirk in a few select situations, it's been boone boone boone....and suddenly we have no boone, and three quarterbacks raring for a shot, most of whom haven't seen a snap of play...aside for short-yardage-sirk.
I think my first question, looking back, is why didn't we see more of anyone else? It became very clear that sirk was the short yardage runner, with the occasional pass to keep the D honest, but he was rarely if ever in in longer yardage situations, and the passes were mostly quick dumps. as a RS sophomore i would have expected him to at least understand the offense. ESPN gave his "strengths" as arm strength and athleticism....so it's possible that he simply didn't have the tools to function as a passer in the offense we had.
A more intriguing question, however, is why Parker Boehme saw no snaps (like 3 in reality or something). ESPN gave HIS strengths as accuracy and reads...which interestingly enough is what boone seemed to struggle with. as a RS freshman, I'd also expect him to be familiar with the offense. Had he gotten a few drives in in earlier games, might he have taken the pressure off boone later in the year, allowing us to have at least some passing when boone was off? who knows. Perhaps he wasn't practicing well enough to warrant time.
The last guy, is of course Nico Pierre, who is a 4 star RS freshman with "strength, athleticism, and delivery". As he was redshirting the year, it's obvious that we wouldn't see him play. He's the most highly touted of the three guys, and the youngest...but that doesn't necessarily mean he'll be the choice...especially when he hasn't seen a down of college play.
So first, i'm hoping I can get out to see the spring game at wherever they end up playing it....since seeing these guys in action will be a first for most of us.
But ultimately I can see this going one of several ways....again ignoring transfers clouding anything...
1) Pierre is that much better than everyone else, it becomes obvious he's the long term starter...and since there'll be growing pains anyway, might as well give him the reigns now. Boehme gets 10-15% of drives, in much the same way that boone would get drives while renfree was starting, hedging against injury or boehme proving to be more effective. Sirk gets the same short yardage role he had this year, perhaps with an expanded arsenal in the red zone, much how connette started making some cool plays.
2) Pierre isn't ready to lead the team now. Boehme becomes the starter, pierre gets drives here and there. The effective opposite of situation 1)
3) Both QBs are good and effective and bring different skill sets. They have an equitable split in drives early in the season, perhaps leaning one way or the other as the season goes on...tons of opportunities for multipe QB sets (like we'd run with boone and connette), with sirk in the backfield, pierre out wide....who knows...allows for a very flexible offense seeing as we could give 3 different looks with 3 different QBs
4) without much prior game action, neither QB is ready to lead. Sirk as the most tenured guy steps up to the plate and leads the team, with the other two getting drives here and there to allow them to get that experience they need to be the QB in the future
So as I said, without having seen any of them really do what they're capable of, it's impossible to say. But that doesn't mean we can't argue about it anyway.
So the comedy fifth option is we get a transfer, who likely will view Duke and Cut as their road to the NFL....and will want playing time. Then we'll have 4 viable QBs fighting for time. I'm guessing in this situation, the transfer would be the starter, and pierre and Boehme would get drives here and there so their development doesn't stall despite not playing major minutes. I wonder if Cut will have the ability to put off a decision on accepting a transfer until after the spring game has happened, allowing him to better understand the in house guys' readiness before bringing in a ringer. (not that he doesn't have an idea already...)
So there it is. Let the games begin!