From upthread, not really having seen much of either, the tale of the tape says Katernick has the Connette / Sirk plow ahead physique.
As another has mentioned, reading notes out of spring practice will be fun.
Also, in Q’s defense, he showed a pretty good touch on the long ball.
Q probably threw more good deep balls by percentage than DJ did...though of course a small sample of work. A couple of his were some of the best we had all year. As for the Sirk/Connette thing...I don't think Connette had Sirk's speed, and I'm not sure Gunnar or Katrenick do either. I'm not sure they don't as well. I know QH has good speed and quickness.
When we saw Gunnar take off on that long carry of his, I thought to myself "we're gonna see more of that next season". Of course, Harris is a good runner too, so maybe not. I think if we are going to use plays that highlight quarterback mobility, using two is a smart idea. It cuts down on the potential for injury to the starter.
Q "Why do you like Duke, you didn't even go there." A "Because my art school didn't have a basketball team."
Assuming the absence of a transfer, I would expect to see Harris start the first game.
But he's going to have to earn it.
Let's go back a few years. Incumbent starter Thomas Sirk re-injures his Achilles and is ruled out for the season.
Duke has one experienced QB on its roster, Parker Boehme. He has had some success, a 248-yard passing game against Pitt, a TD pass against Virginia, some demonstrated running ability.
But Cut did not hesitate at all. He started a redshirt freshman from day one and never looked back, even when that redshirt freshman looked like a redshirt freshman.
Now, I realize this isn't exactly an apples to apples comparison. I hope Harris is better than Boehme and as much as I would hope Holmberg turns out to be as good as Jones, that might be a reach.
But it does suggest that Cutcliffe will go with whomever wins the job. Harris isn't going to be grandfathered into the starting spot.
Coach Cut seems hell-bent on having a special QB package inside the opponents ten.
I don't have an opinion on the attributes of the likely back-ups. But Harris can run for himself, and I'm sick and tired of the Connette package.
The package (at least how I'd do it, and it seems to me Cut does) consists of a few plays probably practiced to death. Why not make them passing plays much more often? Especially since Quentin has shown a puzzling penchant for missing receivers unless they're at a fair distance from him.
Man, if your Mom made you wear that color when you were a baby, and you're still wearing it, it's time to grow up!
Amen killer and preach it! I can understand having the package available, to use on special occasions, perhaps when you get the ball in the red zone but are struggling on offense in general, but I simply cannot fathom the thinking of A: having the regular QB as a wasted WR player and B: going to this after the team has rolled down the field 60-70-80 yards with great momentum. I love and support Cut, but this thing is and always has been a head scratcher to me. I've never seen it work except in situations when the offense was really rolling anyway. I think we've all seen it kill drives.
The Connette package was pretty darn good when Connette was running it.
Since then? I'm sure Duke has stats on this and wouldn't keep running it if it didn't make sense. Football coaches are like insurance actuaries. They know the odds of everything. It seems to me that Harris has been very effective on short-yardage plays outside the red zone, not so much close to the goal line.
And Sirk also was effective.
But again, that's just impressionistic. I don't have the data to support that.
But Cut has said many times that will not recruit a QB who cannot run. We live in an RPO world.
That season was the best one, when it was new, and not every team in the ACC knew exactly what Duke was going to do. Late in the season it's percentage was much lower. But even when it worked, I never thought it scored on a drive that wasn't headed for the end zone anyway.
It's been a QB keeper almost every single time...maybe thrown 3-4 jump passes off of it...don't remember us doing any this season....and then the variation they ran against Temple out in the middle of the field. That was kind of neat, but that wasn't a red zone situation.
"I wanted it to be in my hands," Roach said of his game-sealing drive. "I wanted to take—I wanted that moment."
"Definitely was a bit personal for me," Roach added. "I mean, what happened last year, obviously, but just wanted to come out here and do anything I can to get this win, and we did that." Duke-Carolina, Cameron Indoor, Feb. 4th 2023
Actually, if he does leave UGA, Fields is likely to apply for immediate eligibility because he was subject to racist taunts when he was at UGA and he will claim that is why he is looking for a new school.
Fields was the subject of several racial slurs earlier in the season. While that is obviously a disgusting incident, Fields could actually use it to his advantage. A player can transfer and play instantly if his transfer is "due to documented mitigating circumstances that are outside the student-athlete’s control and directly impact the health, safety and well-being of the student-athlete."
If Fields was able to prove that these slurs created an environment that made him constantly fearful and unhealthy, he could be granted a hardship waiver and could suit up as soon as next season. Fields is a premier talent at the quarterback position. It's more likely that he realizes his full potential on the field rather than warming a bench in Athens.
Why are you wasting time here when you could be wasting it by listening to the latest episode of the DBR Podcast?
And he doesn't have to "prove it" as the article says...not by a long shot. Not in this environment. He'll get the immediate release, I'd bet a bunch of pie. (and i'm not criticizing anyone or anything here...just making a fairly confident prediction).
And quick - text him a video of Mel Kiper talking about Daniel Jone's draft status...
Is this better sourced to justify it being "likely" rather than just someone on the internet spitballing about potential loopholes? That article also purports to link to "several racial slurs," but the link only discusses one incident involving a UGA baseball player heard making comments from the stands who was then kicked out of the baseball program. If Fields really feels that he has been subjected to more racial abuse at UGA and really wants to leave for that reason then that would be a fair mitigating factor, but accusing the school/program this way just as a loophole because he didn't win the QB job earlier would be unseemly - that accusation would (and should) be viewed as a big deal. He may well try to get immediate eligibility through some other argument, and the NCAA seems looser with that lately, but it looks to me like a regular transfer until we see more to support this actually happening.
I think this has been discussed elsewhere and I hate to go too far down this path as I think the odds of Fields coming to Duke are not much greater than the odds of me playing quarterback for Duke (I am in my 40s with a weak arm and my 40 time is likely well over 5), but Fields also has a sister who is committed to start playing softball at UGA this fall. So if these comments were so disturbing that they are being used as a reason for him absolutely needing to get out of Athens ASAP due to this one comment, one would think his sister would also not want to be there. I think players have used much weaker excuses to try to work around the rules, and I by nature have very little faith in the NCAA, but I agree that this would be a really weak argument to base a rules exception on (and let it be noted that I am not in any way minimizing the seriousness of racism and what a horrible thing it is).
Now that I have done my share of threadjacking, I think we should go back to focusing this discussion on the candidates who are currently on campus, unless there are really good sources saying that someone else is considering Duke. I am not too familiar with any of them so have really appreciated the insights into the candidates provided thus far.