Cardin Drake

I have no faith in this offense right now, but I was glad to see Clemson shut down Louisville. This game was weird. I wouldn't have thought it was possible to complete 87% of your passes without looking outstanding. Crap, most QB's wouldn't go 32 for 37 without a defense on the field. Still, something is missing.

Stidham has a strong arm, throws a nice ball and is pretty accurate. I still question his ability to read defenses and know where his open receiver will likely be. He is going to have to get much better quickly if we are going to survive in the SEC. He holds the ball too long, and we still can't stretch the field vertically. I would like to see some ZoneRead packages and Willis in spots. I'm not optimistic that this offense can score on the league's better defenses.

Stidham has a great arm, and he is very accurate. But his indecisiveness is painful to watch. This is not going to fly in SEC play. Receivers are open. He just can't find them fast enough.

Stidham is still holding the ball too long. Don't tell me nobody is open.

Well, here's my 2 cents. The offensive line has a ton of talent. It will be fine. Unfortunately, they weren't up to the challenge of what could be the top defensive line in the country with 2 new starters. That line will NOT be a problem going forward. They will get their act together. Much more concerning to me was Stidham's performance. I'm not ready to give up on him, but I'm close. I'm just not seeing a competent QB, much less an elite QB. He has to get rid of the ball much quicker than that to be effective. This will be a very productive offense with a good QB. I'm just not sure we have one on our roster right now. Sean White may not even be completely healthy. One more performance like that from Stidham, and I'd be ready to go with Malik. Seriously.

He does flat out need to make that catch, but PI should have been called. He had to one hand it cause the defender was clamped down on his other arm.

I take that as our chances are pretty good..

I just can't get concerned about running back recruiting. It's the easiest position to fill. There is no shortage of good backs, and true freshmen can contribute immediately. If we don't land the right guy this year, it will be much easier next year because of the lure of immediate playing time. Other positions need a good pipeline in place, and can't be fixed in one year. We are fine.

I couldn't disagree more that we are early on this offer. This kid has done it on the football field. There is no question that he has a high football IQ. They just needed to verify that he had the athleticism to back it up at the college level. They saw that he did; at that point it's an easy decision. It's not hard to measure speed and size. But at linebacker, in particular, the most important thing is being it the right position and making plays. Nobody we are recruiting at that position does it better. This kid is not a backup plan; we took him because we think he can play for us.

Well, other than the 33,000 emails she deleted....

Malzahn didn't make a mistake letting Jovon go. He made a mistake bringing him in. That's a lot of wasted effort. You always have to weigh character against talent, and unfortunately this one didn't work out. You can't have too many of those or you wind up like Art Briles.

The offense will be fine if one of the QB's can step up and do a good job. If not, it will be a long season again. That is true with or without Jovon. A RB just doesn't make that much difference. There are still a lot of talented backs on this team. Nobody expected the production we got out of Barber last year. Somebody will surprise again this year. Our problem before Jovon was dismissed was finding a QB. That's still the problem.

Ok, this I like...

I'm not saying it's good news. It's not. But I'd much rather have a dominant offense line and average backs than vice-versa. Even if it is running back by committee, we'll be fine. We have good backs, and maybe one or more will break through. There are very few really dominant backs, (and I'm not sure Jovon was in that class anyway), but there are a lot of talented ones, and we still have those on the roster. It won't be as big a blow as people think with our offensive line.

Jovon was a talented back, and I am sorry to see this happen, but RB is one of the easiest positions to fill. Talented youngsters can step up fast with good blocking, and we have that. We just need for the remaining backs to stay healthy.