The Thumb, Part VII

I am upset with both Ralph and Franklin. I truly believe that they used the wrong criteria for selecting Steffy as the starter. For all I know, Jordan may best the best yellow jersey QB in the country but it just doesn't translate into games. How can anyone be upset with Steffy. He is only doing what he is asked.

The thing that I am really disappointed with is the very, very vanilla play calling. You use games against D1AA teams to work on the offense. they learned fairly quickly that they could run the ball but we have no idea if we can throw it down the field because the run was used for more than 2/3 of the game.

I'm upset with what seems to be the lack of any consistent reasoning process on the part of the coaches. They have evaluated Steffy and made a judgment on his talent, one that went against the hopes of many folks interested in Terp football. Having done that, they appear to have abandoned said judgment in the middle of a game. It doesn't make the program look good to recruits considering whether to come here - how do you know how the coaching staff will treat you?

Agreed with Paco on Steffy; I'm sure he's doing his best.

I think Coach F. knows what he's doing and various commentators are grasping at straws. Let's curb our egos and let the Terps get on with the job. I was around in the days of 'Sunny' Jim Tatum and times have changed greatly since those glorious seasons. Football is now far more competitive and professional, leaving onlookers like ourselves living in nearly total ignorance. Leave the coach and his choice of QB alone! We might have another 2002 and 2003 season.

Initially, I was surprised he didn't go with Turner, but Ralph is at more practies, than I am. And I respect the guy too much, to ctiticize...

Amen to Paco. We haven't had a QB that could actually win a game since McBrien.
We need a QB that can win for us rather than play just not to lose. What happaned to Ralph's option offense that Scott and Sean Hill ran? And what happened to our newest "West Coast" offense? West Coast of what, Hyattsville? We have a bunch of talented players on O and D, we need to get a player in there that can run it and coaches that can run an innovative offense package.

If Coach F. knows what he's doing, he hasn't demonstrated it recently. Sad but true. This bizarre series of events and statements doesn't help.

Steffy looks uptight. He seems to be thinking and rethinking everything he does after the snap instead of just playing.If the play doesn't develop exactly as it's drawn up he looks lost. Turner comes in and just starts firing away. I would prefer to lose with a guy who takes a chance at making something happen. I can't remember Steffy ever making a play when the team really needed it.

I miss the option O with Scott and Hill, and was hopeful we might get back to that with Portis and then toss in the West Coast plays.

In the past stink-o years, Fridge never felt like his players had enough command of the offense to call higher risk plays. Seems like we might be back in that environment. Portis, our best option option, can't even call the right play. Steffy seems to get too uptight to execute, and Turner can't manage to practice hard enough to show he cares...