Thought on the season

Now that the season is sadly over and we’re stuck with 8 months of “what ifs” and “what nexts” I thought I’d share my thoughts on starting Tyler Huntley instead of Troy Williams. I think we got enough of a sample size with both QBs to see that Tyler Huntley is clearly the superior athlete but I think Troy Williams is a better game manager and better suited for the kind of offense that we’re trying to get with Taylor at OC and Harding as O-line/assistant coach.

I think the team would have been a lot of fun to watch with Troy under center. He certainly doesn’t have the it-factor of Tyler but he does bring solid leadership, good work ethic, and an ability to facilitate the run and pass game. I think Moss would have had an even bigger year with less RPOs and knowing when he gets the ball so he can start running North/South instead of dancing in the backfield with TH. Also (without looking at any numbers so correct me if I’m wrong) my own eye test told me that Troy Williams was willing to throw the deep ball and push for the big play earlier in the season than Tyler was. I think this is an important element of Troy Taylor’s offense because it opens up those short slants, tunnel screens, and wide receiver screens. 

I think starting Huntley instead of Williams cost us 2-3 games this year but should have bought us 1-2 wins in the future.

My reasoning:

I’m very confident that a Troy Williams led team would have started 3-0 against our VERY weak OOC opponents and I think I could have started against UCLA and given us a legitimate shot at a win. We know what Troy was able to do against Colorado and Arizona. That’s 6 wins, equal to this year. My reasoning is that four games and Fall camp under center gives Williams more confidence and poise and timing with receivers (read: Carrington) and we are able to pull off a win against Stanford or USC (probably not both). Williams made some ill advised decisions in both of those games that cost us points. The dumb int. he threw late against Stanford stands out and the two point conversion at USC is low hanging fruit. Maybe he makes one better decision or maybe he facilitates a little better in either game and it doesn’t come down to the wire.

I think most of us agree that Tyler came back too early against Arizona State and that the two demoralizing losses leading up to ASU and Oregon kind of took it out of the entire team. Maybe with a healthy QB or another win in our pocket the team plays better or we get better/healthier QB play and we win one of those two games.

I think we game planned very well for the Wazzu and Washington games. I honestly couldn’t expect much more out of either of those games. Sure, limiting turnovers against WSU and some solid late game defense against Wash could have sealed either game but sometimes that stuff happens so we’ll call it a wash.

Maybe the team picks up one more lucky win against USC/Stanford or beats ASU and Oregon or even gets lucky against WSU or Washington. 2-3 more wins means we are 8-4 or 9-3 at the end of the year. We still don’t win the South, just a game or two back like usual. We’re ranked by the committee every week again to keep the streak alive. Honestly, we probably end up with a worse bowl game (thanks P12 bowl tie ins) and we end the season in a similar position as the last few years and our starting QB is graduating and we’re starting a true Junior next year with little game time experience.

The other side is that Tyler Huntley’s learned a lot this year: he’s gotten a couple multi-int games out of the way and made some dumb fumbles trying to push too far. He’s gotten banged up going for the extra yard and learned to give himself up earlier and (hopefully) seen that he needs to work on the mesh point with Moss and decide to hadn it off a little bit more often. Hopefully he learned a lot from Troy too. A lot of Troy’s strengths are things that he could pick up with more experience and make him elite. 

My question for the collective is: do you agree that we would have won a couple more games this year with Williams? Hindsight is 20/20 so this is in no way criticism of the coaching staff. 

Also: if true would you give up 2-3 wins this year for 1-2 wins next year? Would you rather be 8-4 then 9-3 or 6-6 then 10-2? I think for a team that always comes up a win or two short of the south maybe this is the best way to get a legit shot at a division title. Is it worth it to be mediocre for one year to be pretty good for two years after that?

I’m very torn on this idea. I like winning every year. I liked being ranked every year. I’d rather be good for three years than ever be mediocre. But I want to win the South and play in the Pac-12 championship, I want to see us in the Rose Bowl and I want to know what an 11 or 12 win season and a NY6 Bowl would do for recruiting. 

This wasn’t supposed to be so long but I’d love to hear what you all think.