robby44 said:

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Bakersdozen said:

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Brewer, Bohannon and Drones. There is a reason why none are now at Baylor. So easy for the "what could have happened guys". Yes, he had arm strength but great running ability but you could see his inability to check down, look at one receiver and not go through the sequence just in the short time he played.

I wish him well. We are certainly in a difficult QB position but it is the coaches job to get us out of it. Drones was not the answer.

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A 4 star recruit wasn't the answer? Based on what sample size?

Coach probably needs to take a hard look at the QB coach position

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This is a problem in the age of the portal. The QB coach may not be that great of a coach. But if he is a recruiter and his recruits love him they may hit the portal if he is fired. We cant go without any QB if that is the risk. Now if the QBs themselves feel they are not getting good coaching and are more likely to hit the portal anyway, no matter how much they personally like the QB coach, then it is easier to make a move.

But our QB coach has held various different offensive position coach positions and keeps being moved around. That probably says something.

Wacoraisedbear said:

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Yea there's no way somebody could tell me our season would have ended worse if drones was thrown in as the starter

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Our season absolutely could've ended worse if Drones was thrown in as the starter.

Would it have? Nobody knows. But there were more than a few P5 QBs who had worse seasons than Shapen, and it's not out of the realm of possibility, at all, that Drones could've been one of them.

We need someone who can develop quarterbacks.
Who thought Max Duggan was the answer at TCU. No one.
Obviously Garrett Riley has done a outstanding job there. Did a pretty good job with Tanner Mordecai at SMU
Meanwhile we had 3 nicely ranked quarterbacks who are no longer with the program and folks want to say those guys were no good.

robby44 said:

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We need someone who can develop quarterbacks.
Who thought Max Duggan was the answer at TCU. No one.
Obviously Garrett Riley has done a outstanding job there. Did a pretty good job with Tanner Mordecai at SMU
Meanwhile we had 3 nicely ranked quarterbacks who are no longer with the program and folks want to say those guys were no good.

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People need to stop taking these star ratings so seriously.

Drones was the #28 QB in the 2021 class. Of the 27 QBs ahead of him, 11 have already transferred, one switched positions, and five more are buried at third on their respective depth charts. Including Drones, that means 65% of the top 28 QBs in the 2021 class are either no longer with the school that recruited them or are currently behind (at least) two other QBs. Or in one case playing wide receiver.

Of the 10 left, five are promising but completely untested #2 QBs biding their time until elite guys leave: Jalen Milroe (Alabama), Preston Stone (SMU), Sam Huard (Washington), Miller Moss (USC), and Kyle McCord (OSU). So we have no idea about them yet.

Three have already played with mixed results, some better than others but none establishing themselves as unquestioned starters for 2023: Behren Morton (TTU), Gavin Wimsatt (Rutgers), Jake Garcia (Miami).

One has barely established himself but looks like a promising starter for the future: Garrett Nussmeier (LSU)

One is already elite: Drake Maye (UNC)

There are literally two guys of the 27 ahead of Drones still at the school that recruited them who are universally acknowledged as deadlock starters for next season.

So why then do we think it's written in the stars that Drones would've unquestionably been better than Shapen when him being underwhelming/getting stuck in the depth chart/transferring is the overwhelming statistical probability among players in his own class deemed to be better than he was?

I don't know if Drones would've been better than Shapen or not, but to unilaterally suggest that the coaching staff bungled this one when we saw how mediocre GBo played in 2022 before his inevitable injury, in addition to what's actually happening among his class peers, is asinine.

I'm suggesting the coaching staff bungled this one and also failed to develop any of the QBs on the roster.
If you think Shapen is the answer then i guess all is well and we had no need for Bohannon or Drones

Bakersdozen said:

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Brewer, Bohannon and Drones. There is a reason why none are now at Baylor. So easy for the "what could have happened guys". Yes, he had arm strength but great running ability but you could see his inability to check down, look at one receiver and not go through the sequence just in the short time he played.

I wish him well. We are certainly in a difficult QB position but it is the coaches job to get us out of it. Drones was not the answer.

---

If 12 wins isn't that answer how is 6 wins the answer? Brewer represents a clear blind spot at QB. We stuck with him, too long. And I'd argue did it again with Shapen.

Sometimes, we want success to be pretty. It's not always. I suspect Drones is going to do well at VT. We should have given him meaningful snaps especially against KSU.

I don't think Shapen is the long term answer, and I do think he failed to develop in a meaningful way, which the coaching staff has to take accountability for. But to say Drones would've been the answer by proxy is just a wild swing in the dark.

I can buy that the coaching staff could've given Drones a look at some point during the year, maybe second half of KSU. But to say alone constitutes a bungled situation, and unequivocally that Drones would've been the balm to solve our problems sight unseen when our offense had already taken a step forward in most of the meaningful categories that Shapen could control from the Bohanon year is a mythically gargantuan leap. Too many unknowns in all that to make any kind of definitive statement one way or the other.

He looked good on the little spurt he played when Shapen was hurt. Will be interesting to see how he does with a fresh start. Not sure why we didn't pull Shapen a few times this year other than the coaches thing Drones wasn't ready or Shapen's ego could handle it. Time will tell

We've had 3 pretty highly rated QBs come in and 2 have left and ones regressing and quite honestly as it stands is a bad P5 QB. Stars don't matter, but when you've shown zero ability to develop QBs that matters. Our QB room as it stands is Shapen…. And Anthony that's horrendous and that's being nice. Either figure out how to develop QBs or move on from Shawn Bell (who should be getting a lot of the blame) not going to argue about whether or not Drones is better than Shapen. Your posts make it clear you didn't think Drones was worthy of a shot to prove himself. If Kyron develops into a good QB at V Tech that further proves that Aranda and staff have zero clue how to recruit or develop QBs

robby44 said:

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I'm suggesting the coaching staff bungled this one and also failed to develop any of the QBs on the roster.
If you think Shapen is the answer then i guess all is well and we had no need for Bohannon or Drones

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If every quarterback coach these guys play for "fail to develop them," it's probably not the coaching.

Zeno is just a thoroughly mediocre college quarterback, and Baylor got more out of Bohanon than it had any business getting last year. For a guy with his throwing mechanics and accuracy to complete over 60 percent of his passes and post a passer rating near 150 was a giant coaching win, not a loss. I love Gerry Bohanon and wish we'd have gone with him behind center this season as well. I think we would have win more games if we had. But we put him in an optimal situation to succeed last year -- one that is highly unlikely to be replicated post transfer.

We're not talking about failing to develop can't-miss prospects here. We're talking about flawed quarterbacks who were recruited to a system we're no longer running.

In the middle of the year I think we had back to back games where Drones got in for snaps when we were in the Red Zone to show the D a different look. I'm not sure why we got away from that. I thought it was good that we were giving him a little game feel experience in case we needed him later.

IowaBear said:

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We've had 3 pretty highly rated QBs come in and 2 have left and ones regressing and quite honestly as it stands is a bad P5 QB. Stars don't matter, but when you've shown zero ability to develop QBs that matters. Our QB room as it stands is Shapen…. And Anthony that's horrendous and that's being nice. Either figure out how to develop QBs or move on from Shawn Bell (who should be getting a lot of the blame) not going to argue about whether or not Drones is better than Shapen. Your posts make it clear you didn't think Drones was worthy of a shot to prove himself. If Kyron develops into a good QB at V Tech that further proves that Aranda and staff have zero clue how to recruit or develop QBs

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Chicken/egg. Nothing happening with us is uncommon anywhere in America where they aren't recruiting can't-miss top 10 guys, and right now the sample size is way too small to start making grand sweeping judgments. We squeezed every ounce of juice out of Gerry, and he patently regressed after he left us - and not just because USF sucked, go look at his mechanics last year - so there's a refutation already.

I don't know if Drones deserved a shot or not, so I'm not asserting that. What I'm saying is you don't know if he deserved a shot either. You saw a mediocre year from Shapen (whose offense was statistically better than GBo in the passing game in every meaningful metric except INTs, and even that was close) and assumed the guy behind him was better. I'm saying it's not safe to make that assumption for like 500 very valid reasons borne out in Drones' own class among guys who were assessed as being better than him.

I hope Kyron does develop into a better QB at VTech, but right now our transfers are 0/1 on that front, so the burden of proof is on them.

So you're ok with Aranda continuing to play Shapen next year for example if he continues sucking it up?? The reality is we have what 15 games of Shapen film that proves he's not the man. He's a below average P5 QB who can't or won't throw deep and turns the ball over at a ridiculous clip. Dude had like 16 total turnovers this year. That's unacceptable. To not even see if Drones can do better is laughable. And no I'm not saying Drones would have been any better. But to continue trotting out a QB who clearly doesn't have it without even giving another guy a shot is questionable. Aranda isn't above criticism and his management of QBs while at BU is bad at best

parch said:

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IowaBear said:

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We've had 3 pretty highly rated QBs come in and 2 have left and ones regressing and quite honestly as it stands is a bad P5 QB. Stars don't matter, but when you've shown zero ability to develop QBs that matters. Our QB room as it stands is Shapen…. And Anthony that's horrendous and that's being nice. Either figure out how to develop QBs or move on from Shawn Bell (who should be getting a lot of the blame) not going to argue about whether or not Drones is better than Shapen. Your posts make it clear you didn't think Drones was worthy of a shot to prove himself. If Kyron develops into a good QB at V Tech that further proves that Aranda and staff have zero clue how to recruit or develop QBs

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Chicken/egg. Nothing happening with us is uncommon anywhere in America where they aren't recruiting can't-miss top 10 guys, and right now the sample size is way too small to start making grand sweeping judgments. We squeezed every ounce of juice out of Gerry, and he patently regressed after he left us - and not just because USF sucked, go look at his mechanics last year - so there's a refutation already.

I don't know if Drones deserved a shot or not, so I'm not asserting that. What I'm saying is you don't know if he deserved a shot either. You saw a mediocre year from Shapen (whose offense was statistically better than GBo in the passing game in every meaningful metric except INTs, and even that was close) and assumed the guy behind him was better. I'm saying it's not safe to make that assumption for like 500 very valid reasons borne out in Drones' own class among guys who were assessed as being better than him.

I hope Kyron does develop into a better QB at VTech, but right now our transfers are 0/1 on that front, so the burden of proof is on them.

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I agree with most of what you say here, but Gerry's regression was primarily a product of USF's offense and the talent around him. I'd be willing to bet I watched more USF football than anyone here this past season, and the situation he stepped into was Kevin Steele-esque.

And even despite that, he was playing well the three games before his injury and had them competitive against a couple of quality teams in his last two.

That said, he's a guy you have to build an offense around and cater to his skills. He's not ever going to be successful as a traditional dropback passer. But he showed least year, he can be very effective in an offense that utilizes what he does well. I think he would have continued to do those things this year had he been chosen. Unfortunately, he never got the chance.

IowaBear said:

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So you're ok with Aranda continuing to play Shapen next year for example if he continues sucking it up?? The reality is we have what 15 games of Shapen film that proves he's not the man. He's a below average P5 QB who can't or won't throw deep and turns the ball over at a ridiculous clip. Dude had like 16 total turnovers this year. That's unacceptable. To not even see if Drones can do better is laughable. And no I'm not saying Drones would have been any better. But to continue trotting out a QB who clearly doesn't have it without even giving another guy a shot is questionable. Aranda isn't above criticism and his management of QBs while at BU is bad at best

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I'm not saying that at all.

My uniform point is to blunt some of this certitude about how badly the coaching staff handled the QB situation. Our 2022 scoring offense outperformed our 2021 scoring offense and ended up with four fewer regular season wins, so it's just as likely that Drones would've at or below GBo levels, cratered our offense and led us to a series of blowouts to end the season as any other outcome. The point is we don't know one way or the other so why give it all this certainty.

Honestly I think we have the spotlight pointed in the entirely wrong direction. If we're going to criticize anything, I don't think it has much to do with QB development or Shawn Bell or whether Drones got snaps at certain times or not. Starting outside the offense, I think the first problem was how atrocious our defense played in 2022 in key spots relative to its talent level, but that's already been addressed - or at least half-addressed, this offseason.

I think the criticism really needs to be leveled in two spots:

1. Grimes' offensive playcalling failing to adapt to Shapen's shortcomings as well as it did with Bohanon.

2. QB recruitment.

I think #2 is the real sticker. Let's take the staff at their word - they spent two years assessing Shapen and Drones and Shapen really was the better of the two, enough that Drones was essentially shut out in 2022. I don't have any problem doing that honestly, they have way more knowledge about this than any of us do by leagues.

So we take that as gospel for the sake of our argument. Then the real problem is that Drones is worse than Shapen, and Shapen is your best option. The real problem is their scouting and recruitment prowess at QB. That to me is the difference. We do have Novosad inbound, so this may be moot in a year or two, but I think it's more likely that they over-recruited and misidentified Drones as The Guy than it is that they just didn't give the next Elite QB his due.

if it was so obvious that Drones and Zeno were overrated, that still seems like a failure to our coaching staff to recruit such obviously overrated players. Right? Basically, there is no scenario here where the coaching staff looks good. If your system is too hard for them to run, that might not be a quarterback problem, it might be a system problem

parch said:

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IowaBear said:

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So you're ok with Aranda continuing to play Shapen next year for example if he continues sucking it up?? The reality is we have what 15 games of Shapen film that proves he's not the man. He's a below average P5 QB who can't or won't throw deep and turns the ball over at a ridiculous clip. Dude had like 16 total turnovers this year. That's unacceptable. To not even see if Drones can do better is laughable. And no I'm not saying Drones would have been any better. But to continue trotting out a QB who clearly doesn't have it without even giving another guy a shot is questionable. Aranda isn't above criticism and his management of QBs while at BU is bad at best

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I'm not saying that at all.

My uniform point is to blunt some of this certitude about how badly the coaching staff handled the QB situation. Our 2022 scoring offense outperformed our 2021 scoring offense and ended up with four fewer regular season wins, so it's just as likely that Drones would've at or below GBo levels, cratered our offense and led us to a series of blowouts to end the season as any other outcome. The point is we don't know one way or the other so why give it all this certainty.

Honestly I think we have the spotlight pointed in the entirely wrong direction. If we're going to criticize anything, I don't think it has much to do with QB development or Shawn Bell or whether Drones got snaps at certain times or not. Starting outside the offense, I think the first problem was how atrocious our defense played in 2022 in key spots relative to its talent level, but that's already been addressed - or at least half-addressed, this offseason.

I think the criticism really needs to be leveled in two spots:

1. Grimes' offensive playcalling failing to adapt to Shapen's shortcomings as well as it did with Bohanon.

2. QB recruitment.

I think #2 is the real sticker. Let's take the staff at their word - they spent two years assessing Shapen and Drones and Shapen really was the better of the two, enough that Drones was essentially shut out in 2022. I don't have any problem doing that honestly, they have way more knowledge about this than any of us do by leagues.

So we take that as gospel for the sake of our argument. Then the real problem is that Drones is worse than Shapen, and Shapen is your best option. The real problem is their scouting and recruitment prowess at QB. That to me is the difference. We do have Novosad inbound, so this may be moot in a year or two, but I think it's more likely that they over-recruited and misidentified Drones as The Guy than it is that they just didn't give the next Elite QB his due.

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On your point #1 - how do you adapt to a quarterback that misses wide open throws 15 feet in front of him? How do you adapt to a quarterback that panics and runs backwards in panic? How do you adapt to calling a great play where the receiver is wide open for a deep touchdown and the quarterback under throws?

The Hound said:

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if it was so obvious that Drones and Zeno were overrated, that still seems like a failure to our coaching staff to recruit such obviously overrated players. Right? Basically, there is no scenario here where the coaching staff looks good. If your system is too hard for them to run, that might not be a quarterback problem, it might be a system problem

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How do we know they were overrated when they never had any significant playing time

All valid questions. Go back and watch every game… Shapen missed about 15 what should have been easy TDs…
Shapen isn't the only reason we went 6-6 defense was dog crap almost all season. But he sure as heck didn't win us any games. The 3 game win streak in conference is solely due to our running game being lights out.

Every skill set is adaptable, and worse QBs have won more games. Obviously not everything is on Grimes, Shapen blatantly missing open receivers is the scheme giving him a gift and Shapen rejecting it. That certainly happened.

But schematically we were not reliable enough, either, which is a pillar of the offense. Our WR corps couldn't stretch the field, our o-line regressed and gave Shapen less pocket time than they gave Bohanon, and Grimes still relied on those long-developing plays requiring an elite running game to tie down the LBs, tight crossing windows and deep routes Thornton wasn't around to run anymore. It felt like we fell in love with Shapen's arm strength and used that as an excuse to put him in situations that would obviously end up in him dithering with the ball or doing something stupid because he knew he had a howitzer on his right shoulder.

Our offense fit around Bohanon like a glove, I'm convinced you couldn't find a better system or get more out of Bohanon in a single season anywhere in America as we did in 2021. Shapen didn't have the same fit. Some of that is obviously on him, but the OC ultimately has to take accountability for the performance of his QB.

bear2be2 said:

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robby44 said:

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I'm suggesting the coaching staff bungled this one and also failed to develop any of the QBs on the roster.
If you think Shapen is the answer then i guess all is well and we had no need for Bohannon or Drones

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If every quarterback coach these guys play for "fail to develop them," it's probably not the coaching.

Zeno is just a thoroughly mediocre college quarterback, and Baylor got more out of Bohanon than it had any business getting last year. For a guy with his throwing mechanics and accuracy to complete over 60 percent of his passes and post a passer rating near 150 was a giant coaching win, not a loss. I love Gerry Bohanon and wish we'd have gone with him behind center this season as well. I think we would have win more games if we had. But we put him in an optimal situation to succeed last year -- one that is highly unlikely to be replicated post transfer.

We're not talking about failing to develop can't-miss prospects here. We're talking about flawed quarterbacks who were recruited to a system we're no longer running.

---

I hate having conversations with stats when we have results we can compare.

Sometimes it's also preference. I'd bet there are coaches out there who hate that Mahommes sometimes drops down and does side releases. The methodology is unorthodox but the results are indisputable.

Bohannon won what ever that means. It could be leadership, poise, physicality, confidence. Whatever it was, I think we lost that in the QB room.

The Hound said:

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if it was so obvious that Drones and Zeno were overrated, that still seems like a failure to our coaching staff to recruit such obviously overrated players. Right? Basically, there is no scenario here where the coaching staff looks good. If your system is too hard for them to run, that might not be a quarterback problem, it might be a system problem

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This staff didn't recruit those guys. And they might have been better fits for Nixon's offense than they were for Grimes'.

Mitch Blood Green said:

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bear2be2 said:

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robby44 said:

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I'm suggesting the coaching staff bungled this one and also failed to develop any of the QBs on the roster.
If you think Shapen is the answer then i guess all is well and we had no need for Bohannon or Drones

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If every quarterback coach these guys play for "fail to develop them," it's probably not the coaching.

Zeno is just a thoroughly mediocre college quarterback, and Baylor got more out of Bohanon than it had any business getting last year. For a guy with his throwing mechanics and accuracy to complete over 60 percent of his passes and post a passer rating near 150 was a giant coaching win, not a loss. I love Gerry Bohanon and wish we'd have gone with him behind center this season as well. I think we would have win more games if we had. But we put him in an optimal situation to succeed last year -- one that is highly unlikely to be replicated post transfer.

We're not talking about failing to develop can't-miss prospects here. We're talking about flawed quarterbacks who were recruited to a system we're no longer running.

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I hate having conversations with stats when we have results we can compare.

Sometimes it's also preference. I'd bet there are coaches out there who hate that Mahommes sometimes drops down and does side releases. The methodology is unorthodox but the results are indisputable.

Bohannon won what ever that means. It could be leadership, poise, physicality, confidence. Whatever it was, I think we lost that in the QB room.

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We agree on Bohanon. I have been among his most vocal champions on this site. I absolutely love the guy. But he had legitimate weaknesses as a passer that were exposed and exploited this season in a less optimal situation.

Had we kept him, I think he would have had another good year and led us to more than six wins because the offense we had built around him maximized his talents and abilities. But I also think it's absurd to say we failed to develop him when our offense squeezed more out of him than anyone else has been willing or able to since.

ImwithBU said:

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He looked good on the little spurt he played when Shapen was hurt. Will be interesting to see how he does with a fresh start. Not sure why we didn't pull Shapen a few times this year other than the coaches thing Drones wasn't ready or Shapen's ego could handle it. Time will tell

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His "little spurt" came in the WVU game. Here are the stats

Blake Shapen
Kyron Drones


C/ATT
YDS
AVG
TD
INT

QBR
14/22
326
14.8
2
0

88.5

7/14
95
6.8
1
1

55.7

He had a 55.7 QBR and Shapen had 88.5 Drones panicked once when rushed and through an INT, throwing it up for grabs, when we had the chance to tie or go ahead

I wouldn't necessarily say he looked good.

Bottom line, we don't know what he could have done, but that little spurt was not good. I do agree he might could have got some playing time in the KSU game, but perhaps the coaches had seen nothing in practice that would say he was even at Shapen's level.

Frustrating conversation. Coaches saw these players every day. Their goal is win games and they obviously didn't think Bohannon or Drones gave us the best chance. They went with Shapen who had a decent first year as starter but disappointed many, probably due to pre-set expectations. I agree he struggled as the year went on.

Still, trying to make a determination that Drones should have had playing time is based on speculation. He won a state championship but was not highly recruited. If you don't trust the coaches then you need to advocate for a change in coaching.

Not sure what you call highly recruited but Drones had over 20 offers including Auburn, Ole Miss, Mich State, TCU

https://247sports.com/player/kyron-drones-46081020/

Bakersdozen said:

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Frustrating conversation. Coaches saw these players every day. Their goal is win games and they obviously didn't think Bohannon or Drones gave us the best chance. They went with Shapen who had a decent first year as starter but disappointed many, probably due to pre-set expectations. I agree he struggled as the year went on.

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That's what I keep going back to also. These coaches want to win as badly as possible. Their professional futures ride on wins and losses. So if they got to see these guys every day in practice and decided to stick with Shapen that seems to tell us something about where they think Drones is currently.

I still don't understand why we didn't see Drones come into the KSU game though. When it was clear in the second half that we weren't coming back I don't understand not putting Drones in. At the point if Shapen is your unquestioned starter you want to rely on for the rest of the year why leave him in a meaningless game and risk injury.

The only reason I can think of for not doing that would be the fear that maybe they thought that would cause Shapen to think they didn't have full faith in him. Given the context of the game I would think Shapen would be understanding of being pulled.

Exactly. And most of the people on here criticizing Shapen we're screaming for him to play last year over Bohanon.

bear2be2 said:

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Mitch Blood Green said:

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bear2be2 said:

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robby44 said:

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I'm suggesting the coaching staff bungled this one and also failed to develop any of the QBs on the roster.
If you think Shapen is the answer then i guess all is well and we had no need for Bohannon or Drones

---

If every quarterback coach these guys play for "fail to develop them," it's probably not the coaching.

Zeno is just a thoroughly mediocre college quarterback, and Baylor got more out of Bohanon than it had any business getting last year. For a guy with his throwing mechanics and accuracy to complete over 60 percent of his passes and post a passer rating near 150 was a giant coaching win, not a loss. I love Gerry Bohanon and wish we'd have gone with him behind center this season as well. I think we would have win more games if we had. But we put him in an optimal situation to succeed last year -- one that is highly unlikely to be replicated post transfer.

We're not talking about failing to develop can't-miss prospects here. We're talking about flawed quarterbacks who were recruited to a system we're no longer running.

---

I hate having conversations with stats when we have results we can compare.

Sometimes it's also preference. I'd bet there are coaches out there who hate that Mahommes sometimes drops down and does side releases. The methodology is unorthodox but the results are indisputable.

Bohannon won what ever that means. It could be leadership, poise, physicality, confidence. Whatever it was, I think we lost that in the QB room.

---

We agree on Bohanon. I have been among his most vocal champions on this site. I absolutely love the guy. But he had legitimate weaknesses as a passer that were exposed and exploited this season in a less optimal situation.

Had we kept him, I think he would have had another good year and led us to more than six wins because the offense we had built around him maximized his talents and abilities. But I also think it's absurd to say we failed to develop him when our offense squeezed more out of him than anyone else has been willing or able to since.

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Watched him at the Florida game. I wish I could have played with him. He gave his all.

boognish_bear said:

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Bakersdozen said:

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Frustrating conversation. Coaches saw these players every day. Their goal is win games and they obviously didn't think Bohannon or Drones gave us the best chance. They went with Shapen who had a decent first year as starter but disappointed many, probably due to pre-set expectations. I agree he struggled as the year went on.

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That's what I keep going back to also. These coaches want to win as badly as possible. Their professional futures ride on wins and losses. So if they got to see these guys every day in practice and decided to stick with Shapen that seems to tell us something about where they think Drones is currently.

I still don't understand why we didn't see Drones come into the KSU game though. When it was clear in the second half that we weren't coming back I don't understand not putting Drones in. At the point if Shapen is your unquestioned starter you want to rely on for the rest of the year why leave him in a meaningless game and risk injury.

The only reason I can think of for not doing that would be the fear that maybe they thought that would cause Shapen to think they didn't have full faith in him. Given the context of the game I would think Shapen would be understanding of being pulled.

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Or it could mean that the coaches made a poor judgment call. I have heard more than once that Grimes believes that Shapen is the next Zach Wilson
If he truly believes that then why would he play Drones. Apparently he's already made his mind up and Blake is the man

Va Tech only went 3-8 (12th game canceled) this year, so hopefully, Kyron will have a good shot.

VT fans getting excited

That Hurts as a senior and Drones as a true freshman BTW

— Pete B. (@petebvt) December 13, 2022

IowaBear said:

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So you're ok with Aranda continuing to play Shapen next year for example if he continues sucking it up?? The reality is we have what 15 games of Shapen film that proves he's not the man. He's a below average P5 QB who can't or won't throw deep and turns the ball over at a ridiculous clip. Dude had like 16 total turnovers this year. That's unacceptable. To not even see if Drones can do better is laughable. And no I'm not saying Drones would have been any better. But to continue trotting out a QB who clearly doesn't have it without even giving another guy a shot is questionable. Aranda isn't above criticism and his management of QBs while at BU is bad at best

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Does he have a choice but to play Shapen? Are we willing to go all in on a promising freshman?

Mitch Blood Green said:

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IowaBear said:

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So you're ok with Aranda continuing to play Shapen next year for example if he continues sucking it up?? The reality is we have what 15 games of Shapen film that proves he's not the man. He's a below average P5 QB who can't or won't throw deep and turns the ball over at a ridiculous clip. Dude had like 16 total turnovers this year. That's unacceptable. To not even see if Drones can do better is laughable. And no I'm not saying Drones would have been any better. But to continue trotting out a QB who clearly doesn't have it without even giving another guy a shot is questionable. Aranda isn't above criticism and his management of QBs while at BU is bad at best

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Does he have a choice but to play Shapen? Are we willing to go all in on a promising freshman?

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Goes back to recruitment. If we're going to be critical of the staff - which is fair enough - I don't think it should be that Shapen is playing over X, it should be that the guys recruited behind him aren't good enough to unseat him.

This offseason is a proving period for our offensive staff in a way last offseason wasn't. They have to prove they can develop Shapen into a QB that can get us back to Arlington. Failing that, they have to prove the QB stable they put together is more promising than Shapen. And failing that, they have to prove they can put a system around Shapen that maximizes his skills in a way last year didn't.

Who even is Shapen's competition this offseason? As good as Novosad seems to be, it's rare that true freshman QBs are ready enough to not redshirt. The La Tech kid was in his 7th year this year so I assume he's graduated finally. Brayson McHenry? Seems like an extremely thin position headed into the offseason.

Mitch Blood Green said:

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Does he have a choice but to play Shapen? Are we willing to go all in on a promising freshman?

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I have a feeling they bring in a potential starter from the portal, to compete with Shapen and Novosad.
And who knows, Novosad could bulk up (which is almost a definite) and knock it out of the park during spring training.