It's like Walker White, once touted as our next great QB, has vanished.

He never got any playing time this year, which is not a good sign.

Will he turn out to be a very patient and very good QB waiting his turn, like Bryce Perry, or might he transfer again???

Was there ever actually any proof the guy is good? Other than his HS ranking?
Hes done next to nothing in college and by all accounts appeared to be 3rd string this year. I don't get the White hype. What am I missing?

None of us really knows. Just gotta put these qbs out there...if they re still here a month from now.

They should know the offense inside and out. They were brought here for a reason. Let them put it on paper.

Because this garbage team never shut anyone out. Backups never had a chance because every game was close

BearlyBeloved said:

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He never got any playing time this year, which is not a good sign.

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Sawyer's yips were bad enough to affect games, but not so bad that replacing him was a real option. It was a perfectly suboptimal situation, so to speak.

By all accounts Walker has a stronger natural arm than Sawyer*; Ed Griffin has also allegedly shined in practice and the film room. If we can keep this QB room together that's a great nucleus.


*former site contributor Travis R.'s eval of Sawyer was that he didn't have the strength to put 'touch' on long passes and was prone to overthrowing them. Boy howdy did that prove true this season.

Only Bennett played vs Samford.

IowaBear said:

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Was there ever actually any proof the guy is good? Other than his HS ranking?
Hes done next to nothing in college and by all accounts appeared to be 3rd string this year. I don't get the White hype. What am I missing?

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No evidence of what he has (or doesn't have.) He's redshirted and sat in his two years. He also didn't play top talent in HS.

However, that's on Aranda. He has to commit to developing his QBs. It's been a problem since he's been here.

BigGameBaylorBear said:

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Because this garbage team never shut anyone out. Backups never had a chance because every game was close

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There were chances, but our HC decided to risk injuring our starting QB, ahead 30-3, versus seeing what else we have in the cupboard during garbage time.

Then again, this guy also thought it was wise to bring in Finn, pay him and start him over Sawyer to begin with. Never mind that Finn was unable to complete a forward pass.

He makes the most head-scratching decisions both inside the game and outside of it in the offseason.

Arizona game, down by 24 with 10 minutes left in the game, to me that should have been a time to put in a backup. Sawyer took two really hard hits on sacks, but yet they left him in there.
And of course they got skunked in the last two quarters.
I know Sawyer brought the team back in some games , but three scores (if they make the 2 point conversion)
down after not scoring in the third just seemed a tall mountain to climb.

I get that it was ultimately CDA/Spav's decision, but I do also think Sawyer REALLY wanted to keep playing, esp in games he wasn't putting up remarkable numbers for. Ie, Samford (though I think by the end of the 4th back ups were in), Cincinnati, (end of) Arizona. Even against UCF he only put up 267 yards. Should they have honored that? Idk. He brought so much to this team and is largely the reason they had any success at all, esp last year. Hard to say no to your star player wanting to BE your star player. Obviously the cost is lack of real reps for the next one up, but, IMO it's a tough "no" to give.

BigGameBaylorBear said:

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Because this garbage team never shut anyone out. Backups never had a chance because every game was close

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The one exception was Samford, but even in that game we weren't good enough in the 3rd quarter to put it far enough out of reach to able to empty the bench in the 4th quarter.

marigold23 said:

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I get that it was ultimately CDA/Spav's decision, but I do also think Sawyer REALLY wanted to keep playing esp in games that it would make sense to but he wasn't putting up remarkable numbers for. Ie, Samford (though I think by the end of the 4th back ups were in), Cincinnati, (end of) Arizona. Even against UCF he only put up 267 yards. Should they have honored that? Idk. He brought so much to this team and is largely the reason they had any success at all, esp last year. Hard to say no to your star player wanting to BE your star player. Obviously the cost is lack of real reps for the next one up, but, IMO it's a tough "no" to give.

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he was flat out BAD during the Samford game - lots of just straight up bad/mistimed throws - but Samford was so overmatched that it didn't really cost us anything except a video game final score.

In retrospect, that game should have seen multiple drives out of Walker & Griffin...but I'm guessing both Spav & Dave thought Sawyer would work his way out of the yips and didn't want to create even a hint of a QB controversy when good season still seemed very possible.

Johnny Bear said:

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BigGameBaylorBear said:

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Because this garbage team never shut anyone out. Backups never had a chance because every game was close

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The one exception was Samford, but even in that game we weren't good enough in the 3rd quarter to put it far enough out of reach to able to empty the bench in the 4th quarter.

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Yea exactly. Started off great and collapsed in the second half. One score with most of our starters in.

This was also back when Sawyer was in Heisman conversations so I think they wanted to pump his stats a bit but he threw 2 picks so he had to stay in a bit longer than we originally wanted

I watched him throw before games and he did not look accurate to me. I hear he is a great runner for a quarterback, but we need another quarterback that is very accurate.

chorne68 said:

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I watched him throw before games and he did not look accurate to me. I hear he is a great runner for a quarterback, but we need another quarterback that is very accurate.

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Spav's offense isn't predicated on Aikman-like timing and precision...at least going by the QBs he's had the most success with in the past.

We'll move the ball far more consistently than the we did this season if Walker is what we thought DeQuan Finn would be, a plus plus athlete with an average* arm, instead of what Finn was, a plus(-ish) athlete with a below average arm.


*all the scouting on WW says he's got more arm strength than Sawyer but wasn't as accurate. I'm assuming Sawyer was less yippy in practice and that's the standard we're using. If White is less accurate than Sawyer was *in games* this year, then he needs real development in his passing this Spring to beat out Griffin based on last Spring & Fall camp reports.

Just laughing with a buddy ... might be the first time in more than 30 years I have no idea the QB two-deep.

The QB BU wanted a few year back that signed with Oregon the last minute for 250k. Did he ever see playing time? I'm sure is eligibility is up by now looks like he made a very poor decision.

dave714 said:

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The QB BU wanted a few year back that signed with Oregon the last minute for 250k. Did he ever see playing time? I'm sure is eligibility is up by now looks like he made a very poor decision.

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Austin Novosad - Oregon Ducks Quarterback - ESPN

Finishing his sophomore season. Not much playing tme.

dave714 said:

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The QB BU wanted a few year back that signed with Oregon the last minute for 250k. Did he ever see playing time? I'm sure is eligibility is up by now looks like he made a very poor decision.

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hasn't done **** at UO (thrown 15 passes the whole time he's been there), but his OC-buddy getting the Kentucky gig may give chance to be a starter in a big boy conference.