You forgot the Heisman runner-up who sat behind McCann.
But oh, right, none of those guys were ready to be the starter until the precise moment KF decided to make the switch. So his QB decision making in those cases was actually perfect.
Lol.
As I recall, Banks stepped in after McCann graduated. So given that McCann wasn't replaced by a techtonic fan shift, I didn't think you were also referring to Banks.
Again, we don't know when Banks was ready without having been at practice every day. He came from juco, so there was definitely room for development in his game.
And again, maybe Banks and McCann were pretty much even at some points and KF kept with the upperclassman. Nothing newsworthy there.
We just don't know. Maybe it was taking Banks a while to pick up the offense in camp and the coaches decided to roll with McCann as the returning guy. Then McCann starts the season 3-0 with games of 55 and 48 points and a win vs PSU. Even if Banks is now red hot in practice, you're not even thinking about your backup QB at this point in this season. The team then goes on a tough stretch, losing a couple close road games and to a couple good teams. Perhaps some may think it would have been a time for Banks. But you have to look at the context of what that team was experiencing. That team won seven games after the program had won 4 games the previous two seasons combined. They were literally building the program at that time. They were more concerned about finding out if they could keep building into winners than they were about turning to a backup QB. And they turned the program into winners by fighting through the tough mid season stretch and winning 3 out of the last 4, I believe, including a bowl game.
The following season under Banks was special. But it was made possible by what the previous team had established. McCann's 7 win team was also special, as it laid the most key layer of foundation in the program that is still successful to this day. I think Kirk navigated those two seasons just fine.
And I'm not sure how much the Banks example applies here. It certainly shouldn't be something KF is getting beat up over 22 years later.
Is Marco beating down the door as people assume Banks was? I think we can all agree that Banks will go down as the better player.
This is all pretty simple. Marco has to get better. He has to get good enough to take the spot from Hill, by being the guy that would give the team the better chance of winning.
I know a lot of you think ML already is that guy. Let me clue you into the fact that during last season ML was not the guy who gave the team the best chance of winning. We know this because he was not the guy playing. Again, players know who should be playing. And last year's team was one of the most together units I can recall seeing in sports. There just wasn't any division in that locker room as a product of the wrong QB playing. Can you honestly tell yourself that Iowa would have won as many games had ML filled in for Cade, rather than DH? I just don't believe that.
What I saw in the bowl game was Marco was a deer in headlights. That's can be expected to a degree in his first live action. But it can also be expected out of a true freshman that the game has been moving too fast for him for most of the season. It takes a while to learn the system. And then it takes a while to settle into executing the system.
It looked in the bowl game like Marco was still struggling to process getting through his progressional reads. And he was probably farther along than he was earlier in the season, especially considering the practice time leading up to the bowl. So if he had played earlier in the season, there's just no way he would have won the number of games Deacon did, without being able to process through his progressions.
I think that's what a lot of you aren't understanding. Yes, we saw in the bowl game that Marco has more to work with athletically than Deacon. And yes, that athleticism would have helped at times throughout the season. But it will only go so far if you can't read the field yet. The offense would have become even more condensed and more disjointed at the same time, causing miscues where even more turnovers would've be expected. If ML couldn't read the field yet, then DH did actually give Iowa its best chance to win.
Even if Marco at times was even with Deacon last season, and even though Deacon had vast struggles at times, the team was winning for the majority of the season. Coaches just aren't in a rush to break up a winning dynamic by going to a backup QB, for example. And in fact, part of that winning dynamic, despite his struggles, had been some key plays in winning moments that were made by Hill.
Regardless, we are left with Hill ahead of Lainez going into the bowl game. Given that there is no practice after the bowl game until spring ball, it stands to reason that Hill is still listed ahead of Lainez heading into spring camp.
But that doesn't mean the spot isn't open for competition. This is the time that Marco needs to start winning the spot. Usually everything starts slowing down, including college life in general for the student-athlete in his second year.
This progression is a little different because both ML and DH are having to learn new systems. Maybe it's knocking ML back another beat. Or maybe ML is picking up the new concepts and language faster than DH. This is the time in which the coaches are getting to learn where their players are at. Maybe ML takes more of the reps with the ones next week. Maybe it takes longer than that to play out. But again, this is the very early stage of camp, and we should expect when the game has slowed down for Marco he will be passing DH on the depth chart
