Wow you guys will really go through some revisionist mental gymnastics to defend KF.
I don't have time to pick apart all the straw man arguments that got thrown out there...but to summarize.
Yes Beatherd is better now than then, yes he wasn't great in his one start last year, and yes Rudock had a good QB rating and wasn't the only reason Iowa underachieved last year.
It was still painfully obvious who was more talented and who the QB should have been.
Better passer, better pocket presence better runner. Those things were quite apparent last year.
I mean seriously who are you trying to kid? We all watched it.
It's ok, It's a new KF this year. You guys can relax.
Sure he had better physical skills, but if he wasn't there mentally, all that is wasted. The problem is that you assume you know more than the coaching staff...if you've attended all the practices, team meetings, discussions on reading D's, etc and know that CJ was absolutely ready and better overall, I apologize. The fact that it didn't show up that way on the field makes me think the coaches knew what they were doing.
I have no such information, but the way things played out I think a pretty reasonable analysis of what transpired looks like this (to avoid the inevitable...what follows is my speculation, I'm not claiming any of it as fact):
Going into last season, Rudock had the play book, reads, etc. down pat. He also had reasonable physical skills. He was a solid QB, but not a playmaker. This also fits what we're seeing from him at Michigan.
At the same time, the coaches felt CJ was the better player physically, but were not comfortable that he had it figured out mentally. I think they suspected he was a "gamer". Hence the decision to get CJ game time experience...see what he could do "under the lights" and get more info on whether or not it was time to switch.
The problem was that CJ
didn't light it up and they felt, for the bulk of the season, that Rudock was the QB more likely to put them in a position to win.
By the end of the season, they decided CJ had progressed to a point where they were putting their eggs in that basket. He wasn't going to be worse than Jake, and he had much higher upside. I think they also realized that the QB controversy was not good for the team, so in January they released the 2 deeps announcing CJ as the clear #1. Controversy gone, team can rally around one QB, one QB getting #1 reps in practice, and the QB can play without looking over his shoulder.
You can believe one of two things at this point: that CJ improved and earned his starting spot and the coaches recognized and rewarded that, or that CJ was clearly better overall (not just in physical skills) and that the coaches were too stupid to recognize it or too stubborn to act on it (yeah, maybe they deliberately played a worse QB because....they wanted to win less?). KF has said on more than one occasion that CJ has grown immensely since last year.
I have a pretty good idea which one is more rational, but I'm guessing it's not the one you'd choose.
