Talent was never the issue with Derrick, but discipline clearly was. It's really too bad we missed out on those 304 receiving yards he had in an air-raid offense this year. Clearly would have made a huge difference on the season.
Yeah an odd case for sure, He destroyed Jr college competition and had a ton of fan fare coming into Tech but he never really performed above average at best. He had some injury issues midyear last year, but before or after was never even their 3rd or 4th best option and then this year he got suspended at some point and then conspicuously never played while never showing up on the injury wire for anything other than disciplinary. In which case he is still questionable for the bowl game for disciplinary reasons.
See the thing is...you cannot "fix" or condone or reward boorish behavior. Our fans, or rather "those fans" for all teams just don't get it. They are extremely myopic and incapable of critical thinking. And why its such a hot button for me. It shows a complete inability to grasp human nature and the intricacies of what does or doesn't go into being successful at anything. And the hurdles and ladders that need climbing to get there.
I actually pay fairly close attention to our vagabonds...here is just a sampling of fan/staff criticisms and what "really" happened after the fact.
Derrick... was a difference maker and clearly the staff was penalizing him for be upset ,when we all could see that he should be playing.....Verdict: 100% wrong...
Another favorite of mine...clearly the staff values blocking at Wr more than anything else and no other team in the nation does this.....Verdict: Interestingly enough I was watching a number of NFL telecasts this year where theY referenced WR blocking and its importance to "Big" plays.
BUT more conclusive than that was; Chris Collingsworth referencing one of the BIG reasons Ju Ju Smith was playing over Martavious Bryant was his demonic blocking. Hmmmmm, I guess that one is invalid as well.
Eno Benjamin.. also a difference maker and would play his first year...Verdict: He played "some" mostly ineffectively and is certainly not a better prospect than Frosh Torren Young or true Frosh IKM (by the way I said as much about IKM)
Frank Darby...Man we really screwed that up, not sure what we were thinking considering how badly we need WR’s. Our coaches and administration must not know what they are doing. His High School coach says ASU says he'll play first year..Verdict: again 100% wrong. He had to Redshirt and then had some successes this year, but is still a year or so away. So although I wished he’d stuck with us, instead of believing the misinformation that dishonorable people sell those who want to believe, it is highly debatable he’d done more than those we had.
And one of my favorites that just gets better by the year......Jake Rudock..Is not a very good QB & clearly not even close to CJ. So then he goes to UM and gets drafted, to which US reasonable types said; easy to see why they staff struggled so much. To which the "super-critic" says...and you can't make this stuff up...
"Oh no Harbaugh "fixed" him. (yes that's right a 5th year player in one year) yet and this is where it keeps getting better by the year, Harbaugh seemingly can't fix his own Qb's and even has one transferring out and rumor is it they are potentially in line for another grad-transfer.
Verdict: Harbaugh didn't "fix" squat and he clearly isn't some "fix all" QB guru or he wouldn't be having SOOOO many QB issues right now. Obviously it is very understandable the staff's original indecision.
So in close...Yes I liked CJ better but I have zero complaint about this staff and their decision. See a wise man can "see" the why. They don't have to agree, but they can see it. Case in point, WE ALL agree Ricky Stanzi was the better QB than Jake, but only the blind, narrow critic doesn't acknowledge the "why" it likely took so long. Ricky had some real ball security issues and it was likely even worse in practice. Knowing what the coaches knew...WE ALL would have struggled with that call.
But not these "super-critics", hence their opinions are most meaningless.
