Why we need him NOW

It's one thing to say we're wasting our time as a team with Chris Todd, who will continue to improve but will also continue to lob Krispy Kremes to opposing SEC secondaries. I still believe that if we get things* sorted out, we can have a solid winning season even though we will lose to Bama.** We'll go to a bowl and it'll be a letdown like hell, but we'll survive.

It's another thing entirely to sacrifice almost ALL of Kodi Burns' playing time to this guy:

Hmm... wonder what happened to her arms...

Last year was the sheer idiocy of burning Burns' redshirt merely to light a fire under a sub-par, injury-plagued, broken-spirited quarterback with little-to-no arm strength. Kodi was the crown jewel of our recruiting class, and pffft went an entire year of his elegibility - for what? A steady dose of Evil Brandon and - in what really bites us in the ass - a backup quarterback with incredible physical gifts who sat on the bench gaining zilch for experience. Which is how we find ourselves in this unenviable position this season of an incredibly gifted quarterback who has exactly zilch for experience. Enter Chris Todd and it's second verse, same as the first - an entire year of Kodi "Mr. Spread Offense" Burns' eligibility will be sacrificed to yet another statuesque, duck-lobbing, decision-challenged white boy with an injury problem. And next year, we're still going to be starting from scratch with Kodi and we're still going to be deficient in effective field leadership.

If Kodi's only knock is that he doesn't know the offense, then by God give him the reins and let him learn the offense.

Maybe that means we win fewer games this year - I don't care. We need a leader, a field general, and unlike we do so kindly for other teams, no opposing defense is going to anoint a quarterback for us. I say we suck it up and play Burns and by God, we teach him how to play quarterback in the SEC. I was almost sold on Todd last week versus LSU, even in spite of the two interceptions he threw. I thought they were just bad decisions that could be chalked up to that sawmill of a defense. But it's pretty clear now that he's just going to float balls all day. Chris Todd's interceptions were a knife in the gut against the Bengals, and he tried to do it again today.

It's time we played the gifted quarterback and let him become experienced, instead of playing the experienced quarterback with the hope that he somehow become more talented. Let Kodi learn, and then next year we'll actually be able to run the Spread Eagle instead of futzing around with bizarre formations and strange playcalls. Does anyone doubt that we'd have an offensive identity if we could at least threaten them with Burns up the gut for 14, every single play? Wouldn't Tony Franklin be able to open up the playbook if the defenses actually had to respect the zone read?

And that's why this isn't just about Kodi Burns. The next Future Boy will be on campus next year: Raymond Cotton. And it's essential that we at least have the offense in place in which he can succeed. We can't even practice a single base offense right now - Franklin put the QB under center for much of the Tennessee game, which he had done, oh, five or so times outside of the kneel-down prior to this contest. If we sink all our eggs in Kodi's basket, then we will have an identity, a plan that we can execute. If we don't, we're back to square one next year with an inexperienced quarterback and a chaotic, ill-planned and poorly-executed offense.


Edit: just saw Mississippi State's quarterback throw the checkdown screen under heavy pressure from three towering defensive lineman. The TB scampered for well over a first down. Could anything make it more clear that our offense is downright pathetic?



* And there's the rub. There are either a multitude, a horde of little things or there are two big things: the running game, and the passing game.

** Don't say it ain't gonna happen if we keep up this crap game. Five games into the season and we have shown a completely different offense every game, while the defense is habitually out of position, takes poor angles, and tackles like your grandma.