ATXGator;n265747 said:
This isn't a surprise at all. McElwain keeps saying he wants to see what happens when the bullets are live. I wouldn't be surprised to see this continue through the ECU game and possibly the UK game if nobody really emerges.
Of course... contrary to what our resident troll "JoeBlows" says... a starter can emerge against New Mexico State. You still have to hit the open receiver and make the right decisions.
I'll remind you that Jeff Driskel looked great against the scrub UF opened with last year and Harris had a QBR in the stratosphere. As for the reason that one will transfer, classes have already started. The decision maker, McElwain, has only said that Grier was slightly ahead coming out of Spring, and even then he qualified that statement by saying it was because Harris missed a substantial part of Spring.
I don't know why a lot of folks seem to be emotionally invested in to seeing Grier named the starter. He hasn't wowed anyone with the only times we have seen him, the two Spring games. He was also the clear backup quarterback last year until Harris snatched the job away from him. I'm getting the feeling that, if McElwain picks Harris, the honeymoon will be over and McElwain's competence will start to be questioned before he even finishes his first season. After all, all the fans and pundits have made their choice of Grier known for a long time now, they have to be smarter than the coach.
We have no idea how the players feel. The P.C. talk of we're behind both of them equally is not true. The same thing was said concerning Driskel and Brissett, and we know that wasn't true in hindsight. It's just human nature to have favorites, and this situation is not any different. McElwain may have a sense of who that is. If it is truly to close to call, it's always best to go with the most experienced person unless you have an eye towards the future. But since we aren't dealing with a freshman vs a senior, that doesn't apply here.
I'm just going to accept at face value what McElwain has said, that it's too close to call right now. Maybe he does have an idea, but he just needs to see them perform in a real game to confirm his hunch. I'll just wait, especially since almost everything we've heard coming out of preseason practice in recent years was never true.