I was talking to a friend tonight and to us the logical plan is:
A. Start Trask next week rather than play EJ against Muschamp's defense that might hurt his confidence.
B. Start EJ the following week against Idaho and give him the whole game.
C. Start Trask against FSU but give serious time to EJ.
D. Then play Trask in the bowl and EJ still gets his redshirt.
Then you have a good idea about both going into spring practice and next season.
The problem with this is Jones would not be getting good playing time against better defenses. Letting him play against Idaho is like him playing against our defense in practice. What I mean by that is the level of talent they have is kinda like our defense not being able to go 100% at him. Hes not really getting a feel for the speed of college football playing against them.
The last thing you want is for him to be making his 1st start against Miami next year. Miami might not be a power house but their defense will be fast.
I think if Jalen is going to be better anyway why not burn the redshirt. I'd play Jones the whole 1st half against SC and really open the offense up to him. He might surprise and play really well when the light go on. He might struggle as well but you can get an idea of the player he's going to be. I thought he made a good decision in the UGA game the ball was just a little underthrown.
Why play him at all if you don't think he's ready? I don't want any player on the field if he's not capable of playing the position unless hes forced in do to injury.
