Thursday, September 29, 2011

CJF Minces No Words in Defending Larry Smith

I've got to give Coach Franklin a lot of credit on this one.  He could have easily pulled a Steve Spurrier-type routine and said something like "we're evaluating the quarterback situation every day" or "we'll play whoever gives us the best chance to win, and for now that's Larry," etc.  He could have come up with some way not to provide a full-throated defense of the Commodores' starting QB.  But CJF is shooting straight on this one, and I respect him for showing confidence in Larry.

Jeff Lockridge has the quotes in yesterday's Tennessean:
Asked if he is comfortable with Smith as his starter over Jordan Rodgers, Franklin said the choice is “not even close.”

“Larry gives us our best chance to be successful,” Franklin said. “That’s no disrespect to Rodgers, but based on what we evaluate every single day of practice, decision-making, grading the film … by far, Larry gives us the best chance to be successful.

Franklin said that it isn’t fair for people to try to evaluate Smith because the receivers haven’t produced and linemen haven’t protected. Smith is averaging a career-low 103 passing yards and has taken 15 sacks, but he has a career-high 57.5 completion percentage.

“It would be one thing if maybe we had a really, really, really mobile quarterback that we could throw in there just to make some things happen, but that’s not the situation we’re in,” Franklin said. “Trust me. Larry gives us the best chance to win.”
I for one trust him.  Do you?


7 comments:

Bobby O'Shea said...

Is it possible to trust CJF completely, but still be uneasy with Larry?

TPAIN said...

Whenever a coach says "X gives us our best chance to be successful," I think it means, "I wish we had a better quarterback too, but this is what we got."

Anonymous said...

I trust Coach Franklin, I also choose to believe, he is blinded by the enormity of the challenges before him. Larry has been hit way too much, but that doesn’t change the fact, that he has terribly slow reads, forget progressions. He comes to the line, and locks up on a receiver, and away we go, backwards! Every DC can watch tape and tell his LBs and DBs to watch his eyes and it’s all over. The quick screen offense is designed for a QB with a gun, AND A QUICK RELEASE! Larry has neither. He has a great propensity, to throw to his left, do the math. Happy feet, biggest problem, is he holds the ball way too long, a large part of the sacks are for this reason. Does he know he can roll, and throw it away? I could go on. Ya have to take what’s given when ya don’t have an effective line. He has a full stable of TEs, the middle seam and quick slants (almost impossible to defend) have been open? In four games he’s thrown to them, what 3 times? Barden was open all day against Elon, yet he kept throwing to the receiver who dropped 4 that day? I say give Larry a rest and give the Cali Boy a shot, it’s in his genes.

AspenVU said...

Yes, one can trust CJF and be uneasy with Larry. How can one not be uneasy with him? Too bad Rogers has not provided competition at the position.

Andrew Smith said...

The only possible explanation is that Jordan Rodgers is the worst QB ever to grip a football — because Larry is truly, truly terrible.

Do the linemen and receivers suck too? God, yes. But Larry's problems are way deeper than a bad supporting cast. He reads are achingly slow and, generally, wrong. At least half of all his throws are ill advised and at least a quarter pose serious hazards of interception or worse. His hands suck. And he's not much of a runner because, for all that he's quicker than a lot of people, the smallest amount of contact sends him to the ground (and risks a fumble).

If Jordan Rodgers is not only worse, but so much worse that a few hundred game snaps won't make him the better QB, then coach needs to spend ALL of his further recruiting efforts on a QB because the other stuff is nearly meaningless without someone who is at least minimally competent to run the show.

Anonymous said...

I trust CJF. I also believe that if Rogers could have beat LS out then he would be playing. I have watched LS for the last 3 years, and its hard not to speculate how good (or bad) he might be with a solid SEC line this season. He is the best chance to win because Rogers is less likely to avoid the rush but I think he (Rogers) has a quicker release. I disagree with the above in that our WR's and RB's in my opinion are much better this season but because of O-line issues.....At 3-1, I am not sure why people are so down on LS as we were not going to win against SC and Alabama. I do think that throughout the course of the season, that we will be very competitive and will get to 6 or 7 wins. The defense is that good; and CJF history is one of developing offenses. Remember some of us predicted a 1 or 2 win season and realistically it looks like we will get to 5-7 wins. Don't be so down on this 3-1 team. Go Dores !

Anonymous said...

leave in larry against bama because he will get injured. qb controversy over.