Here is how I see the whole QB battle:
We feel like TJ Finley is a known commodity. While he is far from a finished product at the college level, he's played significant snaps for two years in the SEC, so fans have a reasonable idea about what to expect.
Enter Calzada, who, for those who actually remember correctly, was NOT a popular choice for our transfer QB. "Meh" was about as excited as people got over the news that he was gonna be the guy, after we missed on some high profile/higher ceiling guys.
Now that its time to pick a QB, fans were hoping it would be Calzada, not because they think he is/was better than Finley, but because that (imaginary better version of a qb) was our only hope for having any type of respectable season. I know fans like to pick their horse, but at the end of the day, we want the guy who gives us the best shot to win football games. And unfortunately, if that is TJ Finley, I think we all understand where our ceiling is vs. having hope that our ceiling could be higher with Calzada.
This is all about hope. I feel like naming Finley the starter sucks that hope out of the season already. Again, I don't think/know that Calzada is better, but the idea and the hope that we were going to have a QB upgrade gets removed (probably unfairly if we entirely discount any chance that Finley was developed by the staff).
I thought Blackerby made a good point on his podcast - going with Calzada and then him tanking and having to make a switch would be seen as somewhat defensible by our fans. If you roll with Finley and he struggles and we drop Penn State (or sooner), I don't see how the staff survives the backlash that comes their way.
We feel like TJ Finley is a known commodity. While he is far from a finished product at the college level, he's played significant snaps for two years in the SEC, so fans have a reasonable idea about what to expect.
Enter Calzada, who, for those who actually remember correctly, was NOT a popular choice for our transfer QB. "Meh" was about as excited as people got over the news that he was gonna be the guy, after we missed on some high profile/higher ceiling guys.
Now that its time to pick a QB, fans were hoping it would be Calzada, not because they think he is/was better than Finley, but because that (imaginary better version of a qb) was our only hope for having any type of respectable season. I know fans like to pick their horse, but at the end of the day, we want the guy who gives us the best shot to win football games. And unfortunately, if that is TJ Finley, I think we all understand where our ceiling is vs. having hope that our ceiling could be higher with Calzada.
This is all about hope. I feel like naming Finley the starter sucks that hope out of the season already. Again, I don't think/know that Calzada is better, but the idea and the hope that we were going to have a QB upgrade gets removed (probably unfairly if we entirely discount any chance that Finley was developed by the staff).
I thought Blackerby made a good point on his podcast - going with Calzada and then him tanking and having to make a switch would be seen as somewhat defensible by our fans. If you roll with Finley and he struggles and we drop Penn State (or sooner), I don't see how the staff survives the backlash that comes their way.
