Originally Posted by
RaginDave
There is no way Ben is potentially a big time P5 talent and Chandler is much more than a Baldwin recruit. I hate for facts to get in the way, but people who know more about recruiting than you and me would disagree with you. Coming out of HS, BW was a 2 Star .77 rated recruit that only had interest from Fresno State and really as more of a Preferred Walk on while Chandler Fields was a 3 star .8444 recruit with offers from UL and Memphis and interest from Arizona State and Oklahoma State. Out of HS their was more of a thought that CF was going to be more successful as a college D-1 FBS QB than BW and that is 100% fact. That is not saying that BW didn't have talent and might not succeed, but very few of the scouting services saw it the way you do and I will trust them more than you or me. Not saying they are perfect, but they are more right than wrong when it comes to these things.
Ben has improved tremendously and had a chance to start at Fresno but lost the job and had a chance to start at UL and lost the job, so not only did recruiting services disagree with you but so did the following Head Football Coaches....Billy Napier, CMD, Jeff Tetford. Oh by the way, one of those guys is considered one of the best QB coaches in football and the other two played the position at a very high level. So basing BW on one and a half games is not what any of us should do, it should be on his body of work. Right now he performed admirably in the last couple of opportunities but the reality is he has not proven it over a long period of time and I am not saying he won't, I am just saying he hasn't.
I trust Billy Napier naming CF the backup last year, I trust Jeff Tetford choosing Jake Haener over Ben and I trust CMD in seeing what he saw between the two. It is possible that Ben does not perform well in practice and could be spectacular in games, I remember a number of coaches saying the same thing about a guy named Jake Delhomme. In fact coaches here and in the NFL said the guy just does it when the lights come on, but he is not a very good practice QB.
That could very well be the case with BW and I hope it is. We have to give the guy more than 1-1/2 quarters of football vs USA and Marshall before we state that BW should be starting on a P5 roster. I hope you are correct, but I will tell you from what I have seen all season I don't think their is a clear wide difference at this point between the two. I could look at parts of the SLU, EMU and ULM games and tell you that CF is clearly the better QB or I could look at the last game vs Marshall and tell you that BW is clearly the better QB. Based on what we have seen so far we have two good, capable QB's, but until we see it for an extended period of time, I am not ready to say that BW is heads and shoulders better than CF. I hope that Ben comes out Saturday and throws for 300+ yards and 4+ TD's and no INT's. If he does that then I can admit I might have been wrong and I think the Cajuns win running away. But lets not crown the fellow the greatest of all time after one very good solid game.
Again, I have pointed out in multiple threads the mistakes that BW made in that game that would have turned a very good game into a great game.
I hate to hit you with facts and not just spouting of nonsense, but unfortunately that is the way I work.
I will also say this, as for you calling me Ragin' Jay. I would consider Jay and myself friends, but I would also say this. Jay and I disagree on a number of things and we have discussed those plenty of times. I would say we disagree more than we agree. I would say that about a number of people I consider friends on this board. That is what makes being a fan so special. We can agree and we can disagree about things we are passionate about, but at the end of the day we all want the same thing. A "W" on the scoreboard no matter how it happens.
Sorry for the long post, RPers, but I felt I needed to say a few things.