I agree though I doubt he wins 1. Maybe Memphis, thought hte game might have been unwatchable. Somebody was paying attention. The defense gave up nothing, two field goals and 250 yards total offense against South Florida. And USF was not a good team. The offense was awful under Boyle. I think you could make the case that it was worse with Boyle running the show than Whitmer. The UConn offense scored 10 against USF, 10 against Cincy (Vann scored on a fumble recovery for the other 6), 10 against UCF (Casey thew the longest td pass of the season to that point, 46 yards late to get to 17) , 3 against Louisville (Cochran got 7 in relief on a 15 yarder to Abrams). Boyle had a fumble returned for a td in the USF game, a pick 6 against Louisville and a pass interception that set up a score against Cincy where the defender was pushed down at the UConn 2. In limityed time in th e4th quarter of the Louisville game Cochran was 7-11-95 with a td. Boyle had thrown for 42 yards through 3 1/2 quarters. It wasn't even close. Strikes me as odd how badly the coaches missed on this to tell you the truth. I always had the impression that for some reason they were in love with Boyle's numbers and thought playing him would make a big splash and ignored Cochran until it was far too late. I just hope this staff doesn't make the same mistake.
You've done your homework and definitely made some great points. Obviously Cochran was the more game ready QB last year as all you stats have shown, but was passed over because supposedly, I'm assuming, he's bad practice player. But, how much of Boyle's performace do you think can be attributed to the coaching change mid way through the season? And how much can be blamed to just inexperience? Do you think redshirting him will help him become more ready for this level of play? To me I think if Cochran does in fact win out the starting job Boyle is going to be gone next year because of the two QB's coming. That being said, I'll be happy with any three of the QB's starting as long as I can see Max D run over some linebackers
yeah, because Pasqualoni didn't try to pick the quarterback he thought gave the best chance, nor did Weist (remember Weist ultimately made the switch and was OC so had at least some input). And Lloyd Carr didn't try to pick the guy who gave him the best chance when he started Henne over Brady. Brown didn't when he insisted on starting Chris Simms over Applewhite. the BC coach started some forgettable guy over Flutie and only used him in mopup duty until he almost brought the team back from 4 touchdowns down in the 4th quarter...For whatever reason, the coaches missed badly on Cochran last year. Reports are that he didn't practice well. If you are now saying that the choice will be made based on practice, since until August 29 that's what happens in August, I think there is at least a chance that a new staff becomes enamored with Boyle's "measurables" and ignores Cochran's intangibles, too. I doubt that Cochran's practice pattern was the deciding factor though. I had a sense last year that the Boyle experiment came about because Pasqualoni, Weist et al thought he was the future so they used him to keep him in the fold. They didn't bother looking at Cochran and they probably never even considered him. My view was that Boyle really was not getting it done and I would have replaced him no later than midway through his 2nd start, but they felt they had to go until it became almost painful to watch. And if Cochran ends up as the starter this year and performs well, Boyle is sentenced to the unenviable position of permanent backup, since Cochran has 2 more years beyond this one. If he establishes himself as the Man this year, he isn't getting moved out until he graduates. If they really think Boyle is the real deal, as P and Weist seem to have, you almost have to start him and hope for the best. If he flames out, or worse never flames at all, you can go back to Cochran and try to salvage the season. I just hate risking everything on a guess when real world evidence indicates that Cochran has the tools to lead this team.
