Yeah but does he? I could see it earlier in the year, so that at least he gets experience and a chance to grow into the job, but with 1 game left? If Whitmer can't play you go with Johnny Mac, and have McCummings ready if needed.
This is basically all there is to say.
If Whitmer went down long term with 6 games remaining, you could argue to play a true Freshman. He is more likely to improve throughout the year than JMac and this experience could pay off in the long run. But at this point with 1 game left the Redshirt is too valuable.
I agree that in general a Redshirt is overblown - if a true Freshman is an 7 on a scale of 1-10 and someone else is a 6.5, you go with the Freshman to try to win now. You never know what will happen down the road with recruiting, transfers and health. But with just 1 game left, I would rather keep Cochran's year of eligibility incidentally for those same reasons. What happens if Lagow just isn't that good? Or if he just doesn't mesh with our WRs or if he decides to not sign because he thinks he can play sooner elsewhere? Redshirting Cochran helps to hedge against that kind of uncertainty.
Again, if this decision was being made when we were 3-4 or so the thought process would be different but I think that in a 1 game situation you go with the guy who has already run this offense and actually has D1 experience. Even if CC is slightly better than JMac today (and will hopefully be much better down the line), the benefit of an extra year for CC far outweighs 1 game this year that he gives us at best a 5% better chance of winning if he even gives us a better chance at all.
