The QB job was not an example at all. You play ONE QB. You can't really have guys competing for the job in game action unless you have an incredibly dominant team otherwise. Even then, production is hurt almost all the time until one guy emerges. UT tried with Ainge and Schaeffer. It just doesn't work well.
With Hooker and Milton, you have a comparison contrast between Heupel and Jones/Pruitt. Milton played poorly in game 1. You can't just give up on a guy after one bad performance. He played the same way in game 2, got nicked up a little, and sat because Hooker produced a spark. Milton was able to return. He was able to start the next game. Heupel saw what Hooker brought. He saw that Milton wasn't transferring practice to game day. He made the change. We watched what you are talking about for four years. This wasn't the same and the change wasn't just the product of Milton getting a little hurt.
LB is completely different. You would LOVE to have multiple guys that you could trust on the field. But if a guy doesn't at least earn the minimum trust to play situationally... you can't just hurt the rest of the team to give him a live action tryout. UT played A LOT of guys. They played a lot of back ups. Willis didn't play because he apparently didn't prove he was minimally capable.
I'm disappointed too but the failure was not because he should have gotten a chance in live play and didn't. It was because he didn't develop for whatever reason and became impatient. The comments about him beginning to pick up the system from spring were really encouraging. But he apparently decided to leave anyway.
PS- We're making assumptions that his reason for transferring is playing time or opportunity to play. There's a really good chance that there's something else. It could be that he doesn't like the way he's coached after expecting to play for Pruitt. Unless he speaks out, we'll never know. It could even be purely personal and nothing to do with football.
