Don't think so for most UT fans. Most of them are not on this board and don't subscribe to the team being about ONE and ONLY ONE player. Joe has earned his right to start and play in the bowl game if he so choses. A coach asking a senior to sit out of his last game sends a message to all players that says he is not going to support them if they want to finish what they started and worked hard for multiple years to achieve. That relationship of trust, I would dare say is worth more than any fans wish and desire.
I just don't understand the worship of Nico that some of you have. I've watched him play in the limited time he has been out there and to be honest, while he hasn't looked bad, he hasn't looked like a Manning or Dobbs or Hooker, either. It was clear he wasn't ready.
I hope he does get to play in this game but given the situation on defense with all the players leaving, this game may be more difficult to win than most think.
I can’t speak for everyone but my guess would be 75%+ of the fans would be ecstatic to know we are moving on from Milton right now.
The reason for the “Nico worship” amongst the fan base is very simple. I’m not sure why he needs to be explained to you, but here goes…
Milton isn’t a good qb.
No, football isn’t a one-man game, but no single player has as great of an impact on the outcome as the qb. You cannot be a good team without excellent qb play.
You obviously disagree that Milton is a poor QB, (which absolutely blows my mind) but I’ll break this down for you.
People use different processes in an effort to form an opinion on a quarterback. Personally, I think about 3 categories when making an opinion. Quality of their passing ability, their running ability, and their overall ability to manage the game.
Passing… how accurate are their passes from the pocket, do they throw the ball with touch/arch on it (making it a catchable pass) do they throw accurately on the run, do they overthrow WRs on deep passes, how quick is their release, do they stare down receivers?
I can’t fathom how any fan could believe Milton excels as a passer. He throws the ball with no arch as hard as he can on a straight line regardless of how open the WR is. That was the reason for a lot of the drops this year… The ball would be thrown out necessarily hard and often behind the receiver. Also, his lack of arch on the ball leads to a huge number of passes being batted down at the line. That was clearly something the Georgia defense knew/scouted, as I believe there were five passes batted down at the line in that game. Most of those came on important third downs. We’ve also seen Milton consistently way overthrow receivers down the field when they are wide ass open from complete defensive breakdowns. That’s probably been the most frustrating thing of all with him. And finally, he is terrible at throwing on the run. I can’t remember exactly when but late in the year, the announcers brought the stat up during a game that Milton has never thrown a touchdown on the run. In today’s game, the quarterback is very often asked to roll out to the left or right. That inability out of him is a huge deficiency.
Running…how explosive of a runner are they, are they shifty enough to avoid pressure and buy time, do they make decisive decisions when they decide to run, how fast do they hit the hole, can they make the first guy miss in the open field, do they frequently miss seeing an open seam with easy running yards available?
I can’t fathom how any of our fans could believe Milton is a great runner as a qb. He does none of the things I listed above. He actually has relatively decent top in speed. The problem is the mental part of running. Almost every time we saw him run, he was indecisive at the beginning of the attempt which gives the defense time to break off their routes. So many big plays Last year came when hooker would see a scene and immediately plant his foot and accelerate. Milton has shown throughout his career to just not have that ability.
Game management…do they make the intelligence/moxie plays frequently, do they always know where the chains are and understand the down and distance, do they use hard counts to get free plays and take advantage, do they typically make the correct decision as to throwing or running on RPOs, do they feel pressure well (pocket presence), and have the Moxie to slide away from pressure to buy extra time while keeping their eyes down field
Again…I can’t fathom how anyone believes Milton to be a great game manager. We’ve seen him run out of bounds with no time on the clock instead of throwing the ball into the end zone. We’ve seen him slide short of the 1st down marker at least 5 times without no defensive player close by. We’ve seen him run out of bounds and throw the ball away, on free plays where he clearly knew the defense was offsides and the flag had been thrown.
Anyway, back to your point… Why do some of our fans “worship Nico”. It’s not that they think he’s a savior so much as they recognize Milton is bad. Even with Nico’s inexperience he could almost certainly run the offense at a much higher level than Milton by this point.
