Watching the replay.....
- Thread starter Loyal Coug
- Start date
Even though it was a game that was already a laugher, watching Hilinski carve up Arizona last year made me feel confident that we were going to be ok at QB. I think Falk gets things turned around. Nothing like a little fear of the bench to get you to play more aggressively. It's great that we have a solid option like Hilinski to keep the pressure on.
I am more excited about Hilinkski than I was Falk. This of course started last year.
Like Loyal said, Hilinski is going to rock the league next year.
Like Loyal said, Hilinski is going to rock the league next year.
My guess is that the WR crew isnt where they are supposed to be when they are supposed to be, and Falk isn't adjusting his timing to this.
He has to throw to the open spaces regardless, and if the WR screws it up then its on that player, not Falk. He can't try to run the routes for them AND get them the ball.
Don't you think it's a slippery slope as far as the locker room goes to bench Falk, a record setting QB who turned down the NFL to come back for his senior year, after week 2? Personally, I think you let Falk have the Oregon State and Nevada games to figure things out. If he doesn't, the decision to pull him gets a lot easier.
The flip side of that coin is the players might be pissed that their opportunity of winning games is being jeopardized by not playing the guy that gives them the best chance of winning.
As most of the WRs are new and have probably more snaps with TH than LF, I would bet this to be more true than the opposite. Maybe 60/40 in the locker room if you made them pick.
Tuel was the future, then Halliday was the future, and then omg Luke Falk.... and now Hillinski's the future... Grass is always greener.
I've said it before but I think Oregon State is the perfect game to work out this so called QB dilemma. On paper, there is almost no reason for Falk to stumble against the Beavs, if he continues to play like he has over the last 4 games throughout the first half, sit him in the second and let's see if Tyler is a leader ready to step up to the challenge. I think it would be fair to the players and fans and would make for an exciting game
I'm with you. And as I've also said, as much as we all are/were bitching about all these home games, the schedule is going to work in our favor while CML/Falk figures this all out. Home games against foes of lesser metal are a great way to give players the freedom to either use the rope to hang themselves or use it to get out of a hole.
The next game or 2, Falk has a rope in his hands. Will he use it to help or hinder himself?
Of course, the QB play got progressively better from Tuel to Halliday to Falk, so that doesn't exactly support your theory that the grass isn't, in fact, greener.
The trouble is that none of us know how the team really feels about Falk vs. Hilinski. Leach has made it clear that he feels that the entire offense is to blame for the struggles that he's seen and that he feels that Falk is the starter without question and the best man for the position. If you think about the Halliday/Tuel mishmash, how he spoke about earning starting jobs before each season, and how he is currently speaking about the offensive line, Leach has long proven that you don't get to keep your job as a starter just because you've been around longer. If the players don't know that by now, they aren't paying attention.
Falk need to light up the beav's, from the first snap. their secondary is decimated and wasn't too good to start with, if he struggles against them send him to the bench, the program needs to continue an upward trend
Yes. Luke Falk the guy who led the Cougs to amazing comeback wins two years ago against Rutgers-Oregon-Arizona St and UCLA and last year led the Cougs to 7 straight conference wins is clearly a loser. Meanwhile Hilinski (who does show real potential), took two big sacks-had an absurd attempt at a forward lateral intercepted--dropped the ball after a sack in the last two minutes that almost gave the game back to Boise St and then threw a badly under thrown ball that almost got intercepted on 3rd and inches from the goal in the Ist overtime. Hilinski is clearly the next Heisman and Falk should be ushered out the door.
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If I may play devils advocate..."the upward trend"....if Rypien was available do you think he scrambles out of the pocket and makes a dumb decision to shuttle pass the ball on the run. There was only one way WSU was getting back in that game and their back up qb gave it to them. I am glad Hillinski had a great game, but you remember Falk when he lit up OSU in 2014? Then played against ASU had a a decent game, and the UW was horrible. That most of the time happens when you have that inexperience at that position.
There you go again. This has nothing to do with feelings. It's about who gets the job done....who is the guy who gives us the best chance of winning.
I'm not quite ready to bail on Falk. I think that is not appropriate at this point. If he does the same or similar performance vs OSU in the first half then I'd be all for Leach replacing LF with Helsinki. It's all about the team.
Umm.....I was specifically responding to fingerdisco questioning the players being pissed about not playing Hilinksi.....so, yeah, my comment had everything to do with feelings. Leach obviously "feels" that Falk is his best option at QB. He obviously "feels" that the OL has done a subpar job. He obviously "feels" that the receivers and running backs are capable of doing better. You can play grammar cop of "feels" vs "knows", but that doesn't change anything.
My entire comment was geared towards fingerdisco's post. Leach has made it clear that nobody is safe from the hook.....including Falk on Saturday. Any delusion by any player (or fan) that Leach isn't doing what he thinks is best for the team is just that......delusional.
While I get what you're saying about the players, I'd probably disagree with CML. I can ALMOST guarantee that CML has a notebook, and while he's watching film, he's keeping track of open receivers not thrown to. Scrambles not needed. Things like that. Of all the coaches in the world, CML is not a "feel" guy. He's a "know" guy. He'll have facts to back up decisions. He might have some feelings on something like "attitude" or something but that won't be what he's depending on.
So... parsing that out a little further...
I don't disagree, but because we escaped with a win last Saturday, Leach has been given an easier path with Oregon State and Nevada. If Falk's struggles continue, then you can get Hilinski more and more playing time. If Falk figures things out, great.
There's really no need to play hardball right now, and I'm sure that's one of the reasons why Leach was so quick to declare Falk the starter this week. It's a sink or swim 2-week schedule for Falk.
I wasn't suggesting I know, just pointing out that players might be just as pissed with starting a guy they feel doesn't give them the best shot at winning as some players might be pissed about benching a senior.
While I get what you're saying about the players, I'd probably disagree with CML. I can ALMOST guarantee that CML has a notebook, and while he's watching film, he's keeping track of open receivers not thrown to. Scrambles not needed. Things like that. Of all the coaches in the world, CML is not a "feel" guy. He's a "know" guy. He'll have facts to back up decisions. He might have some feelings on something like "attitude" or something but that won't be what he's depending on.
So... parsing that out a little further...
As I said above, you can quibble the grammar of "feel" vs "know" if you'd like. When he is scribbling in his notebook, it's based on something he saw that he "felt" was important enough to write down, but he "knows" that until he watches film, he won't "know" the exact way that a play progressed because he can't watch 22 guys at once. Going back to my point above, my post was stating that the players should know that Leach doesn't play favorites and will always play the guy that he "feels/knows" is the best guy for the job. Feel free to quibble the difference in grammar if you'd like.
There's always going to be someone on the team that doesn't feel that the coach has got it 100% right. I'd hope that the players that matter have enough buy-in to trust Leach at this point.
(or should I say know?)
And fumbled, and the defense scoops and scores.
Seems like we saw that happen....
Did he say Luke Falk was a loser? He said he missed receivers early, then started playing better before he got hurt.
Talk about a straw man argument.
Nice cherry pick. Cozart also threw for 161 yards, 2 TDs and ran for 72 & a TD too. He had an ESPN QBR of 70, higher than Rypien's QBR in half his games last year, including against us.
So, does Rypien make that particular 1 mistake? Probably not. Does he lead Boise to a 21 lead? Who knows? Maybe he throws 3 pics again and we're the one's up 21.
Not a cherry pick. It is about QB's who make these fantastic plays yet make dumb ones that cost you a game. I have come to expect from Boise that they have a QB that can lead a team to a 21 point lead and not do something so stupid that it costs them the game.
You were making a point that if Rypien was in at QB, he wouldn't have made that turnover, and we wouldn't have won the game.
The same Brett Rypien who fumbled, resulting in our only TD in the first half. And the same Brett Rypien who turned the ball over 3 times against us last year.
It's a useless point to try to make anyway.
It isn't a quibble, Flat. There is a very literal difference between the 2. If you can't/don't know the difference between "feel" and "know", then we can stop this now. I was only pointing out that CML, I wagered, is a "know" kinda guy. For what it's worth, I thought you were right on the players, as I stated above.
Fail.
If he were a NFL guy he'd be eating these teams alive. There shouldn't be time to figure it out for a senior QB.
I've got news for you, these records are gonna change hands many times over. It means nothing. What matters is winning games. Whoever leads the team to victory and plays the best should be playing.
The locker room wants to win. You wanna splinter a locker room? Keep rollling out the guy that isn't getting it done and leading the team to losses.
You wanna lose more games? Keep pushing out your 2nd best QB and throw the backup into SC for his first start....
Yes..exactly. Leach is no "feelings" guy. That was my point that you stated better.
Hey, I've been saying that for years. I like Luke a lot. He's engineered some great comebacks, and lets face it, there haven't been a lot of WSU QBs to lead us to multiple bowl games.
With that said, I've never thought he was an NFL QB. I hope he signs a juicy contract, holds a clipboard in the NFL for a few years, and retires a rich man. He's a sitting duck in the pocket, and doesn't possess a strong enough arm and the requisite escapability to offset that.
I'm also not sold on Hilinski yet, but I'm thrilled that he's getting as many quality reps as he has.
The locker room that was on the field Saturday seemed to get behind Hillinski just fine. I don't think you have a drop off from your teammates either way. They are going to bust it for whoever is in the field IMO.
