FWIW bama fans reaction to our game

[BanditVol]

Bammer was off this week, so many of them watched part or all of our game.  They all said that we did surprisingly well in the first half.  Not a newsflash obviously, but across the board they thought this was better than any previous effort this season.  FWIW, but it is coming from opposing fans.

[wtkvol]

it was the best effort we have seen in awhile. But the most hopeful aspect of the game was the QB's play.
It looks like he may be a good QB. You cannot be a good team anymore without a good QB. And we have not had one in some time.

[Tnphil]

We haven't had good QB play since Dobbs.

[VinnieVOL]

I like Mauer's confidence and decisiveness.   

[BanditVol]

I like Mauer's confidence and decisiveness.   

Yes.  And going forward he has a much greater ceiling than JG, for both development and to "grow with the team" under Pruitt.  One thing I didn't like about JG was that he would leave next season just about the time the rest of the team might be back to an SEC standard.  With Maurer, we can keep going.

I know an obvious response from some will be "anyone has a higher ceiling than JG".     I would agree most do, not everyone. 

Regardless of the JG comparison, I like Maurer's ceiling as an SEC quarterback, period, dot. 

[PirateVOL]

We haven't had good QB play since Dobbs.

I would submit that Mauer played much better than Dobbs in his first start (it was bloody cold that night in Columbia)
I would further submit that if he improves near the same rate as Dobbs then we will be OK with him taking snaps (though IMO Dobbs' development through his SO season was poor)

BTW, remember that Dobbs didn't even travel to the FL game earlier his FR year (the Nathan Peterman debacle) and only traveled to bamer because Ferguson had a stress fracture (and could still throw dimes to 50-55 yards flat footed in warmups)

[Tnphil]

I would submit that Mauer played much better than Dobbs in his first start (it was bloody cold that night in Columbia)
I would further submit that if he improves near the same rate as Dobbs then we will be OK with him taking snaps (though IMO Dobbs' development through his SO season was poor)

BTW, remember that Dobbs didn't even travel to the FL game earlier his FR year (the Nathan Peterman debacle) and only traveled to bamer because Ferguson had a stress fracture (and could still throw dimes to 50-55 yards flat footed in warmups)

Maurer will grow no doubt but has a lot to learn and if he'd started the season like he should have he'd be 50-60% further along right now. He played well the first half when UGA was playing man to man but was lost when UGA went zone the 2nd half. Understandable and he will improve on it. We need to improve in the running game to take pressure off a young QB. We had 70 yards rushing against UGA and just a tad more against FL. If it doesn't improve good defenses which we will see the rest of the year will be coming full boar.

[Creek Walker]

I don't think Maurer is good enough at this point to get us to bowl eligibility.

But if he had started the season, we'd be at least 3-2 right now, and very likely headed to bowl eligibility. It's just a shame it has taken this long to make a switch.

[BanditVol]

Yeah, yeah yeah. I expected a lot of 'why dint the corches start em earlier'.  Lots of good reasons.  No one knew quite how inadequate JG would be, including the coaches.  He didn't have an O line last year, he had another year to develop, he had great practices by all reports. Maurer on the other hand, limited practices, had not played a down of college football, and hadn't had time to develop.  He is much more seasoned now, having seen action in previous games and had a bunch more practices.

I'm not sure we would be 3-2, in fact I doubt it.  While JG certainly contributed to the loss against G State, the entire team was listless, unmotivated, lazy and sorry.  That was a team loss, and the blame is squarely on the coaches, not because they didn't start a true frosh QB over a veteran with over a year's starting experience under his belt that, reasonable people might expect to be a lot better this year than last. To suggest that Maurer should have started over JG in game one is just ludicrous.  Think about it this way, I don't care how bad our QB is, there is still no excuse for losing to G State! None.  And given the way the whole team played, we would have lost anyway, JG was far from the only reason we lost that game.

As for BYU, yes JG was a big part of the loss, but at the end of the day we lost because Alontae Taylor completely brain farted a simple coverage and Warrior was unable to bail him out.  There were also plenty of other factors, like Pruitt passing on two FGs that undoubtedly would have won the game.  Would Maurer really have made the difference in that game?  Who knows, but again JG is not the only reason we lost it.

Holy shizzle.  It seems like our fanbase now has a mentality that, no matter what the fizzle happens, blame the coaches.  "Those dumbasses shoulda known to start Maurer".  If they had started Maurer, and we lost, the same people would be saying "They should have stuck with JG!" 

Holy shizzle, no matter what happens there is going to be a huge negative reaction and defeatism.  fizzle that. I'm just happy the first part of the season is over and Mauer looked good for most of the first half.  Looking forward to the MSU game.  /rant

[Creek Walker]

Well shizzle and fizzle. I'll have to admit I didn't read all your diatribe. I scanned over it enough to see that it looks like another argument-for-the-sake-of-argument. It's too gray and dreary outside to engage in one of those.

[BanditVol]

Well shizzle and fizzle. I'll have to admit I didn't read all your diatribe. I scanned over it enough to see that it looks like another argument-for-the-sake-of-argument. It's too gray and dreary outside to engage in one of those.

lol.  I went on a rant.  Reader's Digest...it is natural I guess, to go back and speculate how we would have done in our first four games had Mauer started, but the case that we would be 3-2 now is weak and the coaches had good reasons for starting JG.  It's just another form of hypernegativity and defeatism I see among Tennessee fans these days and I'm sick of it. I'd rather focus on the fresh start and effectiveness that Maurer brought early in the Georgia game and hope it continues.

[VinnieVOL]

I'm sitting here at a resort on the beach laughing more than I should be at this exchange!  

I lost it at "well sizzle and fizzle"

[BanditVol]

I'm sitting here at a resort on the beach laughing more than I should be at this exchange!  

I lost it at "well sizzle and fizzle"

Believe it or not, it was supposed to be funny.