[Austroturf]

It’s more than a shame.  It was gross mismanagement.  I have no trouble admitting when I’m wrong. So I’m also gonna point out when I’m right. And as soon as he signed with Mississippi State and I saw people on this board talking about him winning a passing title and learning under Leach,  I called foul. Predicted it would be a disaster. And unfortunately was right. It was a ridiculously poor decision to make to go play for a guy who’s never really developed an NFL quarterback in his life and was going for his first year at a school which had essentially no players that had been recruited to fit his style. Whoever gave him that advice gave him really poor advice. What happened to Costello at MSU was completely foreseeable.

You completely discount what KJ wanted to do, which was get out of the Stanford football program under Shaw (who had correctly, imo, selected Mills to be the starter).  I don't recall what other options were available, if any, but KJ got a chance to play at MSU - and had his 15 minutes when MSU beat LSU in Game 1.  Hell, he was the talk of the sports world for an entire  weekend.  Do you think he gets anything close to that if he stays at Stanford as a back up?  Or if he goes anywhere else?

Now, you may say - yeah, but he should have selected spot that gave him best shot for NFL.  And to that I reply:  c'mon now.  How many starters in college football get drafted?  He signed with a club as UDFA and had a shot.  Didn't stick.  I suspect that happens wherever he spends his last year of college eligibility.

And btw, I don't like Leach, either.  Never have.

I don't like Leach either.  But I was rooting for KJ, simply because I considered him a gamer with underappreciated talent.  His SEC passing yardage record vs. LSU proved to be a blip on the radar and not the beginning of something big.  Miss. St. was not ready for the system, KJ threw a slew of interceptions behind a dodgy O-Line, then got hurt and disappeared from the picture.  End of story.  The Chargers gave him a shot, but it did not work out.  It was a dangerous gamble with Leach and went pear-shaped on him.  Whether things would have gone better had he declared for the draft after the 2018 season will never be known.  It is also somehow ironic that he ended up on the same team of the QB (Justin Herbert) he outdueled in that memorable 2018 clash with the Ducks -- except that Herbert was the undisputed starter for the Chargers, and Costello was a late-hour UDFA signee and lasted all of three weeks.  Sports (and life in general) is full of bizarre twists and turns. 

[Austroturf]

It’s more than a shame.  It was gross mismanagement.  I have no trouble admitting when I’m wrong. So I’m also gonna point out when I’m right. And as soon as he signed with Mississippi State and I saw people on this board talking about him winning a passing title and learning under Leach,  I called foul. Predicted it would be a disaster. And unfortunately was right. It was a ridiculously poor decision to make to go play for a guy who’s never really developed an NFL quarterback in his life and was going for his first year at a school which had essentially no players that had been recruited to fit his style. Whoever gave him that advice gave him really poor advice. What happened to Costello at MSU was completely foreseeable.

You completely discount what KJ wanted to do, which was get out of the Stanford football program under Shaw (who had correctly, imo, selected Mills to be the starter).  I don't recall what other options were available, if any, but KJ got a chance to play at MSU - and had his 15 minutes when MSU beat LSU in Game 1.  Hell, he was the talk of the sports world for an entire  weekend.  Do you think he gets anything close to that if he stays at Stanford as a back up?  Or if he goes anywhere else?

Now, you may say - yeah, but he should have selected spot that gave him best shot for NFL.  And to that I reply:  c'mon now.  How many starters in college football get drafted?  He signed with a club as UDFA and had a shot.  Didn't stick.  I suspect that happens wherever he spends his last year of college eligibility.

And btw, I don't like Leach, either.  Never have.

I don't like Leach either.  But I was rooting for KJ, simply because I considered him a gamer with underappreciated talent.  His SEC passing yardage record vs. LSU proved to be a blip on the radar and not the beginning of something big.  Miss. St. was not ready for the system, KJ threw a slew of interceptions behind a dodgy O-Line, then got hurt and disappeared from the picture.  End of story.  The Chargers gave him a shot, but it did not work out.  It was a dangerous gamble with Leach and went pear-shaped on him.  Whether things would have gone better had he declared for the draft after the 2018 season will never be known.  It is also somehow ironic that he ended up on the same team of the QB (Justin Herbert) he outdueled in that memorable 2018 clash with the Ducks -- except that Herbert was the undisputed starter for the Chargers, and Costello was a late-hour UDFA signee and lasted all of three weeks.  Sports (and life in general) is full of bizarre twists and turns.