[scorecard]

This may be a stretch, but in a lot of ways, the Nunes situation reminds me a lot of our basketball team in 2007-2008 with Mitch Johnson and the Lopez twins led by Trent Johnson.  My frustration then and now was that both teams had so much potential to really be national contenders, but we were lacking at the most important position on the team, and were stifled by some unimaginative playcalling by the coach. 

We had 2 first round NBA draft picks in the Lopez twins, as well as Lawrence Hill and a young Landry Fields, but Mitch Johnson just wasn't the answer.  He could not break anyone down off the dribble and he couldn't shoot, and our offense seemed to consist of him standing 4 feet behind the 3-point line and lobbing up passes to one of the Lopez twins.  We had a brobdingnagian size advantage on almost everyone but we ended up only #11 in the country, losing in the Sweet Sixteen to a Texas team that had a big fat Dexter Pittman in the middle to neutralize our size.  That team was so painful to watch because they could have been so much better if we had a dynamic PG like a Brevin Knight or even just a real solid PG like a Chris Hernandez. 

This is how I feel about this year's football team.  Our defense is awesome, the o-line is improving, Taylor and Ertz/Toilolo are studs, but we are being held back by the QB position and to some degree the playcalling.  When a team can neutralize our running game and our size up front, we are in trouble on offense.

Where the parallels split in these situations, though, is that Trent Johnson left as the Lopez twins left, and pretty much left the cupboard bare.  We are still recovering from this now (I do have hopes for this year in basketball being the big turnaround year, although I know some disagree).  In contrast, I see our future direction in our football program under Shaw as being very bright -- we have never had so much talent and depth across the board, and the outlook in recruiting continues to be great.  I am by no means calling for Shaw's head at all.  But the one place that we have consistently underperformed is at the QB position (and maybe the FG kicker), and I just wish he would give someone else a chance.   
 
The main reason I'd be calling for Nottingham as opposed to any other is because according to Shaw himself, Nunes and Nottingham were neck and neck in the preseason up until the week before the season started.  So why not give Nottingham a try to see how he performs in games?  I understand a QB's confidence is important but Shaw has said Nunes is unflappable and nothing fazes him -- if that is the case, if he is not performing, then he should be able to handle being benched for a few series to see what Nottingham can do.  It doesn't have to be a permanent replacement, but it wouldn't hurt to see if Nottingham could move the ball, say, in the UW game where we were 3 and out all game long.  At the very least, we'd get Nottingham some experience in game situations in the case that Nunes ever got injured, and maybe Nunes would have some time to digest what is going wrong. 

Of course, if you said at the beginning of the year that we'd beat SC and Cal, I would have been pretty happy with that.  But that is before we knew how good our defense would be.  We were so close to having wins with UW and ND, and if we got pretty much anything out of the QB spot, we win those games and would be a top-10 team instead of a top-20 team. 

[scorecard]

This may be a stretch, but in a lot of ways, the Nunes situation reminds me a lot of our basketball team in 2007-2008 with Mitch Johnson and the Lopez twins led by Trent Johnson.  My frustration then and now was that both teams had so much potential to really be national contenders, but we were lacking at the most important position on the team, and were stifled by some unimaginative playcalling by the coach. 

We had 2 first round NBA draft picks in the Lopez twins, as well as Lawrence Hill and a young Landry Fields, but Mitch Johnson just wasn't the answer.  He could not break anyone down off the dribble and he couldn't shoot, and our offense seemed to consist of him standing 4 feet behind the 3-point line and lobbing up passes to one of the Lopez twins.  We had a brobdingnagian size advantage on almost everyone but we ended up only #11 in the country, losing in the Sweet Sixteen to a Texas team that had a big fat Dexter Pittman in the middle to neutralize our size.  That team was so painful to watch because they could have been so much better if we had a dynamic PG like a Brevin Knight or even just a real solid PG like a Chris Hernandez. 

This is how I feel about this year's football team.  Our defense is awesome, the o-line is improving, Taylor and Ertz/Toilolo are studs, but we are being held back by the QB position and to some degree the playcalling.  When a team can neutralize our running game and our size up front, we are in trouble on offense.

Where the parallels split in these situations, though, is that Trent Johnson left as the Lopez twins left, and pretty much left the cupboard bare.  We are still recovering from this now (I do have hopes for this year in basketball being the big turnaround year, although I know some disagree).  In contrast, I see our future direction in our football program under Shaw as being very bright -- we have never had so much talent and depth across the board, and the outlook in recruiting continues to be great.  I am by no means calling for Shaw's head at all.  But the one place that we have consistently underperformed is at the QB position (and maybe the FG kicker), and I just wish he would give someone else a chance.   
 
The main reason I'd be calling for Nottingham as opposed to any other is because according to Shaw himself, Nunes and Nottingham were neck and neck in the preseason up until the week before the season started.  So why not give Nottingham a try to see how he performs in games?  I understand a QB's confidence is important but Shaw has said Nunes is unflappable and nothing fazes him -- if that is the case, if he is not performing, then he should be able to handle being benched for a few series to see what Nottingham can do.  It doesn't have to be a permanent replacement, but it wouldn't hurt to see if Nottingham could move the ball, say, in the UW game where we were 3 and out all game long.  At the very least, we'd get Nottingham some experience in game situations in the case that Nunes ever got injured, and maybe Nunes would have some time to digest what is going wrong. 

Of course, if you said at the beginning of the year that we'd beat SC and Cal, I would have been pretty happy with that.  But that is before we knew how good our defense would be.  We were so close to having wins with UW and ND, and if we got pretty much anything out of the QB spot, we win those games and would be a top-10 team instead of a top-20 team.