I Hate You, John Crist: Jason Pellerin or Shea Patterson at QB for Ole Miss?
By John Crist
Published:
The story of the week in the SEC as far as I’m concerned is the quarterback situation at Ole Miss with three games left to play.
Chad Kelly, who bypassed the NFL and returned to Oxford for his senior season, tore his knee last Saturday against Georgia Southern. He’s out for the rest of the year, so his Rebels career is officially over.
Mississippi coach Hugh Freeze has a tough decision to make. Kelly’s primary backup in 2016, Jason Pellerin, has gotten some playing time here and there — primarily as a runner in short-yardage and goal-line situations — but isn’t considered a natural passer. His style is much more reminiscent of Mississippi State’s Nick Fitzgerald.
The original plan was for Shea Patterson, the presumed starter in 2017, to redshirt this season and then have four years of eligibility left. But like Mike Tyson famously once said, “Everybody has a plan until they get punched in the face.”
Here are some of my favorite comments from this past week. An awful lot of them centered around the QB dilemma for Freeze.
This is football. You can’t play thinking about injuries. Even quarterbacks playing behind great offensive lines (Tony Romo anyone?) get hurt.
If you’re suggesting that Patterson will be so consumed with potential injury that he doesn’t have a shot to be effective against Texas A&M, then he’s nowhere near the prospect that the recruitniks projected him to be.
Do I think Pellerin gives Ole Miss the best chance to win Saturday in College Station? Yes, I do. But this team was supposedly a preseason contender for not only an SEC championship, but a national title. Now it’s 4-5 and fighting for a bowl berth. Even if Pellerin wins outs to finish 7-5, will the Independence Bowl generate any excitement?
As I’ve said and written all week, if Patterson is as good as advertised, which is the No. 1 QB recruit in the country, then he’ll never be on campus five years anyway. Preserving his eligiblity is a moot point.
Conversely, if Patterson (below) is ever a fifth-year senior for Freeze, then he failed to live up to the lofty expectations.
Since I’m a Florida State guy, I can relate to this situation. Jameis Winston redshirted as a true freshman in 2012. As a redshirt freshman in 2013, he won a national championship and the Heisman Trophy. Clearly, he was NFL-bound ASAP.
On the other hand, EJ Manuel redshirted in 2008. As a freshman and sophomore, he was a backup. As a junior and senior, he was the starter. He was good — not great, though. As a result, FSU never won anything with him. He never won anything, either. Why did he stay five years? He wasn’t good enough to leave sooner.
Simple question, Ole Miss fans: Do you want Patterson to be like Winston for three years or Manuel for five? By the way, according to the composite rankings at 247Sports, both of them were five-star recruits, just like Patterson.
What’s the point of playing Pellerin if he’s not the future for the Rebels? Patterson is, so start getting him ready now.
Assuming the winner of the SEC Championship Game hails from the West, which is a safe assumption, then I agree with you.
However, if Florida or Tennessee makes it to Atlanta from the East and manages to upset an Alabama or even an Auburn, then the best conference in America could very well be shut out of the College Football Playoff.
As far as the Tigers are concerned, winning out means defeating the Crimson Tide in Tuscaloosa. If that were to happen, coach Gus Malzahn and Co. would indeed own the most impressive victory of the season. Even as a two-loss team — Clemson and Texas A&M are no slouches — Auburn would be in the Final Four.
Not only do the Tigers hail from the best league and compete in the nation’s toughest division, but both the Big 12 and Pac-12 are down this year. The only legit candidate from either is Washington, which better stay unbeaten.
Even a one-loss ‘Bama squad would get a long look from the committee, especially if there’s enough attrition on championship weekend.
If my weekly quarterback rankings were a measure of playing the position in a traditional sense, then Allen would be No. 1.
But there’s so much more to being a QB these days than handing the ball off on running plays and throwing the ball from the pocket on passing plays. Hurts is simply the more complete player at this point.
If you’ve been reading my stuff throughout the season, then you already know that I’m a big fan of Allen’s (above) game. He’s shown incredible toughness. Not only can he make all the throws, but he displays a touch and accuracy — unlike Georgia’s Jacob Eason, who tries to throw everything through a brick wall — that’s increasingly rare.
Still, I’ve been comfortable with Hurts in front of Allen the last few weeks. Hurts hasn’t needed to be so precise as a passer because the Tide run so well. His own legs are a huge part of that production, too.
Last year, I felt Alabama won in spite of Jake Coker. But this year, I see the Crimson Tide winning in part because of Hurts.
A missed field goal is a missed field goal. Wide right or wide left or too short or, yes, blocked. They’re all misses.
Just because a field goal is blocked, that doesn’t absolve the kicker of responsibility. On longer attempts in particular, kickers tend to launch the ball a bit lower in order to increase distance. That leads to more blocks.
Auburn kicker Daniel Carlson has been sensational in 2016 — he was preseason first-team All-SEC for a reason. He’s connected on 20-of-22, which works out to a conversion rate of 90.9 percent. Any coach in the country would take that in a heartbeat. The Tigers have at least one advantage in the upcoming Iron Bowl as a result.
Still, he’s currently second in the conference in field-goal percentage behind Gary Wunderlich (94.1) of Ole Miss. That’s not a knock on Carlson. It’s praise for Wunderlich. The blocks don’t factor into the equation.
If I hit my drive into the water, it doesn’t matter that I got a bad bounce off a tree. I’m still subject to a penalty stroke.
John Crist is the senior writer for Saturday Down South, a member of the FWAA and a voter for the Heisman Trophy. Send him an e-mail, like him on Facebook or follow him on Twitter.
John Crist is an award-winning contributor to Saturday Down South.
