So you're blaming something that happened over a decade ago to now?
That's when it all started. Once Blake left early it nuked Doc's plan for life after Cato. Him leaving early caused Litton to play earlier than he should have. He leaves early, then Green comes in and is a headcase, then we try Thomson and his arm is trash from injury, then Green goes back in and sucks, then Wells comes in looks alright then leaves because he didn't want to play for Huff and now because Huff didn't have Wells as he thought he's been throwing crap against the wall with washed out one year rentals.
If Blake is the starter in 2015 we most likely repeat as conference champs, Doc is viewed more favorably, there's more time to assess Litton, and we never end up with Huff as coach. Decade ago or not is was one of the main events that set chain of events off that led us here. Poor leadership has allowed it to continue to spiral.
You're also negating Isaiah Green and Fancher, two QB's whom everyone would declare as being awful...so MU doesn't have a track record for good QB's.
In the last 50 years we have had more good QBs than bad. Michael Payton, Eric Kresser, Chad Pennington, Byron Leftwich, Stan Hill (injury stunted his growth), and Rakeem Cato. There aren't a lot of G5s that get that many QBs in their program's existence. There are P5s that can't say that have had that many good QBs. So yes we have had a good track record.
Either that or the QB coaching isn't good. Pick one.
The coaching hasn't been good since 2016. When Bill Legg took over QB duties, QB development started to trend downward. He got to cash in on Tony's work with Cato and Chad worked a lot with him too, but when left to Legg that's when mechanics, behaviors, and playbook knowledge started to be an issue. Litton had the tools to be good, he was just rushed into because Blake leaving out of the blue and Birdsong not holding up long enough to bridge the gap.
Wells didn't get much support either from the staff. He started out strong, but when the season started to go off the rails the staff did very little to help him. We go back to that Rice game in 2020. We're down half the line and the replacement for RT is so hampered from previous injuries he couldn't block his shadow. Still deep in our own territory Cramsey and Doc forget all about Knox and just keep dialing up long developing pass plays for Wells. When he attempted that throw and it went backwards out of his hands he should have been pulled for a series or should have started feeding Knox. Nope instead we decide to let Wells continue to get his head ripped off and call plays that have him running for his life. Also forgetting a player like Xavier Gaines that can play QB, RB, TE, and every WR position. No let's not use him at all until under 2 minutes to go in the first half of the CUSA championship game where the staff finally realizes their young freshman QB's head is swimming. Oh and what do we draw up? Gaines chucking prayers.
So yes the staff's mismanagement hurt us in both cases.
No with the other QBs it's different. Birdsong was a stop gap to bridge the gap between Cato and Litton and got hurt in the first game, Green was headcase that couldn't learn the playbook, Thomson's shoulder was trashed before he got here, Colombi had red flags all over him. Coaching wasn't the issue here because good coaching wasn't fixing what was wrong.
Fancher could fit in either category. He was more of a runner than a passer, but if used correctly his arm was at least serviceable. Instead we just decided to make him a pocket passer. Fancher/Ali/Payne could have been a poor man's White/Slayton/Schmitt.
I think Huff initially wanted to be here to bolster his resume and skip town. Except he found himself stuck because he didn't do enough to really get out but he isn't very popular either.
That's exactly what he did. He was looking past us to the P5. I get that he wanted to move on and we all assumed he would, but you still treat this job like you actually wanted it. He thought with taking over a division championship team that was returning the majority of its part he could parlay that into a quick move up so he never recruited like he was going to be here past year 2. Then Wells left and he brought in Colombi in hopes he'd give him one year, but ignored all the red flags on him. Now we're rinsing and repeating.
Cam was forced into early action because of Colombi going down and was used poorly.
Braylon Braxton has ankle injury was bad enough that he never got his job back.
Stone Earle looks like Colombi. Never able to maintain the starting position and bounces around. Maybe his 3rd school will be the charm.
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