I said this after we lost to Duke in 2019 and even I was on the fire Fuente train. Brian Randall took his lumps and was a great QB for us by his senior year. That is the one thing we have not had under Fuente and this is year 6. Last time we beat WVU Josh Jackson was our QB. Yes, I know he finished up at Maryland on the bench, but that is besides the point. What kind of QB would he have been for us his senior year? Or how good would our QB have been if that person was able to beat out a senior QB. I am at that age where my memory is not as good as it used to be, but we have hardly had a returning starter at QB since Fuente has been here. Even when we have had a returning starter I would venture to say that they didn't finish the season as the starter for various reasons.

I know that the transfer portal has changed things, but I think it is fair to ask why Fuente is not able to recruit a starting level QB, develop him, and have him around when it is his time to start and be ready to compete. Even if Burmeister is clearly better than Hooker or Patterson (debatable) it would have been nice to have some pressure on Burmeister to be a little on edge knowing that he had to stay sharp to continue being the starter. Also, the rumor is Burmeister is not completely healthy. Would be nice to have a Hooker level QB coming off the bench. I saw enough of Kadum last week to believe he is not ready for prime time.

My next observation is that for the most part, we have not been able to pass the ball when other teams know that we have to pass during Fuente's tenure. Hooker may have been the worse in that regards. I think Fuente or Vice needs to take some heat for this. While our offensive lines are probably better than the ones from the later Beamer years, they still seam to struggle in pass protection on known passing downs. Is this coaching? Style of offense? Who knows

The questions regarding our wide receiver development has been discussed quite a bit on the message boards. I am inclined to believe that it is not just a talent issue.

Last point is that our QBs appear to be afraid to throw the ball. From what I gather the most important thing to our coaching staff is to protect the ball. That is well and good to a point. It is hard to tell how good our wide receivers are if they are not thrown the ball when there is tight coverage. Yeah, they have to be able to beat coverage, run good routes, but we will never know unless they are given a chance.

[Post edited by vt86brew at 09/18/2021 11:42PM]