Quote Originally Posted by Really Clark? View Post
Todd I love your consistantcy and I know you are going to keep harping on and on about Dan playing certain players. But you are dead wrong about the freshman safety's right now. They are not ready to hardly play a complete series last Sat. What do you think will happen against SEC speed and athletes? It's not just one or two mistakes in a game we are talking about. Peters made some nice plays at the line of scrimmage. Good for him and he showed his speed and ability. But they are not ready in coverage or to be able to make calls. Even if it was Calhoun or Redmond in coverage on that play that Smokey was pointing at McLaurin on. In the SEC that's 7 and it's not even a difficult coverage scheme we were using and it was a pretty simple offensive design if I remember correctly. They have the ability that when they know what to do and react they will be good and it may be in a month they are ready. Once things start clicking it can compress really fast. But not right now. This is not a playing older guys over younger talent issue. Last Sat showed they are not ready for even 2nd team play. Unless you have something very specific that they can do and do consistantly.
You could make a strong argument that Coman and Market aren't SEC ready either based on their missed tackles and being out of position themselves.

Don't be Dan Mullen concrete. That's why I said play BOTH Coman and Peters at the same time. Coman knows the plays (allegedly) and Peters has the athleticism to make plays- and actually HAS made plays when given the rare opportunity. It doesn't have to be Coman and Market or Peters and Bryant/McLaurin.

Just like Shumpert and Lee- I don't think Shumpert shouldn't play. But I do think that Lee should play and be used more than he has.

But let's continue to demand perfection from the freshmen while at the same time giving the upperclassmen a complete pass for mistakes. Despite the fact that the freshmen continue to make plays and despite the fact that the SEC is run heavy this year given the struggles of Bama, Auburn, Arkansas, Mizzou and most other on our schedule other than Ole Miss and Texas A&M- making for the PERFECT time to play freshmen safeties moreso than any other time in years.