Max
Member
Arenāt we past the point of doubting Blake Sims?
Apparently not, at least if you listened to Danny Sheridan. The former CBS analyst was on the talk radio airwaves, taking a break from Bagman-hunting to recycle some stale arguments from August and adding that, in his opinion, Sims was āthe eighth or ninth best quarterback in the SEC.ā
Thatās hard to fathom, no matter what criteria you use, but letās go through the list and see if there is any valid way to justify that ranking. Dak Prescott of Mississippi State? Iāll grant you that one, pausing only briefly to mention last weekās results and not mentioning at all that Sheridan had picked MSU (oops, that slipped). Nick Marshall at Auburn? OK, especially taking his two-year career into account. But from that point, itās like youāve walked into a yoga class because youāve got to start stretching.
Josh Dobbs at Tennessee is going to be a good quarterback in the future, but he didnāt start for his own team until the eighth game of the season. Maty Mauk at Missouri has had some good games, but his worst performances eclipse, by a wide margin, any negative performance that Sims has had. LSU, in Week 13 of the season, isnāt even settled on a quarterback.
Texas A&M has a promising freshman in Kyle Allen, but he didnāt start the season, either. Hutson Mason at Georgia is the kind of dropback quarterback some people seem to favor and benefits from a powerful running game but is there any statistical metric that catapults him ahead of Sims?
What about Patrick Towles at Kentucky, or Dylan Thompson at South Carolina? Brandon Allen at Arkansas? Treon Harris at Florida? Are we seriously discussing whether these guys have had better years than Blake Sims?
That isnāt meant to throw shade on all those other quarterbacks. Some have had good careers, and others have good careers ahead. But, unless Prescott bounces back against Ole Miss in a big way, there isnāt a Heisman finalist in the bunch, and there certainly arenāt two or three.
Sure, Sims ā a first-year starter ā hasnāt been perfect. No one should have expected that. But he has accomplished a lot ā not just a lot more than anyone expected, but a lot by any measure.
Heās done it while learning on the job. Alabama coach Nick Saban spoke at length this week about the progress Sims has made in reading defenses, while retaining the ability to make plays by running the ball when necessary. Oh, and Alabama is the No. 1 team in the country according to the CFP Selection Committee, and that canāt be a pure coincidence, can it?
Perhaps there are some people out there who didnāt think, in the summer, that Sims could win the job. I certainly wasnāt in the 100-percent-certain camp on the quarterback issue. But instead of growling about it like a hound gnawing the last meat off a bone, I cheerfully acknowledge that Sims has exceeded expectations. Isnāt that what matters in watching college players mature, and it isnāt it a lot more important than clinging bitterly to old opinions?
At this point, people who donāt like Sims are never going to like him. But to stubbornly fail to recognize what he has done on the field is preposterous.
Apparently not, at least if you listened to Danny Sheridan. The former CBS analyst was on the talk radio airwaves, taking a break from Bagman-hunting to recycle some stale arguments from August and adding that, in his opinion, Sims was āthe eighth or ninth best quarterback in the SEC.ā
Thatās hard to fathom, no matter what criteria you use, but letās go through the list and see if there is any valid way to justify that ranking. Dak Prescott of Mississippi State? Iāll grant you that one, pausing only briefly to mention last weekās results and not mentioning at all that Sheridan had picked MSU (oops, that slipped). Nick Marshall at Auburn? OK, especially taking his two-year career into account. But from that point, itās like youāve walked into a yoga class because youāve got to start stretching.
Josh Dobbs at Tennessee is going to be a good quarterback in the future, but he didnāt start for his own team until the eighth game of the season. Maty Mauk at Missouri has had some good games, but his worst performances eclipse, by a wide margin, any negative performance that Sims has had. LSU, in Week 13 of the season, isnāt even settled on a quarterback.
Texas A&M has a promising freshman in Kyle Allen, but he didnāt start the season, either. Hutson Mason at Georgia is the kind of dropback quarterback some people seem to favor and benefits from a powerful running game but is there any statistical metric that catapults him ahead of Sims?
What about Patrick Towles at Kentucky, or Dylan Thompson at South Carolina? Brandon Allen at Arkansas? Treon Harris at Florida? Are we seriously discussing whether these guys have had better years than Blake Sims?
That isnāt meant to throw shade on all those other quarterbacks. Some have had good careers, and others have good careers ahead. But, unless Prescott bounces back against Ole Miss in a big way, there isnāt a Heisman finalist in the bunch, and there certainly arenāt two or three.
Sure, Sims ā a first-year starter ā hasnāt been perfect. No one should have expected that. But he has accomplished a lot ā not just a lot more than anyone expected, but a lot by any measure.
Heās done it while learning on the job. Alabama coach Nick Saban spoke at length this week about the progress Sims has made in reading defenses, while retaining the ability to make plays by running the ball when necessary. Oh, and Alabama is the No. 1 team in the country according to the CFP Selection Committee, and that canāt be a pure coincidence, can it?
Perhaps there are some people out there who didnāt think, in the summer, that Sims could win the job. I certainly wasnāt in the 100-percent-certain camp on the quarterback issue. But instead of growling about it like a hound gnawing the last meat off a bone, I cheerfully acknowledge that Sims has exceeded expectations. Isnāt that what matters in watching college players mature, and it isnāt it a lot more important than clinging bitterly to old opinions?
At this point, people who donāt like Sims are never going to like him. But to stubbornly fail to recognize what he has done on the field is preposterous.
