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ACC QUESTION of the Week : Should Clemson and Miami start Trevor Lawrence and N’Kosi Perry now?
This seems like a slam dunk.
Lawrence has definitely played better than Kelly Bryant, and Perry offers more upside than Malik Rosier. I don’t think that making a change at quarterback should be too difficult or controversial for Dabo Swinney or Mark Richt.
The complexities emerge from how to handle these evolving situations.
Everyone has heard the old saying, “If you have two quarterbacks, you have none.” It’s a cute quote, and it often points to the truth of a situation, but it should not be taken as Gospel truth with no allowance for deviation.
Recall the 1997 Florida-Florida State game. Steve Spurrier didn’t have a great quarterback that year, after Danny Wuerffel’s eligibility was used up, but he didn’t insist on giving every snap to Doug Johnson. Why? Johnson had the better arm than Noah Brindise, but he didn’t process plays that well. Spurrier’s solution? Coach Johnson and Brindise play by play. Give them a specific play to run, alternate them during the game, and be able to talk to them on the sidelines when they weren’t on the field. This system of constantly shuttling in quarterbacks might have been unsustainable for many, but Spurrier possessed enough command of the situation to give clarity to his quarterbacks before each play. Florida scored 32 points against a very good FSU defense and knocked the Seminoles out of the national championship game against Nebraska.
Should Dabo and/or Richt do this? Not necessarily — certainly not right now. They should hand over the keys to their young guns and let them see what they can do.
The point of the above example is to show that two quarterbacks can work in concert with each other. If, as a hypothetical, Lawrence and Perry do not excel as sole starters in the coming weeks, it’s not as though Dabo or Richt have to yank the job fully away from them. They can consider alternating based on series of downs, or possessions (probably the best way to split the workload), or other ways which give both quarterbacks a chance to play and be involved in the offense. If Lawrence and Perry fail to take complete control of these quarterback jobs in the next few weeks, it doesn’t have to represent a crisis — not if the coaches are on top of the matter. They can reduce each quarterback’s individual workload and reintegrate Bryant and Rosier into the picture. When an athlete is struggling, giving him less of a burden often frees him up to play better.
Maybe Lawrence and Perry will soar and put this issue very cleanly — and clearly — to bed. That’s what Clemson and Miami should obviously want. If they don’t, though, it’s not a disaster, or at least, it doesn’t have to be seen that way. Giving Lawrence his package of plays and Bryant his own package of plays could give Clemson an ideal balance, and something similar could happen for Miami with Perry and Rosier.
Starting the young-gun QBs in Clemson and Miami is not the hard part of this equation. Managing emotions, workloads and expectations — in the event that the new guys don’t flourish right away — is the true challenge facing Dabo and Richt.
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