Topic: So... what do you guys think?

[svherd]

The O was rejuvenated, Cole had some zip on the one pass over the middle, lead us on some scoring drives. Give him 16 starts like Cam and see what he looks like, I bet he would be head and shoulders above Cam. Hell, look who he has to teach him, and it sure as hell isn't Trickett. I appreciate what Cam did for us but clearly he doesn't have the tools to be a highly effective D1 QB.

[GreenDaddy]

We will never make the playoff so that ship has sailed.  Fancher is for all intents and purposes a 2 year starter at this point. We know his skill set and it isn?t improving. Pennington should atleast be given a shot. I think that?s all anyone is really saying

Oh I agree that Fancher is terrible. Cole should definitely be starting the rest of the way this season. I'll be curious to see if Cole is the guy we will be rolling with the next 3 years after this season or we bring in a portal player.

I think we have a misunderstanding on the playoff comment. I wasn't talking about this year. I was saying I'm not sure Cole is a guy capable of leading us to SBC titles and a playoff appearance in the future.

One thing about having Cole Pennington as your QB though, he comes with probably the best QB coach possible. Maybe he makes massive jumps with experience? I'm just trying to judge him the same way I would if his name was John Smith instead of having the Pennington name.

[Johns1124]

Big difference I saw was
a) Cole hit WRs in stride allowing them to gain additional yards.
 B) Cole is a leader. Talking to the guys before they go into the field giving them the Ra ra speech.  Also by diving on those 2 fumbles it?s apparent Cole wants to win.

To me Cam is just worried about doing his job only because he?s a square peg in a round hole.  Where Cole is a QB that has those little intangibles. Because of this one is trying not to screw up and the other is just playing football.

What "Little Intangibles" are those? At the end of the day, his QB rating is 17.6 (ESPN). He has 2 Int and 2 Fumbles, 0 TD.

We will never make the playoff so that ship has sailed.  Fancher is for all intents and purposes a 2 year starter at this point. We know his skill set and it isn?t improving. Pennington should atleast be given a shot. I think that?s all anyone is really saying

Why has that ship sailed? Has not even started yet.

[MicDrass1]

What "Little Intangibles" are those? At the end of the day, his QB rating is 17.6 (ESPN). He has 2 Int and 2 Fumbles, 0 TD.

Why has that ship sailed? Has not even started yet.

If Demarcus Harris ran 4.6 and not 4.8 he would have had 2 tds last night.  Join the track team Herd

[herdorbust2]

I think Cole will get a lot better. The game will slow down for him and experience will be huge.

[Green Dog]

Fancher would not be back on the field as my starting QB regardless of who is number two.
Its painfully obvious he is not a QB. Its way too early to know if Cole is the guy or not. I would
give him the remaining starts to see if he has the potential to be that guy.

[Echo 5]

What "Little Intangibles" are those? At the end of the day, his QB rating is 17.6 (ESPN). He has 2 Int and 2 Fumbles, 0 TD.

Not sure what you mean with his QB rating being 17.6 (per ESPN).  I just looked on ESPN, and it says his QB rating is 103.1.  He has a 62.8% completion percentage (Fancher is 65%).  Both QBs average about the same yards per catch (6.3 to 6.5).
https://www.espn.com/college-football/team/stats/_/id/276

[svherd]

Oh I agree that Fancher is terrible. Cole should definitely be starting the rest of the way this season. I'll be curious to see if Cole is the guy we will be rolling with the next 3 years after this season or we bring in a portal player.

I think we have a misunderstanding on the playoff comment. I wasn't talking about this year. I was saying I'm not sure Cole is a guy capable of leading us to SBC titles and a playoff appearance in the future.

One thing about having Cole Pennington as your QB though, he comes with probably the best QB coach possible. Maybe he makes massive jumps with experience? I'm just trying to judge him the same way I would if his name was John Smith instead of having the Pennington name.

We'll never, ever get a sniff of the playoffs. SB title, sure.

[Herdalum83]

I did not like the play call to open up our first possession of the game in Cole's first start to have him throwing the ball 7 yards deep into his own endzone.. That's the situation (especially when you have a stud RB) where you hand it off and try to give your QB a little bit of breathing room before making a throw. Georgia Southern pinned their ears back and brought a hard rush because of where the ball was.. Play was destined to fail as soon as it was called

[GreenDaddy]

We'll never, ever get a sniff of the playoffs. SB title, sure.

Starting next year and probably for the foreseeable future the playoff will include the highest rated G5 conference champion. We can do it. It'll just take the right coaching staff. Especially with the SBC upward trajectory. We no longer have the "they play in a weak conference" stigma that we dealt with in CUSA.

[scope58]

75% passing completions, 200 yards, 1 interception which was more the fault of the O-Line than of him and more than made up for by him recovering 2 fumbles, and most of all a win.  Great job for his first game.

Right on. Exactly . Smart post from a fan that realizes this was his first game playing meaningful minutes.

[MUonium]

hope Cole is here to stay.  we'll have to bear with growing pains, for sure.  if he's a mostly pocket QB, then we know it's going to take a OL/OC/WR coaches who are knowledgeable and flexible.  Cole has good touch so i think he will get better at velocity and trajectory changeup, especially as his vision and mental calculations adjust to real-game speed and pressure.

Fancher does some things well but he's just not a complete QB (like several other SBC QBs).  as mentioned, kudos to him for being first to support Cole/the QB group on the sideline.

[muherd34]

After the win tonight, does a healthy Fancher return and resume his role as starter or has the Pennington 2.0 era officially began?

Hopefully the Penny 2.0 era has begun.  Big thanks to Fancher for winning some games and giving me some good memories.  But he isn't and will never be a good d1 qb.  Heck, Penny 2.0 may never be a good qb either, but it's time to find out.

[Johns1124]

Not sure what you mean with his QB rating being 17.6 (per ESPN).  I just looked on ESPN, and it says his QB rating is 103.1.  He has a 62.8% completion percentage (Fancher is 65%).  Both QBs average about the same yards per catch (6.3 to 6.5).
https://www.espn.com/college-football/team/stats/_/id/276

Good try on the sleight of hand.

https://www.espn.com/college-football/player/_/id/4869817/cole-pennington

0 TD, 3 Int, 2 Fumbles

[muherd34]

Good try on the sleight of hand.

https://www.espn.com/college-football/player/_/id/4869817/cole-pennington

0 TD, 3 Int, 2 Fumbles

Did Cole still your gf or something?  You have been busting on him on both sites.  I don't care who is qb, but Fancher is bad. Cole at least can hit a reciever in stride, we still need qbs for next year.  Why the hate?

[Johns1124]

Did Cole still your gf or something?

Not like you want to give him a BJ.

He has been sacked 4 times in his 6 Q appearances and fumbled twice at 50%.

[Herdalum83]

Good try on the sleight of hand.

https://www.espn.com/college-football/player/_/id/4869817/cole-pennington

0 TD, 3 Int, 2 Fumbles

His passer rating is 103.1

QBR (also known as Total Quarterback Rating) is a made-up stat that ESPN created in 2011 with a claim that it is a more valuable way of measuring the effectiveness of a QB but ESPN has never released the complete formula it uses to determine QBR.

With that said all QBs generally have a lower QBR than they do a passer rating. With passer rating anything above 100 like Pennington's currently is, is considered to be about average. The best passer rating in the nation is held by Jayden Daniels at LSU who has a 202.1 passer rating however his QBR is a 94.2. The next highest-rated passer in FBS is John Paddock from Illinois who has only played 4 games (2-2 in those games) but has 6 TD passes against just 1 INT.  His passer rating is 190.1 but his QBR is 87.8.

ESPN keeps track of QBR but unlike passer rating, it is not listed among the stats when you look at statistical leaders. Just for reference, the highest-rated passer in the Sun Belt is JMU's Jordan McCloud who has a passer rating of 172.6 and a QBR of 75.9. McCloud is a full-season 4-year starter and is enjoying his best season as a senior but as a freshman playing FCS competition had a passer rating of 119.5. Not that much different than Pennington's current 103.1 rating but in only 1 start, the sample size right now is WAY too small to judge Pennington as a QB. We should have more than enough data after the next few weeks to make a more fair comparison based on both passer rating and QBR between Pennington and his peers.

Fancher on the other hand has a rating of 123.8 which somehow is slightly better than his rating last year despite just 8 TD passes and 11 INTs in 9 starts this season. Fancher's QBR is 39.6 and only 2 QBs (with at least 100 passing attempts) in the entire Sun Belt have lower passer ratings and QBRs than Fancher and they are Southern Miss' Billy Wiles who has a QBR of 36.6 and Louisana Monroe's Jiya Wright who has a passer rating of 28.5. Oddly enough both of these QBs have a better TD-to-INT ratio than Fancher as both have thrown 10 TDs to 6 INTs. What isn't odd is all 3 teams with QBs that are rated this low with that much of a sample size to rate them on, have struggled. Both USM and UL-Monroe have just 3 wins each.

[svherd]

Good try on the sleight of hand.

https://www.espn.com/college-football/player/_/id/4869817/cole-pennington

0 TD, 3 Int, 2 Fumbles

How'd the Eers do?

[HoPPy785]

Good try on the sleight of hand.

https://www.espn.com/college-football/player/_/id/4869817/cole-pennington

0 TD, 3 Int, 2 Fumbles

Do we already have a Cole hater on here? I wonder if you were one of the ones during the off season that touted Fancher as a guy that regardless of stats just wins. Well Cole is 1-0 as a starter.

[Johns1124]

How'd the Eers do?

Who cares

[muherd34]

Not like you want to give him a BJ.

He has been sacked 4 times in his 6 Q appearances and fumbled twice at 50%.

Lol, idc who is qb.  Fancher isn't a qb and Cole played Ok, not great.  Have said that 100 times.  He may be good or may suck.  But he is better than Fancher

[muherd34]

Do we already have a Cole hater on here? I wonder if you were one of the ones during the off season that touted Fancher as a guy that regardless of stats just wins. Well Cole is 1-0 as a starter.

100% a Cole hater. 

[Buffalo Bop]

I recall Chad in his first start against Tenn-Chattanooga had 6 picks but found a way to win the game.

[Herdiowa]

What "Little Intangibles" are those? At the end of the day, his QB rating is 17.6 (ESPN). He has 2 Int and 2 Fumbles, 0 TD.

Why has that ship sailed? Has not even started yet.

The little intangibles.  Let?s see leadership of the team on the field (go back and watch the game), confidence on the field and in the pocket.  Outside of 1 throw that was not picked, mowing where to go with the ball on ?time?. Not giving up on plays when not involved see below.

 You keep throwing 2 ints but one hit the WR in the face and the other his arm and the ball was hit from his blind side. Why don?t you mention the two fumbles he recovered late in the game by other players which would have set Ga Southern up with short fields to win the game? 

Is Cole the answer?  Time will tell but I like what I saw from a kid playing in the 75 game one that means a lot to our program.  Also getting his first significant time that isn?t clean up duty.

[mu1995]

In the first full game for Cam Fancher, last year at JMU, his stats were 15 completions verse 31 attempts, 159 yards passing, one TD, and 2 interceptions. He rushed 9 times for 22 yards.

In the first full game for Cole yesterday he had 15 completions verse 20 attempts, 201 yards passing, no TDs, one interception and one fumble, 3 rushing attempts for -12 Yards.  Also worth noting two fumble recoveries at critical moments (not his own fumbles).

These are statistics that are not unreasonable for a Freshman QB.  There is no way to fully simulate game experience in a practice.  Just as every year , most agree that team will show the most progress generally by game 3, a young QB will sow a similar pattern of development.

Cole is off to a reasonable start.  Just as Fancher was given a chance, Cole should be given a chance to see how he progresses.  Fancher in his second game went 19 for 36 for 320 yards with no TDs in a loss. The game after Fancher went 13  for 25 for 89 yards, but he did have 136 yards rushing in a win.  Clearly learning on the job.

Anyone who does not comprehend realistic player development either has unrealistic expectations or potentially has an agenda.  It is exceedingly rare for a FR QB to come in and play at FBS level easily.   A handful who came to mind ultimately won the Heisman.  It is fair to place the game stats from Fancher side by side with what Cole will produce.

I had every hope for Fancher last year, but his inconsistency has continued into this year.  I think the projections for Fancher as a WR were correct and would give the young man the most upside.  If Cole evolves into similar production then he will not be the answer, but he has clearly earned the right to start and we will all see how he uses that chance.