BFS! Make your initial reads, then secondary after the snap. If you aren't going to have time, quick timing throws, not "punts" into double & triple coverage.
D-1 is bigger and faster, some disguises are better, but the reads are the same. Sam could make them at Westlake, but can't now? Why?
Yes, a few bonehead plays could have turned the season, just like Mack not sucking up to Phil Simms in Texas Stadium would have put us playing for another National Championship rather than getting embarrassed by Colorado, or the horrid option in Pasadena that cost us another National Championship, or another National Championship when Fred didn't put Feldt back to receive the punt in the Cotton Bowl. Mistakes happen, but if they happen every game, either you need to change players or the coaches aren't doing their jobs. I choose the latter.
I normally agree with 99% of your opinions, but I think you are far too critical of Sam Ehlinger's year. The games we "lost" because of Sam? USC, which was a significant home favorite over us... we go ahead at the end of the game based mostly on Sam's phenomenal talent and guts. Then, we lose in OT when he has a ball stripped out of his hands, not because of a bad decision or holding the ball poorly, but because he was held up and then a DT overpowers the ball out of his hands. That's not an example of anything.
Oklahoma State--again a game in which we were the clear underdog, Sam makes a clear "bone-headed" play, I suppose. The smart play would be to throw it away, have our FG kicker, who made about 50% of his tries, attempt to tie the OT, so we would have a 50% chance to go on to win. Instead, Sam forces a pass into the endzone to try to be a hero, and instead of the TD (we win), it is an INT (we lose). So, Sam tried a play that maybe lost us a 25% chance of winning the game. So--is that another game he "lost" us?
Tech: with us winning by 3, 2+ min. left, 3rd and 2 in Tech territory. Coaches decide to go for it, not punt, call a pass; Sam throws over the middle, INT, leads to late Tech TD, so we lose. Yes, an INT, but a physical mistake, not a "boneheaded" play except maybe by the coaches.
OU game; Sam again was a hero, not a goat, leading us from 20 down to a lead in the 4th quarter. The people who made a lot of his throwing a 4th down pass out of bounds at the end of the game--well, that did not "lose" the game--the defense giving up a 60 yard wide open game winner is more suspect.
Those were Sam's 4 losses, right? So he went 4-4 as a true freshman, beating some decent teams--Missouri, K State, W. Va.--and losing to 3 ranked heavy favorites (all extremely close, 2 in OT), and one bad but close loss, Tech. He had 11 TDs, 7 INTs, 58% completion rate, and was sacked 11 times, which would have been 20 sacks for a lot of other QBs. Also, as you said, he seemed to inspire the other players.
Shane was QB for TCU and Md. losses.
So, I do not see any poisonous lack of judgment or reason to lose hope that Sam can be the QB we need to win it all, if the pieces are in place. If someone else beats him out, that's great.
