I can't believe these people are clamoring for Yarnell over Patti. Nothing Yarnell did against a bad MAC team lead me to believe he is an FBS QB. He might be but it was basically a Spring Game type vanilla offense vs a Spring Gameish defense (with injuries and starters sitting).
I think Patti is still injured, at least to the extent that they would only throw him in if both Slovis and Yarnell went down…or else I think even stubborn Duz would have sent him in last week.
It sucks. I think the biggest of the several unfortunate occurrences this season was the injury of Patti. As I said on that post, there are what-ifs every season but he’s the biggest for me. I would have really liked to see him be able to finish the TN game healthy. Remember, we made it to OT even with him on one leg, and his prime skill (mobility) totally gone. So there’s always that possibility…
But even if we still lose that game in OT, he plays (healthy) vs WMU and I’d say the team would have kicked tail in that game with him, rather than just get by as we did with Yarnell.
A crossroads at this point would have been, does Duz still go with Slovis (presumably ready to go) to start RI? My own head says he should continue with Patti, but I think Duz heart would make him feel obligated to go with SloGo. We still win that, of course, either way, but if Slovis stinks in that (as he kind of did, being frank)… Does Duz have stones to start Patti in the GT game? I think he still starts Slovis. But, with healthy Patti, I think Duz pulls the trigger to start the 2nd half (or shortly thereafter). Then what happens would be anyone’s guess. I’ll guess with healthy Patti in that second half, we pull it out.
I’m not saying Patti is a hidden gem, but we all have mostly liked what we saw with the guy in the admittedly few times he’s played (and stayed healthy). But I contest we could be entering this UNC game 6-1 and solidly mid teens, with a lot still at stake this season. We might have even been on what some of you call a “real network”. 😊
Certainly another scenario is that Patti would stink too, and nothing would have been different. Or he’d do well, but break another valuable bone, which seems his (and our) curse. These are the “What if” kind of things in my mind when the real life season is basically done.