I can't argue against your assessment as I didn't go to any practices myself, but as I mentioned previously I trust Plough when it comes to QBs. I don't think he gave Cleeland the job just because he's been around longer. He gave Pinnick the job over Harper last season and I think he made the right choice.

Again high school stats and ratings don't really matter to me that much. What matters to me is what they can produce now. Lan Larison only has 2 stars coming out of high school.

Anyway, I don't really want the thread about SMU to turn into just QB debate so let's try to refocus things to this weekend.

Go Ags! Beat the Ponies!

I would caution against using the star system as justification for someone starting. There are numerous cases of 4 and 5 star athletes who turn out to be busts in college while unranked players are big time players. I post star ratings of players in the recruiting thread, but I put little to no stock in that system. It is not deterministic by any means.

and I will admit that I overreacted during the PSU game. I called for Kollock to go in after halftime. We don't know what he would have done in that game because Plough and Cleeland were too busy proving that I don't much as a fan.

I agree with this take. If there's quite literally 1 thing I inherently trust Plough on is QB evaluation. If he thinks Cleeland is the guy, then I'm sure he's the guy. For what it's worth if you take out the first half of the PSU game, he has been very good. I think the foundation is there for him to be an excellent QB.

I'll be happy if we come out of this injury free and a spread of 40 or less... Something like 52-14. I just hope it isn't like Washington last season. The optics of another team dropping 70 on you no matter the division or conference differences is never good.

yep, it's on delay right now due to the stadium losing power...

I don't believe ACC network is through the 1 day orange pass unfortunately. I think it's a separate add on if I had to guess. I think you can do a free trial through fubo and it might have it, but don't quote me on that.

I won't lie. I'm a petty man so I'm not particularly rooting for WSU in this one. There would definitely be a little bit of schadenfreude for me if the Ags went on to a long playoff run and WSU had a stinker of a season.

2 minute warning of the first half and Pinnick is 4/9 for 54 yards and an interception. Yards lost from sacks has nullified his early runs. Now has 5 carries for a net of 2 yards.

1. Cleeland was throwing dimes all night. It looked like he was going through his progressions and consistently finding the open receiver. His 1 interception was off a great play by USD's best defensive back. He throws a really pretty ball. The USD commentators (through some of the worst mics I've ever heard) couldn't stop gushing about him. One guy said several times that "Cleeland will play on Sundays".

2. Run defense early in the game was suspect. First couple of USD drives I said to myself "oh boy, here we go again", but as the game went on they really tightened up as a unit and shut down the Toreros run game. They got a couple long runs in garbage time when they switched up to fresh running QB.

3. Turnovers. I think it's worth mentioning that USD had VERY few turnovers last season and we forced 4 on them today. The Toreros QB only had 3 interceptions thrown all of last season and we picked him off 2 times. The defense was definitely playing aggressive today.

4. Still some dumb mistakes that need to be cleaned up. There was still some tackling issues similar to the game against PSU that needs to be cleaned up, but the mistake of the night still went to the special teams unit when Kai Acia muffed the 2nd half kick off return and then essentially didn't even try to recover the ball. It was very strange. USD got the ball in goal, but the defense stepped up and stopped them on 4 downs to prevent them from scoring. Could have been a momentum shifter for USD just like we had against PSU.

5. Injuries and O line issues. Looked like several guys had some injuries during the game, but I didn't see anything too serious looking from the TV broadcast at least. The offensive line still had some questionable play. Cleeland had to do some maneuvering in the backfield, but handled it well. Some runs got blown up behind the line of scrimmage.

All in all, a great win by the Ags and nice to see Cleeland get things going in the first half but at the end of the day it's tough to know what this game actually means because even though USD was projected to win the Pioneer League... It's still the Pioneer League. I don't think we will actually have a gauge of where we stand until we face Montana.

J Fish back in

Atta boy, Matteo!

Run forward, Jones!

Cleeland is lighting them up. Frankly any other result wouldn't have been a good sign for our season though.

Defense holds but USD challenging the call on the field

Never let him return kicks again... Jesus

Special teams...

Cleeland having a much better 1st half than against PSU. He's throwing some dimes.

Cmon defense. Turn it up.

Defense is looking a little shaky here to start.