gradumacated

I am surprised that Canales hasn't gotten more stick on here for the decision. That said, Mac has head coach should be keeping his finger on the pulse and not leaving it all to Canales. At the same time, just because Mac is quoted as saying "x" to the media doesn't mean that they believe it behind closed doors - or at least, enough to make a hard decision. If he wanted to save face, just say Greer and McNulty are injured so Dajon will start. Since Mac has the philosophy of not discussing injuries unless they're season-ending, no one will be any the wiser and the on-field product should improve.

From most accounts, it seems like both Williams and Means have the potential to do well in the program if given the opportunity to develop. We can certainly look enviously at other QBs around the league and around the nation, but that doesn't help us in the here-and-now. Any coach needs players who fit their system, and when they do, the results often follow - see Thompson last year. I want to see DW given the opportunity to see that he can play within Mac's philosophy. After the debacle of the Dodge era, Mac was able to turn it around almost immediately. Five wins first year, four wins the second year, then nine wins last year. This season hasn't gotten away yet, and there is still time for surprises. But unless something changes at QB we're going to find it difficult to win games.

Any military historian and military planner can tell you that the best plan never survives first contact with your enemy. All that matters is the ball gets moved - which under Greer it doesn't, and under Williams it does. That should be all you have to see to make that decision a really easy one.

Right, first quarter after 2 or at most 3 series. DW will give the program a much-needed lift right now and will bring excitement back to their play. When football is as much entertainment as it is results, fans will want to be entertained. I'd rather see a player be able to lead his teams to 2-3 TD drives with an INT or two then see a player look out of his depth and go no where yet "look after the football".

Particularly within your own 20 as well.

Exactly. Greer & McNulty have at least four TOs between them while Williams has 0. Should count for something, especially as Williams has piled up the yards as well.

Unless or until Williams shows that he can't take care of the ball - something both Greer and McNulty struggled with versus UT in particular - then I think that ball protection is a dumb excuse. When you're consistently punting from within your own 20 field position is going to suck and is as good as a TO. More than that, regular three-and-outs will only gas a defense that will lose motivation and concentration because it's human nature. Beyond that, the WRs will begin giving up because they don't trust Greer to get them the ball. Williams can do that, as he showed on Thursday night. I get that you want to stick with your first-choice, but I think now Greer "earned" the job by default than out-and-out winning the job over DW. Given a level playing field, and in a fair world, DW would have started against UT. Time for change... before it's too late. I really hope it doesn't take being played close by Nicholls State to make the coaching staff realize that they're going down a blind alley with Greer.

The fact that Greer has started over Williams for the first three games has already sent the message that if you don't put in (in the coaches opinion) the work required, you can't be expected to start. But equally, when it's abundantly clear that you are better than your competition, and you can get results, it should itself be rewarded. I highly doubt any of the players will think that they can slack off and expect to start, and even then - William's supposed indiscretions aren't making the DRC front and back pages like the players who stole TVs, or resisted arrest, or were charged with public intoxication while a minor like other players who have started and are starting for this team. It's an awful double-standard. If I were Williams, if I didn't start against Nicholls State or Indiana (if he doesn't start next week and Greer is still bad) then I'd seek a release and go to a program that would make use of my skills and talents and allow UNT's program to continue floundering. The LaTech game was a clinic in how adequate QB play can do wonders. Williams probably could have gone toe-to-toe with Skokol and it would have been an entertaining and enjoyable game, regardless of the result.

One final thought: If Mac persists with sticking with Greer, then he owes the fanbase - the fanbase he wants to keep showing up at games - an explanation as to why Greer is the better option than Williams. Especially after being on the record about Williams being the more talented QB (What does that do to Greer's already shaky confidence?) the fans deserve to know why Mac is seemingly hamstringing his offense by putting out the option that nobody, seemingly, wants. Otherwise Mac will struggle to hit #15k, let alone #30k. Who will want to keep watching an offense ranked last in all of FBS?

Wonder if this means if UNT will receive more Top-25 votes. They already got one last week, and it's a shame they couldn't have made their case loud and clear by hanging on. But that's soccer for you; sometimes the best team doesn't always win and the really good teams find a way as long as there's time left on the clock.

It's also hard to be seen as a leader by the rest of the team when you're buried on the depth chart. Put him in, and let him grow into the leadership role Mac craves. DT did the same thing - it wasn't until last year that he was definitively the leader of the offense.

Exactly. Greer and McNulty miss wide-open receivers; Williams hits them. It seems basic enough to me that the answer is staring them right in the face.

If the point of not starting DW is to get the message across that he has to be a team player and he can't take his position for granted, I think it should be mission accomplished. Seeing as Greer and McNulty have not seized the opportunity(s) given to them, if you don't want to lose DW, then I think you have start him. Given the performance of the offense over the first three games not starting DW now smacks of the coaches being petty and short-sighted. If DW continues to sit, then where is the incentive for him to do everything that Mac wants him to do if all that's going to happen is DW will be given first crack at mop-up duty? All the evidence you could want is there, bar what happens when Williams starts. And I think everyone knows how you find out about that. Start DW against Nicholls, and if you need to pull him after a couple of series so that Mac's still "in charge," so be it. But I'd wager that we'd be up 14-0 if Williams starts Saturday.

Another bump for this. So much this. As I have said elsewhere, you can only perform against what's in front of you. And even if it were backups, and even if it were in a lost cause, or even if the outcome had been decided - he at least showed what the offense is capable of when led by a competent QB. Had Williams been in the game even from halftime I think UNT could have been even more competitive than it was. Heck, the game was still close in the second quarter. I really hope Mac's stubbornness won't torpedo this program just when it had looked like it had turned a corner.

This is what I wondered when DW was pretty much eliminated from the QB race during the spring when he came down with an ankle sprain. I was surprised he wasn't given more opportunities to come back and make a push. I won't be surprised if rather than play him, he ends up transferring at the end of the year. Character guys are important, I get that, but DW is a redshirt freshman - he can GROW into a leadership role, as all players do. Rare is the player who comes in as a freshman and immediately acts like a mature leader. And more than throwing INTs - how many in-completions and missed wide-open receivers does he have, compared to Greer and McNulty? If Mac is serious about making UNT a force in football and getting an excited fanbase who will regularly fill Apogee, he has to give the fans a better on-field product than the lousy one we have right now. The defense can't be expected to keep bailing the offense out, especially when after no more than five minutes they're back on the field and in bad field-position to boot.

Thompson was far more than Greer or McNulty, and continues to be underrated. He made plays when he had to, and led the team into game-tying or game-winning positions. I had confidence that when Thompson was on the field he could make the offense do something and move the ball - unlike Greer. Sure, Thompson had Brelan and Byrd but he still had to find them and give them the opportunities to succeed. If Thompson were here, UNT would at least be 2-1 and may have played the Longhorns far closer. I'm not going to assert that Williams will have the same effect, but I think he would lift the team far more than McNulty or Greer has, or will. Playing Williams in meaningless snaps doesn't tell us anything we don't already know about him. What I want to see is how he performs when the game is still in question and the pressure is up. I didn't have confidence in Greer or McNulty after the UT game, it filckered only briefly in the SMU game, then was completely extinguished by halftime of the SMU game when out of EIGHT DRIVES UNT garnered only ONE first down. Drives get snuffed out, I realize, but still. Given the offensive line of UNT, and the WR and RB we have, it's inexcusable to go backwards more times then we go forwards on offense. And that's down to the poor QB play we're getting from Greer.

I understand that coaches need to stand by their players if/when they're struggling so that you can maintain confidence, but you have to wonder about Greer's state of mind right now. He's been out there for the majority of three games, and the offense has been anemic. But the killer for me was the game against SMU - there were several times when our defense set up the offense with perfect field position, and we kept settling for FGs. It's great that we have a good kicker who should be able to win us close games if needed, but in other games, a better team will have snuck that game if they scored TDs rather than FGs. When the same wide receivers who kept missing with McNulty and Greer are hitting with Dajon, then you have to think it's the QB throwing the ball rather than the WR not catching the ball. Not to mention the threat of even a half-decent passing game will open up the running lanes for our cadre of RBs. If Mac truly wants the program to grow, and #hit30k and all that nonsense, he can't keep trotting out Greer and expecting people to keep showing up. The student body is still quite fickle - one or two more underwhelming offensive games and all the hard work that was accomplished last season is going to be lost, and there's no telling how long it will take to bring back that level of excitement around the program. Stubbornness can be a good trait, but in this instance - it's quite clear - Greer isn't the answer at QB. Neither is McNulty. And when you have a talent like Williams, it's a travesty to waste him in garbage time, especially when all he does is show up the 1s. Point being: Williams has to start vs Nicholls State, then evaluate from there. If he goes 2-10 for 10 yards and an INT, then sure, go back to Greer. But if he goes 8-15 for 90-odd yards a TD or two, then there's your answer. If it truly is a maturity issue, then like a previous poster said - pull him into a one-on-one meeting with Mac and/or Chico and let him know that it's his team and to start acting like it. He sounds like the sort of player who thrives on responsibility and if knows he's going to remain marginalized, why should he bother? Especially when - right now - he's head and shoulders above the current QBs. There's hope that he was put in over McNulty vs LaTech though. My preseason prediction of 4-8 looks increasingly likely if Mac persists with Greer, and may end up losing the locker room if Williams continues to show up on the field.