Ohio

[Schadenfreude]

McDonald has to be replaced. I don’t care how ready the other QBs are but he is just awful, and you can tell the other players on the team are done with him.

It's becoming increasingly difficult to imagine McDonald being a long-term answer at quarterback. He seems better than what we had last year, but that long delivery of his may be part of the reason he was picked so often today. If nothing else, his long delivery may be why coaches are calling so many seven step drops, which may be significantly limiting the playbook.

I imagine Loeffler will stick with him for the last two games because:

1. As Rogue has noted, the clear No. 2 (and I'm blanking on his name right now) is out for the year, and the other options may have a whole lot more to prove.
2. Loeffler probably lured McDonald to Bowling Green by selling him on the chance to play. He may feel some obligation to give him every opportunity given how low the stakes are right now.

It would not surprise me if we have a stronger QB competition next year. And that would be fine. Or, maybe McDonald can fix some of these things. We'll see.

This was a team loss. Bowling Green has more freshmen than any other program in FBS. It shows. This rebuild is going to take time.

[guest44]

Scot Loeffler 3-13 at BGSU at Akron next week with a chance to give Akron its first win in two years.

Jim McElwain 11-7 at Central Michigan now developing his freshman quarterback. Has beat Loeffler by 18 head to head.

If only McElwain had been the one with Boston College on his resume.

[MarkL]

Dorris claims Loeffler has been using the previous staff as an excuse for a lot of current issues, some surrounding his own recruits.

I don't like hearing that. Be frank and honest with the media about the lot you are given but teach the players to take responsibility regardless of circumstances.

There was a great interview with Urban Meyer a couple years ago about his days at BG. He said he told the staff that they are not to speak ill of the previous coaches. That previous staff obviously knew how to win seeing as they won the MAC in their first year. He said if his assistants were trash talking their predecessors, they should not be on his staff.

Now take that with appropriate grain of salt too because it is really easy to say something respectful like that 15+ years after he was actually here. If I can find the video I'll post it because it was great stuff.

Update. Here's the link to the video. If it is true that Loeffler is encouraging the trash talking of coaches that walked into kids' living rooms and brought them here and mentored them for a time, even if it indeed was an utter disaster, I think Loeffler and staff should knock that off. And Loeffler would benefit from a chat with Meyer about the topic. What Loeffler says to the media about the topic vs what he says to players should not be the same.

[jpfalcon09]

McDonald has to be replaced. I don’t care how ready the other QBs are but he is just awful, and you can tell the other players on the team are done with him.

It's becoming increasingly difficult to imagine McDonald being a long-term answer at quarterback. He seems better than what we had last year, but that long delivery of his may be part of the reason he was picked so often today. If nothing else, his long delivery may be why coaches are calling so many seven step drops, which may be significantly limiting the playbook.

I imagine Loeffler will stick with him for the last two games because:

1. As Rogue has noted, the clear No. 2 (and I'm blanking on his name right now) is out for the year, and the other options may have a whole lot more to prove.
2. Loeffler probably lured McDonald to Bowling Green by selling him on the chance to play. He may feel some obligation to give him every opportunity given how low the stakes are right now.

It would not surprise me if we have a stronger QB competition next year. And that would be fine. Or, maybe McDonald can fix some of these things. We'll see.

This was a team loss. Bowling Green has more freshmen than any other program in FBS. It shows. This rebuild is going to take time.

McDonald is basically a freshman entering this year. Hadn't started a game since high school. Didn't play much of anything meaningful at BC. Obviously didn't start last year. It's like starting from scratch with him, and that's a concern.

I'm disappointed the coaches hyped him up as much as they did. It's even more concerning those in the media who were able to watch practice have said he's clearly better than the other options they have.

Obviously the coaches are treating these six games as nothing more than an evaluation period to see what they have. Perhaps their evaluation of McDonald from practice showed a competent player, but it's clear that's not translating over to game action.

It's hard not to get wrapped up in all this. I'm still going to reserve total judgment for next year given there's a normal season. But it's an issue that the guy we were told was going to help right this thing has really shown himself to be a below average FBS QB through four games.

[MarkL]

McDonald looked good ... early. At some point I quit watching in the second. McDonald was something around 8 / 12, around 100, a td, and an awful drop by Morris. One of the incompletes was definitely on that slow windup motion. All around he looked good. If he played all four quarters that way, the passing game would keep BG in the game.

Apparently I missed a bunch of incompletions and interceptions. Which is basically the story of the team. They show some good signs for about a quarter of each game. The other three quarters are disastrous.

[MarkL]

Also my newborn barfed on my BG shirt. Seems appropriate.

[Schadenfreude]

I'm disappointed the coaches hyped him up as much as they did.

I don't think coaches overhyped McDonald. I think some of our fans got carried away. Expectations are too high right now for McDonald. I've never thought of him as more than a stopgap. He is what he is: A Boston College backup who happened to be available at the right time and wasn't going to start where he was.

[guest44]

Ya, those crazy fans got carried away again. He is what he is, the worst QB in Division 1, and Loeffler doesn't even have a real option to replace him with.

[Class of 61]

Later in game he seemed to force things by throwing harder. Sent several “ line drives” not very catchable. Led to the picks . Hard to imagine this continuing into next year unless there’s a complete overhaul of that throwing motion. Might be good for a baseball pitcher, but this ain’t baseball.

[Tswam]

Terion Stewart?

Jhaylin Embry?

[fredthefalcon]

Terion Stewart?

Jhaylin Embry?

They said on the broadcast that Stewart would not be playing but not why at least earlier in the game.

[Rollo83]

McDonald has to be replaced. I don’t care how ready the other QBs are but he is just awful, and you can tell the other players on the team are done with him.

It's becoming increasingly difficult to imagine McDonald being a long-term answer at quarterback.

Ya think? He's got 2 games left on his junior season. He has 12 games left in his career after that. How could anyone think he could be a "long-term" answer at quarterback?

[TommyG]

Think about this...Loeffler and staff had an entire season to improve McDonald’s passing mechanics and yet he still throws like that. It isn’t a case of a funky motion that is productive. It is a long windup and every other ball he throws flutters.
The kid needs to make a change to be successful and either the staff A. doesn’t understand that a mechanical change is needed B. Haven’t been able to coach him well enough to make the adjustment, or C. Are afraid to have him make an adjustment for fear of him regressing. A, B, and C are all inexcusable and point toward a staff that is not capable of turning this around.
Certainly McDonald is not the sole issue or the main one. It is just an obvious example that is easy to see.

[FalconTurf]

Maybe he’s throwing with an injured arm?

[TommyG]

Maybe he’s throwing with an injured arm?

I don’t think an injured arm is causing him to drop the ball below his waist before every throw.