The worst part about Saturday was watching Rashaan almost lead UCLA back to victory in this game. Not because he performed poorly. Oh quite the opposite... he looked pretty good. He is still raw, but there is some serious talent and heart there. What kills me is that this kid has sat unused on the sidelines while UCLA's season has been pissed down the drain. Chalk that up as yet another reason why Dorrell is gone at the end of the season.
I would have almost been happier if Osaar had come in and thrown 5 interceptions. Then, at least, I could have justified why the coaches played Mac Thompson against Notre Dame. "Hey, they didn't have any other options". But Rashaan comes in and leads UCLA on a 13-0 finish to the game. Just imagine what could have happened this season if they had put him in to that game against the Irish. What if they had put Rashaan in against WSU, even as late as the 4th quarter, when the Bruins were clearly going nowhere on offense. Hell, what if they just put him in earlier against the Wildcats?!?!
It absolutely kills me that Dorrell just won't make a change even when things are clearly going poorly. Everyone in that stadium and watching on TV knew that Cowan wasn't playing well. The poor kid has two leg injuries and sprained a finger, yet the coaches were sending him back in to the game. He was at less than 75% healthy but the coaching brain trust wouldn't pull the plug. No, they let 3-and-out after 3-and-out happen while the Wildcats put the game virtually out of reach. Only when Cowan goes down with a concussion are they finally forced to make a change and low and behold... the game changes and UCLA comes back. Absolutely unfreakin' believable.
Can anyone tell me why Rashaan wasn't the 3rd string QB at the start of this season? As soon as Cowan got hurt during the Fall camp they should have put Rashaan back into the rotation. When Ben was hurt and out with surgery, they should have been giving Osaar as many snaps in practice as possible to get him ready. Yet, for some inexplicable reason, they were still working with Mac and Chris Forcier over Rashaan. Forcier isn't even going to play this year!!! Only this last week did they finally move OR into the backup spot. Talk about having no clue on how to evaluate talent. No clue whatsoever. None.
Osaar Rashaan may not ever turn out to be a great QB. But he sure has hell is better than a non-scholarship walk-on and a less than 75% backup who had multiple leg injuries. This isn't Monday morning quarterbacking. People have been begging for OR to have a shot at playing for almost two seasons now. Only when Dorrell had no other choice does he finally listen. Look at the results. Too little too late. For the game, for the season, and likely for Karl's career in Westwood.
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Why is everybody seemed to forget that Osaar Rashan at the beginning of Summer Training Camp, he switched position to Wide Receiver. He didn't switch back to QB position until Ben Olson got injured for the 2nd time. We were 4 deep at QB positions and again people tend to forget that McCleod Bethel-Thompson beat out Osaar Rashan in Spring Practice which lead for his decision to switch position.
Nobody has forgotten that. That is the entire point of my 4th paragraph. The coaches though MBT was better than Rashaan. Now, you tell me, after watching both this season, who was better? The coaches have no idea how to evaluate the talent they have on the sidelines.
I'm not saying Rashaan is a good QB. He doesn't fit into the WCO that Dorrell runs. Then again, nobody else seems to either. However, the guy is a play maker and he could have changed the outcome of a few games this season. Instead he rotted on the sidelines while Dorrell ran the program into the ground.
If you've gone to Spring scrimmage the past 2 seasons, you would know why Rasshan was on the 3rd spot last year and 4th this year. He wanted to play this year that's why he switched and the coaching staff thought being WR would get him on the field. It was unfortunate that a week before Stanford game he had a concussion which slowed him down the development on his new position.
Would you put him at Notre Dame game? We got a new Offensive Coordinator this year and Rasshan hasn't practice as QB since Spring. He would fare the same like MBT. We lose to ND due to ineptness of our coaching staff to deal with adversity with injury (bad play calling). Then there was Wazzu game, Pat started the game after the previous week he led us to beat then #10 Cal. Would you yank him out for Rasshan?
I agreed that Rasshan is a play maker and he should be on the field instead of rotted on the sidelines. My vent to the coaching staff is the failure of QB coach (Norvell) to fix his mechanic to be a better passer. Rasshan was a career 45% passer in HS and it showed during the Arizona game (30%). But again he has had 3 different QB coaches since he arrived in Westwood.
We'll see this weekend when Rasshan starts for ASU game. At least he's a dual threat QB we haven't had since McNown.
The problem is not with our QB, it's our OL. 6 different line ups in the past 9 games and still can't protect any of our QBs.
Karl Dorrell has said repeatedly (going back to the end of the 2006 season) that he was going to install a package for Rashaan. He never did it. Ossar's skills are not suited for a WCO, which is why he has looked bad in practice. If Dorrell had just followed through and put in a running/spread-like package for Rashaan (Just like Florida did for Tim Teabow) then we could have seen more of what Osaar did against Arizona. As a coach, you got to find ways to put the best talent on the field. Rashaan is a good athlete but our coaches don't know how to use him.
There were some bad decisions and some risk-taking by the coaches this August. They gambled on Olson carrying this team and virtually none of the other QB's got snaps during the fall camp. Well, that decision came back to bite them as Olson has missed multiple games and our backups were unprepared. If Olson had stayed healthy it would have been considered a genius decision. Unfortunately, they rolled the dice and it came up snake eyes.
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