I'll address your concern here, though I rarely get involved in actively managing discussions any longer. TF has prided itself for MANY years on having open dialogue in a fair manner. We have always had a LOT of knowledgeable posters here that are both passionate and articulate with their opinions. As long as posters are not attacking other posters, a player, or a coach in a personal manner the discussion is allowed. Criticism of a player's performance can be (and is often) warranted... as long as it doesn't get personal.
An example of this might be to say "Tony Brown can be hot-headed". That's not opinion... it's not heresay... it's the truth. You saw it last night with the constant jawing towards the Clemson bench and you saw it in the post game interviews. To make this statement is not inconsistent with our posting policy - it's an opinion based on credible information.
Jalen Hurts is being criticized by many because of his performance - you haven't seen it before to this extent because of 3 reasons. The first reason is timing. Most everyone I know gives him a total pass on last year - a true freshman is going to get a lot of leeway and rightfully so. Today, he's played the equivalent of most guys into their third year. Second, the level of competition is higher right now. In the past two months, we've seen what JH can and can't do. No one discusses these things when we're playing against Mercer or Colorado State... because it's not things observed at that level of competition. Jalen's struggles come against the better opponents - so there's more discussion now on the subject that there has been.
I want to say a little more on the third - the long-term affect. If we win the NC, it's doubtful Jalen will be unseated despite any off-season QB battle. Simply put, college coaches cover their rear ends... and to unseat your NC-winning QB means you have to answer a LOT of uncomfortable questions if the decision backfires. IMO, if Tua doesn't start next year he'll leave the program. If he leaves, our ability to recruit top shelf pocket passers will be compromised because rival coaches will use this as a tactic against us (i.e. "You saw what Saban did - he had a supremely talented passer and he went with an RPO guy instead"). That means, at least for the next few years we will run this type of offense - an offense featuring a dual-threat QB and a minor focus on skill players around him. Listen to what Bigtide is saying about OSU in recruiting when you have a guy who is perceived as a poor passer and think about RB's like Damien Harris - guys who came to be a feature back who gets the ball 15-20 times per game.
As far as players and family members of players reading this board... it defeats the purpose of a discussion board if we are not allowed to have open discussion about any topics. This may sound harsh, but it's big boy football now. You can either allow message board fodder sink you or you can allow it to fuel your efforts to improve.
