RE: Blame Fleck for part of this less than stellar start
Playing subs is always a controversial thing, be that who to play, how soon do you get them in, and even how much it actually helps the players. If the question is whether our QB situation would be better today had Fleck gotten the backup QB in the games more often last year, the answer is a definitive no. The backup was clearly Flacco, and presumably he would have been the QB getting the mop-up time. I am fine with getting backup players in games, but you better have the game well in hand, because we all have seen games that were "over", and the team that had the game "won" ends up losing, with the coach looking like an idiot. Further, last season we were fighting for a high ranking, as it meant a LOT, and the clear reality is that if a MAC team doesnt win by a crap-ton it will be dismissed. I do not disparage our coaching staff for keeping that factor in mind, nor do I hold it against them for "playing for today" instead of next year.
Wassink had a bad game against MSU, and that had nothing to do Fleck not getting the backup in last year. It likely has more to do with the coaching he has had the past eight months, and those who prepared him for Saturdays game, and during training camp after selecting him as the starter over several other presumably quality QB's on the roster. Lester needs to own this too, and I'm sure he will. Wassink was a highly coveted QB out of HS, and was universally considered a blue chip recruit when Fleck got him. Nobody here or anywhere else suggested otherwise, and the kid had the benefit of practicing with one of the best QB's in school history (Terrell), and is now coached by perhaps the all time best WMU QB. He needs to be better, and I assume he will be, but his problems thus far are absolutely not because of Fleck.
I get the bitterness with Fleck, because I have it myself, but lets not get too many hundreds of thousand miles away from reality here. Fleck took us from an average MAC program coming off a dismal year, with very little excitement in the program, and took us to the frigging Cotton Bowl, in the middle of the national top 25, with better facilities, and tremendous enthusiasm; and he did it even after many of the "experts" on this forum laughed at his methods and ridiculed him, predicting that we would never win with him. Those same people want to trash him now, and that is fine if you are trashing him for the trashy stuff, but otherwise the guy did more than what we paid him to do, and the last several years were irreplaceable for this suffering Bronco.
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