Important to remember that the team bounced back just fine after the UW loss last year. Hoping for an injury free win this week

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You got it backwards there... Stetson lost to Bethune-Cookman 43-18. Their only win was a 45-10 final over NAIA Webber International University who also now sits at a 1-2 record.

I'll get a write up put together, but Stetson is really really bad... Before their loss to Bethune-Cookman, Massey had them rated as the third worst team in all of FCS. If the Ags don't look sharp in this one, I will have concerns about the rest of the season.

Stetson Game Results
- @ South Dakota State - L 7-70
- vs Webber International (NAIA) - W 45-10
- @ Bethune-Cookman - L 18-43

Stetson offense
- The Hatters on offense are averaging 23.3 points per game and 360 yards of offense per game. They are split towards favoring the pass almost 2-1 in terms of their offensive production.
- They run a 2 QB system. JR QB Thomas Von Grote is their passing QB who has completed right around 63% of his passes on the season for 605 yards with 4 TDs and 2 INTs. JR QB Chris Stephenson is their running QB. He has completed 75% of his 8 passing attempts on the season for 62 yards, but attempts to do his damage on the ground where he has 22 rushing attempts for gained 205 yards and 3 TDs.
- JR RB Troy Flowers is their main guy out of the backfield and is used as a dual threat. He has 143 gained rushing yards on 28 attempts with 1 TD, but is also the teams 2nd leading receiver with 124 receiving yards on 6 catches with 1 TD.
- Top receiving target is JR WR Wyatt Rogers with 192 yards on 13 catches with 1 TD

Stetson defense
- The Hatters on defense are allowing 41 points per game... woof. They've actually been pretty okay against the pass so far this season only allowing 150 passing yards per game, but have struggled to stop the run allowing 227 rushing yards per game. Though this is largely skewed by the fact that SDSU simply didn't pass the ball and just ran for almost 400 on them.
- They have only forced 1 turnover on the season 3 games into the season.
- So far their top producer on defense has been FR DB Dylan Kelly who leads the team in tackles with 21 and forced the teams lone turnover on the season with his 1 INT.
- They have only produced 2 sacks so far this season.

Stetson Special Teams
- SO P Brett Gonda is averaging 43.6 yards per punt with 4 of his 13 punts going 50+ yards
- They have had 2 kickers attempt FGs - RFR K Trey Hess is 1/1 on FG attempts with a long of 40 yards and JR K Paul DeSousa is 1/1 on FG attempts with a long of 49 yards. DeSousa has handled a majority of their kickoffs as well.
- Nothing of note in terms of their stats for kickoff and punt returns. They have, however, allowed almost 22 yards per punt return on average.

As mentioned previously, if we don't beat the Hatters by at least 50 I will have to re-evaluate my expectations for the rest of the season. This should be a beatdown for the ages. GO AGS!

And just to stoke the flames of controversy on the forum... I think it's pretty likely that we see Kollock in this one, Clee will still start though. Plough is a pretty loyal guy, it would take a lot for him to change the starter at this point considering we've won the games we were supposed to win and lost the games we were supposed to lose.

And just to be clear, I'm not a Cleeland or Kollock truther. I just don't have any reason to not trust Plough when it comes to QB evaluation and as it stands he is backing Cleeland right now.

I have nothing against Cleeland He is a great kid and a good qb, but Kollack is a classic gun slinger. That deep ball was the best ball I’ve seen come from an Aggie since Hastings. As far as I’m concerned the QB battle should continue. If Pinnick stayed here, Cleeland wouldn’t see the field. So it’s not like Cleeland has demonstrated he is the bonafide #1 yet. He might in the future, but it’s pretty obvious Kollack is the more talented QB overall. Give the kid a shot.

Not that I think Plough is incapable of making mistakes. Far from it as no coach is perfect, but QBs really is his thing. I'm still going to trust his assessment and if that means down the road he discovers he was wrong and switches to Kollock then kuddos to you for your assessment.

PS his last name is Kollock, not Kollack just fyi

Forgive the mispelling of the name. That's an autocorrect feature on my apple.

I am a huge fan of coach Plough and his development of QB's, but I think he saw what we all saw out there. Cleeland is a good QB, but he missed badly on his progressions and after 3 games its not getting better. I think you could argue its getting worse with higher competition. Cleeland isn't the established #1. Let on field play determine the starter. Cleeland had his chance, now give Kollock his shot. If he plays poorly then move back to Cleeland. The level of athletes we are getting now will require some course correction sometimes, it happens to all programs. Who knows, maybe Cleeland sitting and watching is just what he needs right now.

I have to believe that Clee just knows so much more of this offense having a year and a half of study and play under Tim. He's also more mobile (like Pinnick was) so the offensive options give Davis a more complete look. It's tough when you're getting your first starts, none of them at home, and your third is against a ranked FBS program in the DFW heat.

All preparation is coming to a point for the home stand coming up. Get chrisp and destroy Stetson. Then it gets interesting and meaningful.

Destroy Stetson first.

Empty the bench, stay healthy.

↪BlueGoldAg You got it backwards there... Stetson lost to Bethune-Cookman 43-18. Their only win was a 45-10 final over NAIA Webber International University who also now sits at a 1-2 record. — CA Forever

Ooof...getting old is a bitch! :lol:

One of the things that I'd like to see when it comes to our backup QB's getting some reps is that they get to play with some of our starters against the first team of our opponent. Kollock looked pretty good playing with our 2's and 3's against SMU's 2's and 3's but we don't know how he would have done against SMU's first team players. I don't think you can make a good comparison until you see our QB's facing the same level competition during a game.

While I’m looking forward to a home game, I don’t think we’re going to learn much about our team with this match up. The meaningful game will be the following week when the griz come to town. We’ll know what we have or don’t have after that game.

It always feels like we don't learn much in the first few games of every season since the games aren't meaningful.

agree totally with your analysis. Cleeland is more mobile than Kollock and you don’t bench a guy after a not so good outing against the SMU first string. I suspect he will be less pressing against the lower competition level and will re-calibrate.

Kollock will get playing time against Stetson. Ploughs post game presser about needing 2QBs as evidenced last year was a pretty clear reference to last years No. Co. game when QB1 is unavailable. Switching QBs is the Bobby Hauck protocol of mess up once and your pulled. That didn’t work very well for him in 2024.

I believe in Cleeland. He didn't play a tremendous amount in HS (right?) and he's only 3 games in at this level. SMU game doesn't mean much as far as evaluating talent- nobody looked good out there for multiple reasons.

Well, TC started his senior year at Jesuit, there's a lot of tape of Treynor from the 2023 season as well, and a lot of different color jerseys on the other side, so have to think he started his whole Junior year as well.

How many games he has played shouldn’t be relevant. Hes either ready now or he isn’t. If hes not ready that ok but that’s what redshirt years and practice reps are for. The kid is talented nobody is denying that. That doesn’t make it ok for him to miss wide open throws or sit back looking scared in the pocket every other play. He wasn’t even really pressured by a P5 d-line because the O-line did a decent job of holding up but the way he was playing you would thought he had no time. There needs to be a change I haven’t seen much improvement from him game 1 to now. Still scared, unconfident and missing throws that should be gummies. He was missing guys on swing passes and screens for god sake. I’m not even talking about the balls down the field that aside from one against usd he hasn’t looked good at either

Kollack deserves decent playing time with the 1s in the Stetson game. Let’s see what he can do. I understand that Coach Plough will probably stick with Cleeland. Both QBs are unproven, but this is a competition for QB1. Let’s be fair. Go Ags!

I guess I meant to say "pass" a lot (relatively), not "play" a lot. Didn't his HS team run it a lot?

unconfident and missing throws that should be gummies. He was missing guys on swing passes and screens — aggies413

I have noticed poor swings/screens and gimmies as well. Noticeable for me in-person at PSU and USD.

I think this is about time in the program. Kollock only a few months with the team versus Cleeland more than a season. Plough probably went with the guy who is "more ready."

Agree with you. Cleeland had a head start in regards to time in the system and knowledge of the playbook which is important to coach. Totally understandable. However, I think the gap in knowledge from Kollock is closing very fast. That throw by Kollock was incredible. If you rewatch the broadcast you can hear the announcers audibly gasp when he makes that throw. That throw was big time.

QB battle is open. Let the kids battle it out on the field. Give Kollock some reps with the 1's. Our goal is to win the national championship regardless of who is the QB. Whichever QB gives us the best chance to win, go with that kid.

Let kids earn the job. Don't give it to Cleeland. Make him prove he is better than Kollock on the field.

I find it wild that Idaho State moves up 6 spots in the rankings after beating USD at home, while we beat USD by pretty much the same margin away and moved down multiple spots...

We dropped to 11.

I think the gap in knowledge from Kollock is closing very fast. — Sailorgabe

Agree. I think Plough's view is a little longer than ours as fans. We live and die with every pass attempt because we are all crazy on here...

Pinnick leaving changed everything QB-wise...plans went out the window.
No matter what he says out loud, Plough is likely looking at Montana 9/26 as the hard start of the season...the crucial portion, if you will. Winning out in the Big Sky and winning the conference is the goal. *If there is a QB controversy* I'd guess all decisions will be "final, final" following Stetson. Whoever is the best QB will definitely start vs. Montana. Based on this, Kollock could play half the Stetson game (?). I mean, Stetson appears to be one of the worst teams in the country....

With all that said, I think Plough sticks with Cleeland. He's won the games he's supposed to have won.

Regardless who is QB1, i am hoping this season our QB2 gets quality playing time going forward.

Of course, it is good to have your QB2 with quality game experience in the event of injury (or illness) to the starting QB, but this "policy" change is really based on "insurance" against transfers via the portal.

I do not want our QB1 to leave after one season and we are forced to "start over" with an inexperienced QB1 for the 2027 season.

Also as many have indicated, in the event our QB2 out performs our QB1 during games, then the staff has a decision to make .

It's also about leadership - and I understand that Treynor has been an incredible leader, and certainly has worked hard enough for Tim to name him the starter against the QB prototype in Kollock. Then again, we all see some inconsistency, the kind of missed plays that will not be acceptable against Montana, Eastern Washington, Southern Utah, Northern Colorado, Idaho or Cal Poly.

Wild. I don't remember dropping like that after losing 70-10 to UW.....but I could be mistaken.

This might be good to light a fire under the guys.

If Pinnick stayed here, Cleeland AND Kollock AND Eason would not see the field. Kollock would have bailed to a greener pasture and not even considered UCD.

Our QB2 and QB3 played against SMU's 3rd string. Not a single starter played on Defense after the end of the 2nd Quarter.

Cleeland didn't cost the Aggies anything on Saturday. His OL group played a Top 20 front 7 and it showed. Zero run game. No one was open and when they were, they got murdered by the closing speed. When SMU played their 3's and below, we would have beaten that group by 14+ with any QB.

We witnessed the difference between #6 in FCS and a $20-22 million payroll.

We clearly weren’t watching the same game. There were open receivers all over the field. He was not stepping into throws and making bad reads. And when he did decide to throw it he was forcing the ball (prime example being the throw to gbatu into double coverage down the field when Pickett was wide open on the over).