If he wanted Surace to start, he should have played him when he had the chance.
You keep making statements like this as if a glaring mistake was made by our coaching staff last year.
What “chance” are you referring to that would’ve addressed Duff’s concerns? Do you really think throwing him on the field for a series at the end of the OSU game with the outcome in hand was going to move the needle? Even that game was 21-3 deep into the 3rd quarter. OSU hadn’t pulled their starters. Expecting Greg to throw Surace out there at that point is not reasonable. So what are we talking about - maybe one “opportunity” for a series. in the waning minutes of that game? AJ played in the two most lopsided games - Norfolk and Oregon.
Most of our games were within 2 scores into at least the 4th quarter. Back ups don’t get an opportunity to show their stuff anywhere in that situation. They might get on the field for the last series to hand the ball off once the outcome is in hand, but that’s it.
Again, Ryan Day’s back up QB threw 14 total passes last season (compare that to AJ’s 9 - plus two more intended attempts where he was sacked). OSU was in a lot more lopsided games than us. In Lonergan’s first season with Saban, no QB threw more than 10 passes outside of the USF game that the starter missed. Don’t misunderstand - extra reps are never a bad thing, but your off base in suggesting Greg screwed this up. His decisions were very much in line with what most top tier coaches typically do.