Rewatched the game since I was only able to see parts of it today.
Wake is a good football team, but Wright killed any chance of winning this game in the 1st quarter. Hard to argue. Throwing an irresponsible pass & pick-6 interception -in that part of the field - on 3rd 10 showed a complete lack of awareness and then he followed up with a terrible fumble. Bad fundamentals. Game was basically over at that point. We had 2 possessions at the end of the first half - and we're so limited at passing Wake was just sitting on Mike and the run. Two 3 and outs.
Mike's real value as a one-dimensional QB was based on the notion that our OL was going to struggle to protect a prototypical drop back QB. Wright gives Vandy more "options" on offense. We watched Wright against SEC teams last year, and he just isn't an accurate passer. That is known. Teams with talent in their front 7 are just going to force us to pass. Wake did that today and outside of one long run by Davis early on - they stuffed us all day. 34 rushes 3.3 average.
Maybe NIU is not as talented as Wake and we can get away with pushing them around upfront like we did UH and Elon. The problem is - the next 8 games after every team will force us to pass. The book is out in the SEC on Mike Wright.
Here's the point. I think our OL is way better than advertised. We've allowed 1 BS sack in three games, and the run blocking has been okay. The counter might be that's because Wright never stays in the pocket, but I think it's time to move on from this offense. Mike just limits us too much against teams with any talent. I never thought we would win more than three games anyway this year, but time to rip the bandaid off and go with the future of the offense. Mike winning at NIU does nothing for us. And yes, I've seen Mike's numbers - 6tds, 1int, 60% completion pct, 4 rushing TDs. Those ratios/stats will not look better at the end of the season - I can promise you.
I'm sure Swann has faults - but he looked pretty competent as a passer to me. Bank on the OL and the offense you want to run in the future - not a QB who can't throw accurately past 7 yards.