Jack Coan will start a game
Obviously, nobody wants this to be the case because of injury. But Alex Hornibrook has played the kind of football that allows us to fairly question whether Coan should get a start. He’s comfortably the QB2 on the roster and there isn’t much he could do to be worse than Hornibrook was against Michigan.
If Hornibrook throws up another abysmal performance like the one in the Big House, then there’s no excuse for Paul Chryst to not look to Coan. The Michigan game was bad even by Hornibrook’s standards. That’s unlikely to happen again. But the seed has been planted. Surely the coaching staff has begun to wonder what Coan can do in this offense. The fans certainly have. Even faithful Hornibrook backers who have defended him this entire time are beginning to wonder. I would know. I’m one of them.
Twitter is calling for him.
I don’t think the reigns will be passed to Coan before Chryst goes to a committee approach at the position. Perhaps it’s against Rutgers at home, in a comfortable environment, after Hornibrook struggles against Northwestern on the road and Coan comes in in relief for a few drives. It’s not a scenario you can write off as nonsense anymore.
We’ve seen so little of Coan to know what he brings to the table but that doesn’t matter because we have seen what Hornibrook brings. And it isn’t that good.