Going into A&M last year, all the talk was "Elko will know a lot about Leonard and be able to shut him down"

Lost in all that, I thought, was two things:

1) Leonard will be playing in a different offense with an experienced coordinator with a track record of exploiting mobile QBs to the fullest. So the Leonard we saw at Duke was likely to be a little different playing for us.

2) You know the flip side of that argument? Know who knows Elko's defense better than anybody? Riley Leonard.

Enough of that turned out to be true to win the game.

Carr, I think, has one huge advantage in your theory: he's a coaching pedigree kid. I would assume from background, and everything I've read tends to confirm this, that he has a knowledge of football uncommon for his age because of that. It won't be as good as Leonard had actually playing against that D in practice for years. But it will be a lot better than your typical first time QB starter.

And this is the main reason that I think Minchey, while underappreciated by the national media, will end up not winning the job. Carr's consistency and reading defenses and progressing through reads is his trump card, even though Minchey may be a better runner and might have better arm strength and has a year on Carr.

But it's also the reason I don't think Miami is going to have much of a chance, particularly if Beck is not 100% (as was rumored due to elbow injury). A&M, we'll see. Glad that one's at home, and I think our defense will be good enough to get after A&M and limit their QB run game.