Offensively, the QB position means almost EVERYTHING to the team. If you don't have one, you are going to suck offensively.... pretty plain and simple. And if you have a great one, it can hide nearly all of your other deficiencies on offense and you can still be good.
Look at Seneca Wallace. Look at Sage Rosenfels. Heck, how about Cam Newton at Auburn. Or Collin Klein at KSU. If we switch QBs today with KSU before the game, then ISU wins by more than 3 TDs easily IMO.
I don't really blame Barnett though. He's giving it his all, but he's just not that good. Kinda like the replacement officials in the NFL. They were trying their hardest, but their hardest just stunk. JB is the same way. He just can't throw the ball to save his life.
On the last 2 fourth down efforts, JB throws the ball in the dirt where NOBODY has a shot at even making a play on it. Like the announcer said, "I don't think Jared Barnett understands what 4th down means?". But like I said, I think JB was really trying his best to complete a pass on those 4th downs, he just can't throw the ball. But I'd much rather have him at least throw it up to someone to make a play on it.
We don't even have a halfway decent QB in JB or SJ right now. So, other than giving Richardson a shot, I don't know what the answer is? Barnett is still the better option over SJ right now just because he gives us a shot to win because he doesn't turn it over 4 times a game like SJ, but we also can't win a game in the end like today when we need to either.
When we got the ball on our last possession, I gave us about a 1% chance of getting a TD on that drive. Hard to believe we couldn't even manage to get even one 1st down though when KSU was in prevent defense. That's just pathetic.
But the fact remains... without a good QB, it's nearly impossible to be a good team. And with a great QB, you can win a National Championship like Auburn did.