Ok. I’m willing to admit it.
Just two short weeks ago, as I was drifting off to sleep and mulling over possible topics for future columns, I thought I had settled on something. I was going to write a piece that made a statistical comparison between Sean Renfree’s numbers in his first handful of starts under head coach David Cutcliffe and those of other Cutcliffe protégés such as Peyton and Eli Manning, Heath Shuler and Tee Martin in their early days under the coach’s watch.
After just two collegiate starts, Renfree had thrown for over 700 yards and six touchdowns and ranked fourth nationally in passing yardage, and it seemed appropriate to mention him in the same breath as his coach’s NFL quarterback brotherhood.
However, after he barely completed 50 percent of his passes and threw more interceptions than touchdowns combined in his two most recent starts—both Duke losses—it is much harder to justify putting him in that company.
Such drastic, quick-changing views of players is the nature of big-time college football, especially when the player in discussion is a quarterback with just four starts and 200 career passing attempts under his belt.
And as Cutcliffe reminded us at his weekly news conference, the reality is that it is way too early to pass judgement on Renfree. I would have been mistaken comparing him already to those quarterbacks with long and storied careers. Instead, we should get accustomed to the exciting ups being accompanied by deflating downs as Renfree develops as a signal caller.
“Sean started his fourth game of his career, and there is a learning curve,” Cutcliffe said. “Some of those experiences that you go through are pretty harsh teachers.”
For example, on his first interception in the loss against Army, Renfree made the correct pre-snap read. However, when one of the linebackers that he initially identified as a blitzer fell into coverage, he failed to make the necessary adjustment, and his pass was picked off.
“Had he gone outside with that ball, we might all be celebrating a victory,” Cutcliffe said. “It is that simple sometimes.”
As Cutcliffe pointed out, it is not about the plays that you make, but the mistakes that you avoid. As was the case in the Army game, three or four bad plays that resulted in turnovers completely overshadowed an otherwise solid performance.
In Renfree’s case, instead of forcing a ball into traffic on first down, he should have thrown the ball away and lived to play another down. Learning to eliminate mental mistakes is crucial for him going forward.
“I am trying to forget as much as I can about the last two games,” Renfree said. “But there are some thing that I need to remember. I am constantly thinking about the things that I have been doing poorly and focusing on them in practice.”
True, Renfree has made his share of mistakes in his first few games, but it would be foolish for impatient football fans to jump to any hasty conclusions about the quarterback’s future. Looking back to last season’s Army game, Thaddeus Lewis struggled before leaving with an injury. Then, Renfree came in and played the hero’s role off the bench by leading the Blue Devils to a come-from-behind victory. The Duke faithful begin to grumble that the senior Lewis should be benched in favor of the redshirt freshman.
Clearly, those opinions were a little premature as Lewis went on to lead the Blue Devils to five wins and ended up in second place on the ACC’s all-time passing yardage list.
A quick look at Renfree’s stats––he is tied for the national lead in interceptions with seven, but also 11th overall in passing yardage––indicate both his immense talent but also his early struggles. With a mentor like Cutcliffe, though, in three years time, we may see Renfree becoming the next Cutcliffe tutee to join the NFL brotherhood.
Get The Chronicle straight to your inbox
Signup for our weekly newsletter. Cancel at any time.