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This is not, in and of itself, a surprise. Butch Jones has always been the type of coach who puts off announcing decisions until the last possible minute. He has never been the kind of coach who lets things play out in the media, or to send a message through the media. Still, all of his statements this week have covered the bases, either way. This quote from an ESPN story yesterday shows Jones at his finest.
"My confidence (in Legaux) has not changed one bit, but it's a little bit of a gut feeling," Jones said. "Our team needed a spark, it was our first noon game, and our philosophy was to create our own momentum in this game. But it gets back to what I said. We’re not going to tolerate the inconsistency and sometimes being careless with the football. We need to take care of the football. He’s going into the end zone carrying the ball on the wrong arm, reaches the ball out and it’s a fumble. If that ball goes out of the end zone, that’s catastrophic."
In slightly more than 100 words Butch manages to both endorse, and repudiate the play of Munchie Legaux. He supports him, and throws him, ever so gently, under a slow moving bus.
I suspect that Brendon Kay will get the start, and the majority of the snaps against Temple on Saturday. Temple is a very low risk proposition for this offense. Temple is a team that plays hard, and is fundamentally sound, but lacks the talent, particularly up front, to contend with the Bearcats running.
If Kay starts well, he will probably get the opportunity to finish the game, and it goes without saying, the season. The Bearcats don't need a ton of production from the quarterback position to be an effective offense. Simply taking care of the football, and making the timely throw will do. For most of the season Munchie was doing the later, but not the former. But there is a reason that taking care of the ball is #1 on the list, if he can't do that and Kay can, Munchie won't play.
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