Here's the thing about the decision to start Todd.
I don't care what kind of shiny spin the dullard Choppers of the world try to put on it, unless you believe Chris Todd had some kind of holy hallelujah spiritual intervention and was reborn as a new man with a new brain and new wheels then you can't help but have questions and doubts.
The things that were wrong with Todd -- speed, bad reads, hesitancy, mechanics -- went far beyond any issue he may have had with his shoulder. Could those things be coached out? Maybe so. But could they have been coached out in the few weeks he's been able to practice? Again you'd have to have some kind of divine miracle to think it possible. Great if it happened.
If the kid can come back and be competitive and overcome all the clusterfuck things he did last season that were unrelated to his alleged shoulder problems then you've got the feel good story in the SEC and some seriously positive press.
For Chizik and Malzhan to make this move knowing that the fan (and likely media) reaction would be negative -- not as negative as the day Chiz was hired, of course so anything is better than that -- they had to believe one thing beyond a shadow of a doubt. NOT that Chris Todd was the guy, but that Kodi Burns or Neil Caudle were not capable of handling the job on any level.
Chizik is dumb. Of that I have no doubt. But he's not dumb enough to miss the point that he desperately needs something positive to happen this season in order to bolster recruiting and ease some of the nagging fears that exist everywhere but in the minds of Chizad, Chopper Beta and Prowler. So if he's making this move, knowing that it will no doubt bring even more skepticism, he (and Malzhan) must believe this is their best option.
And I say again, based on everything we've seen to this point and everything we know, that if Chris Todd is our BEST option, our remaining options are pretty bleak.
Damn straight I learn from the past. I've got a degree in history for cripe's sake. Learning from the past doesn't mean that you ignore everything that happened and apply some dumbass fantasy to it so it fits the concept you're fixated on.
You can make all the excuses for Todd you want: Bad shoulder, couldn't make throws he wanted to make, didn't have a coach, had jock itch, had a blister on his ass, had a toothache, ate a bad cheeseburger, whatever. Fact remains that he wasn't able to do the job. You can't use all those excuses as evidence that he's going to be capable now.
Maybe he will be. But that does not eliminate the fact that if he IS the best we have, given the head start Caudle and Burns had in the spring, then it CANNOT be considered a positive until proven otherwise.