...It's a tough pill to swallow for Drew Weatherford. In football you can do everything right in terms of being a teammate and preparing for the game, but in the end, it always comes down to what happens on the field.
This isn't a time to feel sorry for Weatherford, he had 33 starts to work the kinks out and to show that he could make big plays and lead the offense to the end zone on a consistent basis. As Jimbo Fisher said it's not about one guy but 100 guys and who gives them the best chance to win.
Any speculation that Bobby Bowden would stand in the way was proven to be wrong and is the next step in the handover of this program to Fisher. Anyone who spoke to the head coach in waiting over the last three months knew that he was excited about seeing Ponder go after the starting job. They knew he was excited about the potential of bringing in a guy a little more mobile, a little more accurate and a little more of a playmaking.
Funny thing is D'Vontrey Richardson almost threw a wrench into that plan. This isn't a bad thing because Richardson will play and he'll play quite a bit. The difference is he proved to be even more capable than originally thought to retain a lot of the offense. He went from being a situation player to a major player in one week of practice.
But like I said, he'll have some packages and some formations that would put him in a position to contribute. It's hard to say where Drew stands. There aren't any "Drew packages" and he'll only play in a blow out or if Ponder is injured or completely ineffective.
For three years Weatherford had to "just be Drew" and he could survive any temporary benching or setbacks that came up. He could always stay ahead of more talented, less prepared players like Xavier Lee. But when two young guns pushed him to the point of where he needed to be more than Drew, he wasn't able to do it.