I think we agree about limiting expectations for Caldwell, but I'm not signing off on this whole "QBs regress under Sark" thing. There could be some validity to it, but I disagree with the evidence people have used. First, Ewers looked a lot fucking better in 2023 than he did in 2022. And although he took a step back in 2024, that may be attributable to a nagging injury. That's what Ewers has said and it makes as much sense to me as the idea that he regressed under Sark. As to Manning? We barely saw him play before this season, and most of his snaps against good competition were as a wildcat QB. I don't think he threw a pass against a P4 opponent outside of MSU. And Arch looked good in 2024, but how much of that was Sark keeping things simple for him / playing poor competition / having better WR and OL?
There's too many variables that could explain the apparent "regression" of Ewers and Manning for me to pin it on Sark.