...it's not like UConn, Houston, Virginia etc were very good either. Texas was a little up and down but 3 of those 4 teams finished with losing records and the one team that finished with a winning record (Houston) lost games to 3-9 Tulane and 4-8 UTSA.
Taysom was a returning starting QB with a full season of reps as QB1 plus a freshman season with some starting reps as well. Stewart was a JC walk-on who got very few reps by comparison and had to get up to speed in a hurry. You've made a point that reps are important in a few posts on this thread so are you now discounting the importance of reps?