I don't know what the deal is here. Josh Freeman showed flashes of being very good (CU, UT, end of OSU) and very bad (ku, RU). I don't know why this is surprising out of true freshman playing behind a medicre offensive line and a WR corp that was decimated by injuries as the season went along. No, Freeman's freshman numbers don't jump out at you, but I can't help but feel if he gets the right players around him and continues to mature he'll be an all league player at KSU. Way too early to make any definative statements about Josh (good or bad) yet.
And on the "coddling"; yes, Prince has protected him in the media, but in no way was he coddled in practice by Prince or Franklin (they even took him out once and put Coffman in with the 1s) during the spring practices I attended.