Coming in to this season, Edwards was very highly regarded by most everyone. If Cal believes that Edwards has the potential to be the player that everyone expected him to be, it is reasonable to start him in spite of the what the fans say. Early in the season we had a number of posters complaining about DJ starting. I recall when many of our posters complained about not starting Allen a few seasons back.
Bottomline is that the coach calls the shots based on what he believes. Saying he should be fired for starting a highly ranked player is pretty ridiculous. Having said that, if I were the coach, I would not start Edwards. But, I might have started Allen (who hasn't even been a star at Western) or I might not have started DJ.