Bronco gets 2nd chance to mange QBs right

"A year and a half ago, Brigham Young Cougars head coach Bronco Mendenhall had to replace his starting quarterback. With a little experienced backup and a blue chip recruit battling it out, Mendenhall let the quarterback position battle become a long, drawn out process that was eventually resolved by default—Riley Nelson got injured. The quarterback position again needs to be managed. Mendenhall now has a second chance to get it right."



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I hope Bronco closes practices and doesn't announce a starter to the media. I hope they just trot the starter onto the field at game time and let the Defense learn who it is then. Not sure why Bronco doesn't use secrecy to his advantage more then he does. He should have done that last year too, but he didn't. I hope Riley is the starter and gets starter reps this week for the first time in his BYU career. I would bet his throwing motion would improve if he were getting all of the reps in practice that a normal Throwing QB gets. Detmer didn't have a good arm either, in fact he probably had one of the weakest arms in BYU history but he was smart and accurate, AND he made plays with his legs. Riley can get it done at BYU, I have seen enough of his throws in the WA game and in the USU game on friday to see that he has enough of an arm to make the throws neccessary to be successful. Plus he has the added ability to make plays with his legs.

Per reports today, Bronco said he will not announce publically the starter until Thursday. I read that to mean that the team will know before Thursday. So I think he will use it to advantage for SJSU.



But really, if we play SJSU close at home, we suck.

Lawboy wrote:
But really, if we play SJSU close at home, we suck.

hahah, this cracked me up. From what I am seeing, this is the same crap from last year. My opinion is that Heaps hasn't been coached well enough to make the read, check down, and then throw with authority. I am not opposed to Nelson coming in for some change ups, but Heaps needs to be the guy, needs to develop. Nelson just doesn't have the qb skills. With Nelson at the helm I see us winning some games, but we are not going to get any better. Lots of others have pointed out that teams will figure out the gimmick and we will be stuck in the same situation that was AFA last year. Bronco needs to get this right.

If this is indeed a 2nd chance to manage the QBs right then Bronco should do what he should have done last year and that was be patient with Jake Heaps and let him develop without the pressure of having to perform on the field.

Nelson is not a "gimmick". He has all the tools to be successful at BYU, otherwise he would not be even close to the position he is in right now (about to be BYU's starter). Teams can game plan for and try to stop him. It will be up to Riley and Coach Doman to counter their game plan and beat that defense. The Heaps/Doman combo has been unsuccessful at doing that a lot this year. We will see if Doman/Nelson can be successful.

bronco just needs to be decisive and lead. something he didn't do last year. whatever he does he needs to have already made a choice and then make it work.



this is another big test for our coaches.

SpiffCoug wrote:
If this is indeed a 2nd chance to manage the QBs right then Bronco should do what he should have done last year and that was be patient with Jake Heaps and let him develop without the pressure of having to perform on the field.

My thoughts exactly.