Riley Nelson not appreciated in his own country?

It is unbelievable to me how we as BYU fans look at Riley Nelson as barely able to complete his responsibilities as a QB at best and a total disaster at worst (someone mentioned him as turnover prone when he has exactly 1 interception so far this year). I was watching the pac 12 network this morning flipping the channels and I happened to catch the analysis of the utah BYU game this weekend. I can't remember exactly who the commentators were, I know Neuheisel was one of them. Anyway, they described riley as being an excellent QB. I remember last year when we were preparing for our bowl game the media outside of utah also described him as a very good qb. Could it be that since the media outside utah hasn't blinded themselves behind Riley's weak arm that they judge him in the way that he should be judged, ie he is a very smart QB that plays to his strengths, reads defenses very well and makes plays?



It seems like BYU fans this year have a worse attitude about this team than any team I can remember in recent history. Is that because we really are a bad team just waiting to run into a "quality" opponent or because Riley doesn't throw 70mph incompletions? Give me that wobbly duck completions any day. I have said this before (and Riley is NO Ty Detmer) but Detmer also had a weak arm and threw some of the ugliest completions I have ever seen but the ball was always on time and always exactly where it needed to be to make the catch. That is how I look at Riley, he doesn't throw the prettiest ball, it wobbles and he has a weak arm but he throws on time and seems to know how to make plays.

It's hard to find respect in your home country. First impressions are everything. To a majority of BYU fans their first impression was of a run first, short passing guy. Now there were plenty of extremely smart, football savvy guys that saw him in practice that said he could make all the throws, but it wasn't their first impression.



Now we have a national media that is getting their first impression of a winner, who has a great completion percentage, and a good passer and that's what they see, while some BYU fans still see what they first saw.

hawkwing wrote:
It's hard to find respect in your home country. First impressions are everything. To a majority of BYU fans their first impression was of a run first, short passing guy. Now there were plenty of extremely smart, football savvy guys that saw him in practice that said he could make all the throws, but it wasn't their first impression.



Now we have a national media that is getting their first impression of a winner, who has a great completion percentage, and a good passer and that's what they see, while some BYU fans still see what they first saw.

I agree with this. First impression take time to overcome.



I'll add that unless you get us to a BCS bowl, it'll take some time for a lot of fans to think of you the positive light you deserve. It seems like we look back on Max Hall's career much more fondly now than while it was happening. Not getting us a BCS bowl in '08 and '09 left a really bad taste in our mouths for some time. Beck got a pass on that because he helped bring us out of the Dark Ages of BYU football.

Yes. The Aggies are still pissed that he bailed on them. ;-)

Yeah, I have been a fan of BYU for a little while now and I'm amazed at the standards that people have constructed. Anything less than a perfect quarterback (what is perfect anyways? oh yeah, whatever interpretation people want to throw out there) is a disaster. We just beat Washington State and Weber State and we are 2-0, and man, people are MAD. I suppose we need to have the the Oklahoma State-Savannah State type of performance for every game, and Riley needs to be a freakin' superman in order to please the fans. A win is a win is a win. We will have wins that are close nail-biters. This should not give an impression that RN is a bad quarterback.

If he beats utah all opinions will change on him.

Riley is doing well reading coverages, and he should be applauded for that. He's thrown very few bad balls this season, but again, we haven't played anyone so we're just waiting to see how he does against a good to great team.

scott715 wrote:
If he beats utah all opinions will change on him.

Worked for Max Hall - but does Riley also need to give a post-game rant or just high five Star when Star is celebrating a sack.

I really don't get it either. If you count the Utah St game last year, in which he basically turned an embarrassing loss at home to a great win, he is 10-1, losing only to TCU in Dallas. The offense still put up 28 points in the loss and he played decent.

He threw for 1700 yards last year with 19 TD's and just 7 int's. He had a QB rating of 152. He also rushed for 392 yards with an average of 4.5 YPC, he was the third leading rusher on the team.

This season he has a 66% completion percentage with 3 TD's and 1 INT with a passer rating of 146. He also hasn't fumbled the ball yet this year.

He certainly doesn't have pure talent, but we saw how well just pure talent worked for Heaps. He has a great work ethic, a lot of grit and determination, and generally makes smart decisions on the field.

In short I think he is a very good QB and I love watching him play.

If BYU fans are complaining about that then I wonder what more they want.

(edited for typos and grammar)

tripwire wrote:
I really don't get it either. If you count the Utah St game last year, in which he basically turned an embarrassing loss at home to a great win, he is 10-1, losing only to TCU in Dallas. The offense still put up 28 points in the loss and he played decent.

He threw for 1700 yards last year with 19 TD's and just 7 int's. He had a QB rating of 152. He also rushed for 392 yards with an average of 4.5 YPC, he was the third leading rusher on the team.

This season he has a 66% completion percentage with 3 TD's and 1 INT with a passer rating of 146. He also hasn't fumbled the ball yet this year.

He certainly doesn't have pure talent, but we saw how well just pure talent worked for Heaps. He as a great work ethic, a lot of grit and determination, and is generally makes smart decisions on the field.

In short I think he is a very good QB and I love watching him play.

If BYU fans are complaining about that then I wonder what more they want.

I could not have said THIS better.



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tripwire wrote:
I really don't get it either. If you count the Utah St game last year, in which he basically turned an embarrassing loss at home to a great win, he is 10-1, losing only to TCU in Dallas. The offense still put up 28 points in the loss and he played decent.

He threw for 1700 yards last year with 19 TD's and just 7 int's. He had a QB rating of 152. He also rushed for 392 yards with an average of 4.5 YPC, he was the third leading rusher on the team.

This season he has a 66% completion percentage with 3 TD's and 1 INT with a passer rating of 146. He also hasn't fumbled the ball yet this year.

He certainly doesn't have pure talent, but we saw how well just pure talent worked for Heaps. He has a great work ethic, a lot of grit and determination, and generally makes smart decisions on the field.

In short I think he is a very good QB and I love watching him play.

If BYU fans are complaining about that then I wonder what more they want.

(edited for typos and grammar)

LET'S START WITH WIN AT UTAH!

I want a righty QB. Lefties suck. Just kidding.



If Riley can help lead us to a win versus the dreaded pukes, that will help a lot. If he helps us win a couple of those tough road games against ND and GT, then he will be regarded as a very good QB. If we run the table and get into a BCS game, he will be a borderline great QB. If we actually win that BCS game, he will be an elite BYU QB.



I know it is unfair to put wins and losses entirely on the QB, but I am only speaking of fan perception--from my perception.

Cougarfan87 wrote:
I want a righty QB. Lefties suck. Just kidding.



If Riley can help lead us to a win verses the dreaded pukes, that will help a lot. If he helps us win a couple of those tough road games against ND and GT, then he will be regarded as a very good QB. If we run the table and get into a BCS game, he will be a borderline great QB. If we actually win that BCS game, he will be an elite BYU QB.



I know it is unfair to put wins and losses entirely on the QB, but I am only speaking of fan perception--from my perception.

If Riley runs the table with this schedule, I am creating a poll that looks like this:



Riley Nelson is...



O ...a great BYU quarterback

O ...the greatest BYU quarterback



Let me be honest and frank about this. Riley Nelson is the phoenix that helped BYU football rise from its own ashes, and I am grateful to bask in the glow of his flowing plumage.

I agree with the Riley supporters. And I'm confident that he will kick some Ute butt, or perhaps I should say, that he will pluck a few red feathers from that PC PAC 12 stooge birdie's tail.

Cougarfan87 wrote:
I want a righty QB. Lefties suck. Just kidding.



If Riley can help lead us to a win verses the dreaded pukes, that will help a lot. If he helps us win a couple of those tough road games against ND and GT, then he will be regarded as a very good QB. If we run the table and get into a BCS game, he will be a borderline great QB. If we actually win that BCS game, he will be an elite BYU QB.



I know it is unfair to put wins and losses entirely on the QB, but I am only speaking of fan perception--from my perception.

Nah, he'll get more props than that if we go undefeated because it'll be all him on offense. The line sucks so the RB's aren't gonna do much this year. I have every confidence in Riley when he throws downfield that he will find his man and this year he has done just that. Riley will be in elite company if we go undefeated--this is a tough schedule.

Everything I need to know will come from Saturdays game. We have played two very poor defenses so we really don't know anything yet. It is great that he only has one INT but he should have 4 more if the DB's could only catch.



Here's to a great showing on Saturday.

I have two comments: First, why is it that when a quarterback throws a laser-pass to a receiver that just gets in before the defender can get to it, it's a great pass, but if a lofted, wobbly pass gets to the receiver just before the defender can get to it, it "should have been intercepted". In both cases, the quarterback made the right read and got the ball to the receiver before the defender could arrive. Just wondering why the double standard.



Second - Most of you may not remember, but the Daily Universe was full of letters to the editor (sorry, no Cougar Corner back then) with criticism of Steve Young when he was playing for BYU because he "wasn't a good passer", "ran first", etc. I always (including back then) thought he was BYU's best quarterback, because of his mobility, his winning attitude, and his grit and determination. Riley really reminds me of Young - he's even left-handed. :)

Um, except check out the scores when Steve Young played vs Riley.

Maybe it's just the diff between LaVel and D minded Bronco.

But you are right to some degree. Detmer threw a lot if INTs as well.

But your analysis is far off. Relative to "just barely getting there" It's not just getting there slowly, there have been defenders with hands on the RN passes and have dropped them. Otherwise there would be several more INTs this year. We have been lucky.

db's drop sure interceptions all the time. That is why they only count as interceptions if the db catches the ball. "almost" only counts in hand grenades and horse shoes.

frdbtr wrote:
db's drop sure interceptions all the time. That is why they only count as interceptions if the db catches the ball. "almost" only counts in hand grenades and horse shoes.

"Almost" also counts as a completion if you're a QB at Ole Miss.