Loyalty

Riley is now 110 out of 120 QBs. As Spiff has noted, Riley's PERS are not acceptable for most of Riley's quarters of play. Whether they were because of injury or bad play calling or just bad playing they are not numbers that will carry the team forward. I appreciate a coach who is loyal to his players and does not change up positions when there is a clamoring of fans who want something different. But very few things are absolute and this goes for loyalty too. Because loyalty to an individual sometimes is less important than loyalty to a team. Riley stands for some really impressive things about toughness and effort and leadership, but the best lesson he can learn in life, indeed all of us, is that when it comes to sports and business at least, there are times when the team or the organization will replace you with the goal of improving performance and outcome. Bronco has done that at least with the coaches--he fired Hill midseason after all. As a matter of principle, sticking with a certain player when there has been enough time to evaluate, does not enhance that loyalty to the player. Rather it devalues the team and their effort and loyalty.



Whit understands this. He replaced his QB and is now going with his third string. It did not result in a win, but it did send a message: performance and execution matter. Coaches sometimes have to "fire" the QB, and sometimes even when they really like them. Perhaps that is why they are paid the big bucks.



I guess what I am saying is that it is time to replace Riley. Of course I say this without all the information Bronco has...Perhaps there is performance and execution skills that Lark is not showing in practice, and as bad as Riley is, Lark is even worse. I do not know. I've only seen Lark in a few sets and at least when I did see him play I liked what I saw in terms of arm strength and foot speed.

At this point, Riley Nelson has played his way off the field. Even if Lark performs consistently worse in practice, it's time to give him a shot going forward.

IF I saw Lark starting Saturday in South Bend, I;d get excited. I want something to be excited about on offense at the QB position.

If I saw Lark starting Saturday in South Bend, I'd get excited. I want something to be excited about on offense at the QB position. Riley simply does not excite me.

We saw some good plays from Riley Nelson on Saturday. He was clearly healthy. Unfortunately, we saw alot of poor decisions. Putting the ball on the ground on the "desperation" attempt to get it to the runningback was the prime example. Even if the attempt had been successfull, there were 3 guys by the running back. Every possible outcome resulted in the ball ending up behind where Riley was going to get tackled. It was not simply a bad decision. It was indicative of a pattern of bad decision making under pressure.

I view myself as a patient man. I am loyal to the coaching staff (in some people's view to a fault). However, it is time for us to move on. Riley Nelson's time as the quarterback at BYU must come to a close.

I fully agree with the OP that loyalty needs to be to the team first and the player second. I wonder though if Bronco could start Lark now. Starting Lark is a lose/lose for Bronco and Doman at this point. If Lark plays poorly it shows the fans that the coaches were playing their best option but we lose the game. If Lark plays well the coaches would look like morons.



I don't know what Lark could have done to have not been given a shot. Riley from most accounts looks/did look terrible in practice situations but is a gamer in real games. How bad must Lark look in practice to not be afforded the same opportunity to prove himself in a game?

BoiseBYU wrote:
Riley is now 110 out of 120 QBs. As Spiff has noted, Riley's PERS are not acceptable for most of Riley's quarters of play. Whether they were because of injury or bad play calling or just bad playing they are not numbers that will carry the team forward. I appreciate a coach who is loyal to his players and does not change up positions when there is a clamoring of fans who want something different. But very few things are absolute and this goes for loyalty too. Because loyalty to an individual sometimes is less important than loyalty to a team. Riley stands for some really impressive things about toughness and effort and leadership, but the best lesson he can learn in life, indeed all of us, is that when it comes to sports and business at least, there are times when the team or the organization will replace you with the goal of improving performance and outcome. Bronco has done that at least with the coaches--he fired Hill midseason after all. As a matter of principle, sticking with a certain player when there has been enough time to evaluate, does not enhance that loyalty to the player. Rather it devalues the team and their effort and loyalty.



Whit understands this. He replaced his QB and is now going with his third string. It did not result in a win, but it did send a message: performance and execution matter. Coaches sometimes have to "fire" the QB, and sometimes even when they really like them. Perhaps that is why they are paid the big bucks.



I guess what I am saying is that it is time to replace Riley. Of course I say this without all the information Bronco has...Perhaps there is performance and execution skills that Lark is not showing in practice, and as bad as Riley is, Lark is even worse. I do not know. I've only seen Lark in a few sets and at least when I did see him play I liked what I saw in terms of arm strength and foot speed.

Well said. Couldn't have said it any better. That includes when I was saying it 12-18 months ago.

Be careful what you wish for. I am torn between the known and the unknown. Worse yet - reps invested in Lark at this late stage do not buy much this year and he is gone next year.



Riley is not likely to stay healthy long, so we likely see Lark no matter what.



But quite frankly - serving any of our QBs up for the slaughter due to poor pass protection and a pedestrian running game @ND is almost cruel and unusual punishment.



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At this point, just let Riley play. He'll likely end up injured in a couple of games anyways.



Two more wins and we get our bowl game. Given the number of fans we have, some bowl out there will take us.



With Hill out of the picture and Lark graduating, does it really matter? Fine we can watch Lark get his chance to play and feel good that he finally got a shot, but Lark isn't going to win us any games we otherwise couldn't have won with Riley. Doman has no idea what to do with a QB that can throw.

We already have our Bowl game set. All we have to do is get to 6 wins.