The Only Conclusion I Can Come To

Is that Lark is doing what's right, on and off the field. Draw your own conclusions for Nelson.



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Nelson is doing what's right off the field, and trying to do too much on the field. That's my conclusion.

My conclusion is that Bronco has continued to allow a QB play that ignores coaching on how to play the position. HE ignores calls to throw it away. HE ignores calls to avoid taking hits. He'd rather be tough guy all the time than smart guy. Lark was smart guy. Nelson is dumb, and refuses to learn. Remember the "Lesson Learned" comments he made earlier this year. He forgot them vs. SJSU.



I Was watching Notre Dame play USC. Gholson is similar size to RIley. YEt he throws it away and slides or runs out of bounds. Same goes with the QB at Ohio State, who is similar to RIley. They run B. Miller a lot, yet he runs out of bounds and slides often, and throws passes away. THose guys know that beng tough guy and getting hurt helps teh team zero. After 3 years, RN still refuses to learn that lesson, and has been forced to play hurt or miss games for 3 years running. I honestly question his QB smarts. Grit he has, but too much of it to be smart enough to play QB. It cuts both ways and is a detriment too often. See Utah, BSU, SJSU, etc.

Lark might be better than Nelson. Lark might even be better than Hill. It would not be the first time that a player started ahead of a better player.

Doman in 2000 was third string. He had two prototypical quarterbacks ahead of him on the depth chart. I remember Lavell Edwards commenting that he looked great in practice. Even though he looked good in practice, there was no real consideration of actually starting him. Both quarterbacks ahead of him looked average through 10 games. After 10 games, Doman was given an opportunity because both quarterbacks were injured. Without injury, Doman probably would never have started at BYU because one of the players ahead of him was a Junior as well. The argument could be made that with Doman starting, Lavell Edwards would have gone to a bowl game his last year.

Over the years, we have probably had 20-30 good quarterbacks that never started due to where they fell on the depth chart.

Unfortunately, quarterback is a position that you can't play your way into. At most other positions, the second even third string sees meaningful time on the field during the course of the season. However, at quarterback, it is a major deal when the quarterback gets pulled, even for a few downs. I still remember Crowton ruining several good quarterbacks by pulling them frequently. You can work any other player into the starting lineup by giving them a few more reps each game. When you make a change at quarterback it had better be fully justified (like last season). My only complaint with the coaches regarding the quarterback this year is that they allowed an obviously injured quarterback to continue to play. Injury is the one situation that you can change quarterbacks without anyone faulting you. Allowing Riley to start the Utah game was forgivable. Allowing Riley to finish the Utah game was suspect. Allowing Riley to start the Boise game was a bad move. Allowing Riley to start the second half of the Boise game was criminal negligence.