Lark is home.

The dark horse to be the starting quaterback at BYU next season is home from his mission. There are several reasons why I pick him to steal the job over Munns, Nelson and Heaps.



In comparison to other options:



Riley Nelson: Pros: Proven winner, runner, experience. Cons: Arm strength is weak, small frame. I think byu could have great success with riley IF Unga stays. If they were to move to a ball control power type of offense they would have hard time losing games. But! This is BYU, always been a passing team. The offensive line will still be young and will not be able to move people off the line well enough in the big games to open the field up for Riley. He's got the heart of TEBOW but not the size.



Jake Heaps: he is almost exactly comparable to lark. They are right about the same size and both have cannons for arms. To put Heaps in as a true freshman is very costly to BYU. They use one of his years of eligibilty, while making the other talented quaterbacks wait. Heaps has got spades of talent and I expect to see him start in the future, but this is a whole new ball game than they play in washington. His high school team was loaded with talent and rarely played a team that could match up to them. The lack of experience, and the long term picture keeps Heaps as a RS, but taking LOTS of snaps in pratice.



Munns: This guy has got a massive frame. He's tall and got great vision. Arm strength is better than rileys but not that of heaps or Lark. But, on the bright side, he does beat Hall as well. This guy had some experience working with the team before, but was behind LARK before the mission and dont see him passing him on the depth chart. I honestly could see munns transfer to washington in the event that LOCKER leaves for the draft.



So that brings me back to lark, Hes got the size, the speed and the arm to take BYU to the next level. He will have the mental maturity from his trials, and his mission that is going to make him an absoulute force for the Y. He will bring the killer instinct that BYU desperatly needs. Also, the edge over munns is that he will be around for spring ball because like I said. HE IS HOME. I wouldn't be suprsied if he makes an apperance at the Las Vegas bowl since its close to home. There is a reason why BYU recruited him over Riley Nelson in the first place. ITs because he is a PRO-STYLE quaterback. The same that the BYU system loves. He will have the experience and maturity edge over Heaps. I look for him to be named on the first game day of the 2010 season. It will be his job to lose, with nelson taking some series for a change up, and even having him in on wild cat.

TodosHomers wrote:
Jake Heaps: ...To put Heaps in as a true freshman is very costly to BYU. They use one of his years of eligibilty, while making the other talented quaterbacks wait.

IF Heaps blueshirts next year, he won't start the year after that. He would likely go on a mission at that point.



Also, from old reports I have read, Munns has a stronger arm than Lark, Munns was ahead of Lark on the depth chart, and Doman flat out dislikes Lark. Lark himself was a great recruiting victory when he chose BYU, as he was perhaps the greatest Utah high school quarterback of all time. But I put him 4th on the deph-chart next season (if Munns returns from his mission before Fall camp), with a potential transfer in Lark's future (although I have read that he is not interested in leaving BYU regardless of if he starts or not).



Good luck to Lark, along with every other BYU player fighting for playing time!

I'm not quite sure where you get the idea that the OL will be young and outmatched. We've got lots of experience on the line and maybe more collective talent that we've ever enjoyed before. The OL is the least of my worries for next year. Matt Reynolds and Braden Hansen are the first two legitimate NFL lineman we've seen in awhile. There have been lots of borderline guys lately and some have even stuck on a practice squad for awhile but no sure bets like Reynolds and Hansen. Then we've also got longtime guys in Speredon and Alleto. Freeman and H. Reynolds are good enough to start on any other team in the conference right now too. And Braden Brown after a full offseason at his new position will be the perfect compliment to Matt at RT. His feet are really good and he just needs to learn some more of the subtle nuances of the position.



It is exciting that Lark is back already though. The more competition the better. I really like Lark and always hoped he'd get at least a year or two to start just due to his being one of the first to catch Bronco's vision for the new program. I wish him the best regardless of the outcome of the QB derby of all QB derbies about to break out.

Wow if Lark IS back that's a huge break for BYU. That's six weeks sooner than I had heard he was returning. Do we have a link showing he is home? If he is home, he will most definitely be in the mix and would make Munns' chance at starting even more less likely as he would be the only one not at spring ball. Lark very well could end up starting. He's got two years in the program, has already worked with Doman and should know the offense. Spring ball just got a lot more interesting.

According to the official system, he is due back 12/21, but mission presidents have the discretion of changing that to 30 days earlier or 30 days later without Salt Lake's approval, so he could very much be home and they didn't bother to update the system, which is common.

Mars wrote:
and Doman flat out dislikes Lark.

Source please. And missions can change a kid, too, so even if it was true then, may not be now.



I juts hope one of he QB's that BYU has in place can play and does not blow it for next year.

My first thought: Welcome home Elder Lark, good luck and we hope the best for the team.



My second thought: He's a solid 4th stringer come September.

Ok, if Heaps has a "cannon" for an arm, comparable with Lark's, we are so screwed. When I've seen Heaps play, I think more Montana than Elway. Montana had an adequate arm, but he wasn't going to blow it by you. If Lark and Heaps are similar and Munns has less of an arm than those two, that is not good.



Why again doesn't Doman like Lark? Why was he asked to delay mission plans to be the emergency QB if that was the case? It seems that Munns was here at that time as well, and could easily have been the one asked to delay, especially because they could have had him on a better return cycle (before spring ball).

All I can say is this is this person's only post and was posted very early in the morning. Lark may be home, I doubt the validity of any of the rest of the post.

Heaps has no cannon. He has a solid arm. At the Elite 11, his arm strength was adequate in that group, but wowed no one. It was his pocket poise, huddle command and ability to lead and run a team that was most noticed about the kid. In other words, more Detmer than Beck. And I believe it was Munns who had the rocket arm. He is a big kid, so makes sense. As to Lark, I know little about him, other than he has had a year in the system, much like Max had, and now, like Nelson had, before having a shot to play. And 1 year matters.

just about anytime I see a first poster go to town extolling the virtues of one particular player over all the competition...I immediately think he (sometimes she..?) IS that player anonymously making the rounds.



If that's the case, welcome home Elder Lark, we hope you are as good as advertised and SO much more convincing at QB that there is no choice but to start you over some very good incoming spring arms.

frdbtr wrote:
All I can say is this is this person's only post and was posted very early in the morning. Lark may be home, I doubt the validity of any of the rest of the post.

I'm guessing little brother or cousin.

byutx wrote:

All I can say is this is this person's only post and was posted very early in the morning. Lark may be home, I doubt the validity of any of the rest of the post.

I'm guessing little brother or cousin.

My thoughts exactly. Some sort of relative. Having said that, if Lark comes back and takes the job away from Heaps or Nelson, I will be 100% behind him next Sept.

Interestingly enough half of the responses have been to question the validity of my opinions. You could say I am an avid college football fan and its true, I do have particular interest in Lark. But, I did not say he was the end all solution, I was giving my head to head comparison, from what I have observed to as why he will be the starter next season. I am not his cousin, nor his little brother, but obviously I must have some sort of connection with him if I am able to say that he is home. Given the fact that I have seen 3 of the four quarterbacks actually play football in real life. ( I have yet to see heaps play, but have followed everything available online.) I will stand by my observations and opinions, though as the name somewhat states, we are all biased one away or another and can never be truly objective. Do however continue to question the validity of this "second time poster" instead of actually talking about football, it will continue to allow me to know whose posts I can actually pay attention to on this board.

TodosHomers wrote:
Interestingly enough half of the responses have been to question the validity of my opinions. You could say I am an avid college football fan and its true, I do have particular interest in Lark. But, I did not say he was the end all solution, I was giving my head to head comparison, from what I have observed to as why he will be the starter next season. I am not his cousin, nor his little brother, but obviously I must have some sort of connection with him if I am able to say that he is home. Given the fact that I have seen 3 of the four quarterbacks actually play football in real life. ( I have yet to see heaps play, but have followed everything available online.) I will stand by my observations and opinions, though as the name somewhat states, we are all biased one away or another and can never be truly objective. Do however continue to question the validity of this "second time poster" instead of actually talking about football, it will continue to allow me to know whose posts I can actually pay attention to on this board.

I appreciated the info. I can't wait to see how this all goes down.

Word of advice, don't take anything/anyone too serious around here.

Welcome aboard "second time poster".

I thought Lark broke his leg his first season and that it was sever enough that it delayed his mission some. Because of that, the coaches asked him to wait a year and serve as the 3d stringer during his second season.



It shows some loyalty on both parts, Lark and the coaches. It will be very difficult for Lark to be game ready by next fall. I really dont' see him winning the job unless a miracle happens.



Glad he is back and I wish him the best, but I don't see him starting for BYU with Nelson and Heaps in the fold, and then Munns being back for the 2011 season.

TodosHomers wrote:
Interestingly enough half of the responses have been to question the validity of my opinions. You could say I am an avid college football fan and its true, I do have particular interest in Lark. But, I did not say he was the end all solution, I was giving my head to head comparison, from what I have observed to as why he will be the starter next season. I am not his cousin, nor his little brother, but obviously I must have some sort of connection with him if I am able to say that he is home. Given the fact that I have seen 3 of the four quarterbacks actually play football in real life. ( I have yet to see heaps play, but have followed everything available online.) I will stand by my observations and opinions, though as the name somewhat states, we are all biased one away or another and can never be truly objective. Do however continue to question the validity of this "second time poster" instead of actually talking about football, it will continue to allow me to know whose posts I can actually pay attention to on this board.

I have not taken sides here. I am not sitting here thinking, "I am going to hate BYU football if heaps isn't the guy next fall" I personally don't care. I want the best guy that we have to win the job. If that is Lark, then I will root for him to succeed, if it is Nelson, I will do the same...Heaps the same. I am a BYU football fan, not a James lark fan, or a Jake heaps fan, or a Riley nelson fan. I frankly don't care who wins the QB job, I just want BYU to win football games. I made my comments about your post because you came it at 1am in the morning, to declare that Lark is home and will be the starter next fall. It just left me with the impression that someone met him at the airport and was so excited to see him home, that you couldn't wait until morning to sign on to some cougar website to declare him the next great BYU QB. get offended by my opinion if you want, I will be on this site long after Lark has graduated BYU posting my opinion on the next BYU QB.

First time posters are suspect. We shall see on Lark. Recently returned RM's have a tough time getting it back. Sprint practice should determine who the guy will be.

I wasn't offended and im still not. I merely consider several posters on this thread "suspect". This is a discussion board is it not? I was just expecting to discuss the 'football' in my opinion piece. It's interesting that there is a note of the post being at a late hour, some of us have jobs that aren't the 9-5 norm. I was in a discussion about the quaterback situation with several co-workers. Almost all BYU fans have either written lark off as the transfer or have never heard of him. Next to none of them have seen him play or anything, the post, was in effect the summary of my thoughts from the discussion. I thought I would stop by some of these boards to see if anyone has even been keeping lark in the picture. I looked around for a few minutes, didnt see anything, so I thought I would bring up the conversation. Most people consider it a two way race between Heaps and Nelson, I however consider it a three way race with Munns being late off the mission. Once again, given from what I have seen I still think Lark is going to be the answer. I know RM's have a hard time adjusting, but being back 10 months before the start of the season is a long time to re-adjust. And of course im going to cheer for the cougs no matter who is the starting QB.

Personally, I don't know hardly anything about either Lark or Munns. I suspect that neither of them would be coming to Quarterback U unless they had a tremendous upside. I appreciate any info that I can get on these guys and hope that one of the four we have will really step up and be our 10-win guy for the next several years.