2010 BYU Quarterback Race

The battle for the starting spot in 2010 is an epic one unlike any other. The talent level of the competing quarterbacks, the high stakes for BYU this year, and the historical similarities are three elements of this quarterback race that make it so epic.



http://byufootballtalk.blogspot.com/2010/08/2010-byu-quarterback-race-unlike-any.html

Y12 wrote:
The battle for the starting spot in 2010 is an epic one unlike any other. The talent level of the competing quarterbacks, the high stakes for BYU this year, and the historical similarities are three elements of this quarterback race that make it so epic.



http://byufootballtalk.blogspot.com/2010/08/2010-byu-quarterback-race-unlike-any.html

You forgot to mention Jason Munns. BYU fans may have forgotten about him, and may count him out, but I guarantee you that Bronco has not. Bronco went out of his way to mention him in spring ball, and did again this past week in interviews where he said he "loves" the kid. Plus, reports out of spring ball recently have him starting to look more sharp. He has the physical tools, has had a year in the program. so he knows the offense. Reports are he has a Beck like arm so imagine what he could do with our WR group. I still think Munns is a dark horse to win it.

Lawboy wrote:

The battle for the starting spot in 2010 is an epic one unlike any other. The talent level of the competing quarterbacks, the high stakes for BYU this year, and the historical similarities are three elements of this quarterback race that make it so epic.



http://byufootballtalk.blogspot.com/2010/08/2010-byu-quarterback-race-unlike-any.html

You forgot to mention Jason Munns. BYU fans may have forgotten about him, and may count him out, but I guarantee you that Bronco has not. Bronco went out of his way to mention him in spring ball, and did again this past week in interviews where he said he "loves" the kid. Plus, reports out of spring ball recently have him starting to look more sharp. He has the physical tools, has had a year in the program. so he knows the offense. Reports are he has a Beck like arm so imagine what he could do with our WR group. I still think Munns is a dark horse to win it.

I didn't forget Munns. The problem with Munns is that he didn't fit the angle of the story. (Well decorated prep athlete.)



http://www.byucougars.com/Profile.jsp?ID=3032



I wanted to include him, but after comparing his bio with the others he just didn't fit. Nothing against the guy. Most his accomplishments are school records, which pail in comparison to State MVP and all american citations like the other guys. Maybe BYU has dropped the ball on his bio and Munns does have these other accolades.



He very well could win the starting job, and that is absolutely fine.

Munns had a higher star rating coming out of high school then Lark or Nelson. He was recruited by everyone in the pac 10 and a few other schools as well. He was rated by some recruiting agencies as the best QB coming out of the NW and was a huge coup when BYU got him. Funny how being gone for 2 years has some BYU fans forgetting how big of a recruit he was. Frankly, I am in the Munns camp, I hope he is able to somehow shake off the mission rust and put an end to the Nelson/heaps debate. Let him win the starting job and send Heaps on a mission.

C'mon. Nobody is forgetting about Munns. He got back like a few weeks ago. There is just about no way that any RM QB could possibly get ready that quickly. It takes a long time to get the timing back. He's a real talent to be sure but I think you might also be forgetting that Lark was a steal in his own right. In fact, Lark while rated a 4 star QB, same as Munns, was actually ranked higher in his class (#16 compared to #23 IIRC). Granted they were in different classes so you're really comparing apples and oranges. And I think that most knowledgeable BYU fans recognize that Munns probably has the higher ceiling but if Lark hasn't even shaken all the rust of yet and he's been home over 6 months, it's safe to assume that Munns is going to struggle at least through fall camp. Being removed from the game for two years is harder for a QB than any other position on the field. You don't just bounce back immediately. I'd give Munns a greater chance of unseating Heaps (should he start this year) in the future than getting the starting nod over any of the other three this year.

Munns, IMO, is the second most talented QB on the roster behind Heaps. But I don't know if he's ever going to see much time at the position. If he had gone straight on his mission I think he'd have won the job this past spring and coaches would be doing all they could to convince Jake to RS and then serve a mission.

Great Story Y-12 very well written. I do however have a different take on couple of the things you mentioned. First of all I remember watching that game against Washington back in 1997. Brad Nessler and Gary Danielson were the announcing team that day. I remember during the second half that after a short period of time. Danielson was apparently upset with what he was seeing in the play calling. Because I remember him saying I don't understand this if I were Shoemaker I would be ticked. He was right the play calling in the second half of that game was considerably different than the first.Now to be clear I am not accusing Norm Chow of anything, but you have to wonder if he had called the same kind of plays in the first half if things would have turned out differently.



In regards to Brandon Doman just remember one thing, He was the guy in large part that was responsible for getting Heaps to come to BYU. In short he was the main recruiter for Heaps. I live in the state of Washington and saw first hand how good of a recruiter Brandon is. Now I know some you will say well Heaps wanted come to BYU for long a time. I'm not so sure about that until senior year, I have no doubt that before his senior year started he had pretty much decided he was coming to BYU. As I recall he credited Doman for part of the reason he decided on BYU.

So what I'm saying is yeah in some aspects Nelson is a lot like Doman. But Brandon put whole lot of effort into getting heaps so I seriously doubt that what you said will be much of a factor in who the starter ends up being.

Doman is the main reason both Heaps and Nelson are at BYU.

kitic77 wrote:
Doman is the main reason both Heaps and Nelson are at BYU.

Really? As I recall the Nelson family contacted Bronco while Riley was on his mission and expressed interest in having him transfer to BYU. Look I'm not trying to belabor the point here, All I was doing was suggesting to Y12 that the Idea that Doman would try to convince Bronco to start Nelson because he's like Doman is a little off base. I live here in the state of Washington I know what Doman did to recruit Heaps. As far as I can tell he didn't do that with Nelson. He didn't have to. Now before anybody says anything let me point out that I know Doman doesn't play favorites, I think its been shown over time he doesn't operate that way.



All I am saying is that of all the reasons to start Nelson over Heaps I don't believe that what Y12 suggested about Doman is a viable one.Thats all.

Yeah, I think one this is certain. The QB who starts will not be because he was the "favorite" of some coach or the upperclassman. It's because they're the best QB that coach feel gives the team the best chance to win.

pjspack, great points. I agree.

BTW, welcome aboard. I look forward to your future posts and perspective.

frdbtr wrote:
Munns had a higher star rating coming out of high school then Lark or Nelson. He was recruited by everyone in the pac 10 and a few other schools as well. He was rated by some recruiting agencies as the best QB coming out of the NW and was a huge coup when BYU got him. Funny how being gone for 2 years has some BYU fans forgetting how big of a recruit he was. Frankly, I am in the Munns camp, I hope he is able to somehow shake off the mission rust and put an end to the Nelson/heaps debate. Let him win the starting job and send Heaps on a mission.

That's some good info. The BYU bio is quite the disservice to him.

pjspack wrote:
Great Story Y-12 very well written. I do however have a different take on couple of the things you mentioned. First of all I remember watching that game against Washington back in 1997. Brad Nessler and Gary Danielson were the announcing team that day. I remember during the second half that after a short period of time. Danielson was apparently upset with what he was seeing in the play calling. Because I remember him saying I don't understand this if I were Shoemaker I would be ticked. He was right the play calling in the second half of that game was considerably different than the first.Now to be clear I am not accusing Norm Chow of anything, but you have to wonder if he had called the same kind of plays in the first half if things would have turned out differently.



In regards to Brandon Doman just remember one thing, He was the guy in large part that was responsible for getting Heaps to come to BYU. In short he was the main recruiter for Heaps. I live in the state of Washington and saw first hand how good of a recruiter Brandon is. Now I know some you will say well Heaps wanted come to BYU for long a time. I'm not so sure about that until senior year, I have no doubt that before his senior year started he had pretty much decided he was coming to BYU. As I recall he credited Doman for part of the reason he decided on BYU.

So what I'm saying is yeah in some aspects Nelson is a lot like Doman. But Brandon put whole lot of effort into getting heaps so I seriously doubt that what you said will be much of a factor in who the starter ends up being.

You bring up a great point about the 1997 opener. I was at the game, so I don't know what was said on TV, but now that you bring it up, I remember some talk about the play calling after the game. It really wasn't fair what they did to Shoemaker to bench him after 1/2. Very uncharacteristic of the LaVell era to get desperate like that. LaVell never worried too much about non-conference games, especially non-conference season openers, so it was very puzzling that they did not give Shoemaker more of a chance before taking his job away.



As for Doman, I don't think he would do anything unfair to the quarterbacks or play favorites or that he has less interest in Heaps. All I know is that rating quarterbacks involves a lot of subjective measures and the mobility aspect shared by Doman and Nelson is just one more measure that could play a factor in the decision. Will it in the end? I have no idea, but that doesn't mean we can't point out the similarity and talk about it.