the right qb

BYU Coach Bronco Mendenhall calls the race to be quarterback “dead even” and that judgment becomes the gospel in blue, parroted by fans around the world and reenforced by reporters parsing the performances of Riley Nelson and Jake Heaps.

Each and every summer camp move is broken down, pass by pass and who it comes from and against, the 1's 2's or 3's. Who catches what and who gets sacked or hurried figures into the who's on first string equation?

One writer clues into drills and pronounces Heaps the leader because of a stronger arm and accuracy. Another reads volumes into Riley Nelson taking off the “untouchable” green jersey for some live contact.

John Wooden's quote is dusted off here and there (he prefers “a lot of talent and little experience to lot of experience and little talent”) as a wink and a nod to Heaps.

Bronco's bromide about position mastery offers the same, almost, invisible endorsement to Riley Nelson's camp.

Who's really ahead in the race to be BYU's starting quarterback depends on which i's you dot and capitalize and which td's you count more.

But most arguments miss the point about football and quarterbacks.

The quarterback has to lead his team in the fog of war. It is not a skill that can be readily measured in and through practice.The Cougars will live and die with his decisions. Talent in making and executing those decisions in the heat of battle counts more than every other factor. And how do you simulate live fire? Real battle tries soldiers. Only real games and live ammo will show who can lead and who would rather run and hide.

And by the way. Don't buy into this alternating quarterback fairy tale. Battlefield promotion happens but when it comes to generals, they are usually changed right before or after catastrophes. And few generals fare better on their second or third chances.

So is it Riley or Jake? Whoever it is, Bronco has known all along and this is just an exercise to deflect, rather than attract attention. We have all been watching a master magician run a really effective smokescreen.

What a weird first post. I felt like I was reading Todd Christensen. Parsing, bromide, fog of war...ugh.

And the winner is.....Lark! (TIC for those in need :))

ProV1 wrote:
What a weird first post. I felt like I was reading Todd Christensen. Parsing, bromide, fog of war...ugh.

One thing I have noticed is that the trolls rate themselves BYU Fan whereas nearly every "true" fan rates themself BYU Fanatic or BlueGoggled. (No TIC this time)

imuakahuku wrote:
And the winner is.....Lark! (TIC for those in need :))

LOL!!!

imuakahuku wrote:
And the winner is.....Lark! (TIC for those in need :))

Can't you just say "Tongue in Cheek" next time? I spent hours searching myself for ticks, looking under every fold of flabby skin, checking myself in the mirror, gosh! It's not that hard you guys, just spell out what you're trying to say!

I believe Bronco, I truly think he doesn't know. I think he is going through an inner struggle - do I do something that I'm not comfortable with (starting a true fr. at QB even though he is probably a better fit) or do I go with experience and age? Because of this, I think Bronco will go with both of them, Heaps will start and handle typical duties and Riley will be used extensively in down and distanct situations that suite him. Bronco's inner struggle will be manifest on the field in that way.

Enough with the war and battle metaphors for sports. At best it's silly, at worst demeaning to those who REALLY go to battle.

I dispute the idea that bronco has known all along. if that were true he wouldn't be splitting reps equally, its just not worth it whatever the supposed benefit your post implies.



fact is it is a close race. what i do think is that they know jake is the future and they will start him as soon as they think he is ready.

As a Soldier who's deployed twice, and an avid sports fan, the analogies to war don't bother me too much. There were some guys I woudn't follow up the hill, so to speak, based on how they played on the bball court.



I'm with Jonny, I don't think the coaches know. I think they know they're going to play Jake this year. I think they're trying to figure out the best way to work him into the flow of D1 football early in the season while targeting a date/game to start giving him more and more control and drives.



I'm looking at the Utah State or San Diego State games as games where Jake may start getting more reps/time than Riley. I'm leaning more towards the SDSU game so that Riley can play against the team he left. But I think the coaches may start Jake against SDSU to help him and the team prep for TCU.



Or they may play Riley more until TCU and then basically spring a new offense on TCU with little prep time.

I truly think it all comes down to Riley. He will start the UW game, get the first few series and if he plays well, he may not lose the right to keep playing. If he bombs, Jake goes. If he is streaky, Jake goes. Bronco is going to give him a chance to win it outright. I bet Doman is for that as well.

kitic77 wrote:



Or they may play Riley more until TCU and then basically spring a new offense on TCU with little prep time.

oooooh, I like that idea. It makes me nervous to change things up mid season, but I like it. Anything to throw TCU off will help. Like I have said many time, this is our year to beat tcu. I hope we beat that penguin patterson for his stupid arrogant 'warnings' to byu.

jonnylingo wrote:

Or they may play Riley more until TCU and then basically spring a new offense on TCU with little prep time.

oooooh, I like that idea. It makes me nervous to change things up mid season, but I like it. Anything to throw TCU off will help. Like I have said many time, this is our year to beat tcu. I hope we beat that penguin patterson for his stupid arrogant 'warnings' to byu.

And unlike Utah last year, we'll have prepared Jake for TCU by working him into the offense all year up to that point.



Also has anyone noticed what's been going on up at Utah? Wynn has been less than stellar and Cain has been tearing it up. Do they have a controversy brewing?

Presently, I believe Bronco is considering platooning the two QBs because they both have unique skills that gives the team the best chance to win the game. In our case one player is a better passer (Heaps) who will run when necessary and the other is a good runner first (Nelson) who can also pass. Thus, defenses will have to prepare for two types of quarterback, not just one. This approach allows offenses to run a greater variety of plays. Recently, the platoon QB system was successfully used by the Florida Gators with Tim Tebow in 2006. He was used his freshman season largely as a change of pace to the Gators' more traditional passing quarterback, Chris Leak. Note both QBs were good and it was part of an active strategy. I see the same situation with Heaps and Nelson. I think the Y will set up several packages playing to the strength of both quarterbacks to avoid the defense being able to predict what the offense will do on a given play depending on which quarterback is on the field.

byucougar1 wrote:
Presently, I believe Bronco is considering platooning the two QBs because they both have unique skills that gives the team the best chance to win the game. In our case one player is a better passer (Heaps) who will run when necessary and the other is a good runner first (Nelson) who can also pass. Thus, defenses will have to prepare for two types of quarterback, not just one. This approach allows offenses to run a greater variety of plays. Recently, the platoon QB system was successfully used by the Florida Gators with Tim Tebow in 2006. He was used his freshman season largely as a change of pace to the Gators' more traditional passing quarterback, Chris Leak. Note both QBs were good and it was part of an active strategy. I see the same situation with Heaps and Nelson. I think the Y will set up several packages playing to the strength of both quarterbacks to avoid the defense being able to predict what the offense will do on a given play depending on which quarterback is on the field.

Unfortunately, the problem with our situation is the pure passer is the freshman and the runner is the junior. If it were reversed, I would agree. Getting the ball and then running with it is much easier then reading a defense, dropping back and hitting a guy in stride. My worry with Heaps is when he gets live in a game and has the entire defensive line and a few linebackers running down his throat, he will then look like what he is....a freshman.

I think the key to running two QBs is having clearly defined roles. As was stated else where, we don't have two QBs and we can't decide between them. We seem to have two complimentary players and are looking for ways to utilize them both effectively. If we had Jake and Lark competing I think we'd see a more clear cut decision being made, regardless of the level of separation between them.

Heaps already has a better background as a passer than either Leak or Tebow. He is doing fairly well against what I consider a very talented (albiet young), fast defense. He has been staring in the eyes of hard rushing Vic, Eathyn, Bryson and throwing against Rich, Bradley, Logan and Thomas. His completion rate is 60.1% and has passed for over 1000 yards in camp. He doesn't seem rattled despite the sacks compiled by our D against a very, very good O-line. Yes, he will make freshmen mistakes but going against our defense has made an already good QB even better. He will be ready.

Tough call as to when to hand over the job. I had been thinking that Jake would play more at AF than here at home against UW, bc of his ability to throw down field against defenders more able to stop Riley bc they play against option every day and bc Jake will have gotten some reps against UW.

If they wait until one game before TCU, to put jake in, that sounds ominous. Sort of like Beck against USC when he got smashed in the head and looked very unexperienced, not to mention very dazed.

Glad Riley is solid. Lets hope jake picks things up quickly.

Beck wasn't ready to come in against USC. He barely played the week before against Georgia Tech. And he came in against one of the best college teams money could buy. And he WAS very inexperienced. It was basically his first taste of D1 football. He ran twice for -15 yards and had one pass attempt against GT.



Beck was our "option" QB in 2003. He was our Riley Nelson to Matt Berry's Jake Heaps. He wasn't ready in 2003.