I think Heaps should start because...this team is very young and its obvious we aren't BCS bowling this year anyway. Heaps has a rocket of an arm, would be a four year starter (barring injury), so he should get the reps. Plus, looking ahead to next year, he will most likely beat out Nelson in camp next year once he has absorbed more of the offense. Heaps is the drop back QB who needs the reps to get consistency. Riley can fill in like Tebow did with Leak (only once in a while on 3rd and shorts, goal line stands, Heaps needs to get his head adjusted before the next drive, or Heaps is getting the crap kicked out of him). The passing QB needs to develop the rhythym so, he should start. This situation reminds me very much of the Covey/Detmer years where we knew Detmer was going to be special, but he never got the reps to develop until his sophmore year.
I think Heaps should not start because...he didn't beat out Nelson in practice or in performance on the field yet. For that reason, you might want to go with the more experienced person. Also, we don't want to destroy his confidence against tough opponents (such as FSU).
I think Nelson should start because... we should not hold terrible play calling against him. He can make the short throws, if they are called for him. He can make intermediate throws over the middle, if they are called for him. And he can hand off more, which he would do, if the plays were called for him. He should not be required to drop back and rush every time, and he can be very successful if he would simply learn how to keep his eyes down field looking for receivers when he starts to take off instead of looking for running lanes. Nelson has started before and found success at Utah State when the right kind of plays were called for him. Heaps can play clean up time this year or in blowouts against the cream puffs (I hope we have cream puffs this year).
Nelson should not start because... a Junior should have easily beat out a true freshman in practice if he wanted to be the starter. Its obvious he will not be the starter next year if he has to share reps with Heaps all year anyway, so you might as well give Heaps the experience. Nelson isn't the kind of QB the offense was designed for, and we have too much talent that is not used if Nelson is just going to be called on to tuck and run like Anae admitted he did in the second half of the Air Force game. I guess I am saying, if our OC can't figure out how to properly use him, we need to go with what he can use. Also, all of the false starts come when Nelson is at QB. He needs to fix his cadence or the OL needs to figure it out.
Overall I wish we would use the two QB system I had envisioned where Heaps is the Starting QB with Lark as the backup and Nelson as the true Tebow type situational back who comes in on 3rd and shorts, goallines, or whenever the offense needs a jumpstart. Nelson is talented, but I don't feel like he is being used properly or that in our system he can be the featured QB. We would have had to revamp our whole system prior to the season (like a pistol offense or something). Its too late to try and change it now, so Heaps should get the experience he needs to take us further the next three years with Nelson as a good support system.
