Just about everyone has questions at QB
Posted: Tuesday, April 21, 2009 11:29 PM
At Florida, Oklahoma and Texas, they’ve got no worries about their quarterback. Nearly everywhere else in the country, however, there’s no shortage of quarterback questions. Here’s 20 that come to mind as spring practice has concluded at most schools around the nation.
Is there any tougher assignment than replacing Pat White at West Virginia? No matter what the circumstances -- unbalanced squad division or not -- how valuable is the confidence gained by Jarrett Brown after completing his first 15 passes in last Saturday’s Gold-Blue scrimmage?
On the flip-side, what is Blaine Gabbert’s mindset after wrapping up Missouri’s spring practice with a 9-of-17 performance that netted only 93 yards and should have included three interceptions if not for a butterfingered Tiger secondary?
Like Pat White and Chase Daniel, Mark Sanchez is no longer in college football, but does it even matter who ends up taking over under center at USC? Pete Carroll made news Tuesday, announcing that sophomore Aaron Corp has earned the starting job for Saturday’s “Trojan Huddle” and will continue as such throughout the summer, but could the USC boss really go wrong with any of the three quarterbacks in contention?
Even though he’s a tad behind early-entry freshman Matt Barkley for No. 2 on the Trojan depth chart, how many schools in the country would Mitch Mustain start at? Didn’t experience used to give you an upper hand in these matters? Doesn’t it seem illegal that a guy who was 8-0 as a starter at Arkansas can be stashed on the USC roster as a third-stringer?
How soon will it be before Taylor Potts, who was impressive in Texas Tech’s recent spring scrimmage, starts hearing from the talking heads that he’s just another “system quarterback?” Who else besides me regards that as the most distasteful term in college football? Why should playing well within a finely-tuned offense earn you such a condescending tag?
Why doesn’t the North Carolina State baseball team make better use of second baseman Russell Wilson’s arm? We know that much of the quarterback’s success for the Wolfpack football team was due to his elusiveness behind that leaky offensive line, but wouldn’t you think that his right arm could be put to better use in right field or even on the mound? (This is a great way to spend 13 hours in Raleigh.)
Who’s surprised that walk-on Nate Montana finished with perhaps the best stat line from Notre Dame’s Blue-Gold Game? Fifty-one yards on 2-of-2 passing isn’t exactly legendary, but don’t those numbers look better than Jimmy Clausen’s 8-of-17 for 70 yards (long of 14 yards and an interception returned for a touchdown) and Dayne Crist’s 4-of-10 for 40 yards? How many of you recall that Nate’s proud papa, Joe Montana, was the Irish’s seventh-stringer before making an impression on Dan Devine during spring drills in 1975?
We know that they have their own highfalutin ideas in Palo Alto, but how bizarre is it that Stanford held its spring scrimmage on a Monday? Don’t you also find it hard to believe that Cardinal quarterback Tavita Pritchard beat USC two years ago, but can’t beat out freshman Andrew Luck this spring?
If David Cutcliffe is right about Greg Paulus not being able to play quarterback at Duke, what does that say about Michigan and Syracuse? We know they were both in dire straits, but isn’t all of this absolutely absurd?
