Tuesday, October 28, 2008

Johnson Best For Cowboys

Forty year old quarterback Brad Johnson is now 1-1 as the starting QB until Tony Romo's pinkie is ready to go. After another minimal offensive effort from Johnson and the 'Boys, Head Coach Wade Phillips had a tough time saying the former Super Bowl winning QB Johnson would remain the starter in Big D.
Brooks Bollinger is their only other option at this point and to me, that is really no option at all, so stick with the guy that can't throw it in front of his receivers on "fly" patterns, but will get rid of it to his outlet receivers to keep his team out of a lot of long yardage situations.
Brad Johnson hasn't had the physical ability to be the everyday starter since he was replaced in Tampa the season following the Super Bowl, but he has the savvy to be the "stop gap guy" to keep the Cowboys in the hunt for another week or so.
Watch out for the Cowboys offense when Romo gets back in there. With Roy Williams and Terrell Owens on the outside and Whitten at tight end, they will be a high flying circus once again.

Wednesday, October 22, 2008

Canes Fresh QB Problem

Randy Shannon made it clear at the start of the season that both Robert Marve (redshirt freshman) and Jacory Harris (true freshman) would play a lot of QB for Miami this season, but named Marve "the starter".
It has been more up and down for Marve and seemingly more up for Harris so far as the Hurricanes try to quickly get their program back up to national relevance and eventually one day to national prominence. The problem is that two QB's playing significant time will not work for two guys with four years of eligibility. One will need to find another school at some point. Chris Leak and Tim Tebow coexisted to a national title because they were so different and used so differently and there was the senior-freshman part as well. Prime-time players won't stand (or sit on the bench) for part-time play their entire careers, but how does it play out?
Robert Marve is a Tampa guy that is more drop-back and traditional and Jacory Harris is from Miami and more athlete than QB. My guess is that the Miami recruiting grounds is much more important to the Miami program that ultimately Harris will be "the guy" and Marve will be looking for a new U.

Sunday, October 19, 2008

McCoy Bests Daniel in Head-to-Head Heisman Race

Chase Daniel was having a perfect first half of a season and was the leading candidate in the "chase" for the Heisman Trophy, but with a second Mizzou loss this season and McCoy leading the #1 team to the big win over Sam Bradford and now Daniel in successive weeks, the Longhorn's signal caller is the odds-on fave for the hardward come December.

Saturday, October 4, 2008

Florida, South Florida and their QB's fall

The reigning Heisman Trophy winner Tim Tebow and a name just popping up on the Heisman radar screen Matt Grothe of the South Florida Bulls weren't able to keep their teams unbeaten this past week. Both played at home and both played against teams that didn't look to be the biggest stumbling blocks on their respective team's schedules.
The Gators let Ole Miss stop them on a fourth down conversion in the fourth quarter that had 22 men at the point of attack, including Tebow who had nowhere to go even though he was a few yards deep in his own backfield.
In a nationally televised Thursday night game for the USF Bulls, Grothe played a back and forth game with the Pitt Panthers. I spoke with Head Coach Jim Leavitt at a local high school game last night and he didn't make any excuses saying, "We got outcoached and outplayed."
Last Saturday's loss put the Bulls ahead of the Gators in the rankings for a week, but the 10th ranked Bulls will certainly fall significantly, unless a bunch of teams fall this Saturday.
Tebow isn't being asked to carry the load on the ground for Florida nearly as much this year and it would have been a good call to use their speed to convert that fourth down call instead of trying to barrel to down the Rebels' throat, but who can blame offensive coordinator Dan Mullen when it worked every time last year--maybe that is the problem--when it works in the previous year, teams work on that and prepare.
For USF, their great defensive end George Selvie wasn't in to help make the stops and sacks that he usually is, but with Grothe just making into some discussions about greatness, his team falls to one that isn't.