The Campus Sports Guy Blog
QB Controversy
By Corey Ryan, Sports Editor
April 28, 2007 | 12:25 a.m.
Although coach Frank Solich has announced who his No. 1 quarterback after saying that position was up for grabs during the spring. The problem is, that guy wasn’t healthy in the spring.
Sounds like Bobcat Nation is on the cusp of a good, ol’ fashioned quarterback controversy.
Since the start of the Solich era, the quarterback position was Austen Everson’s to lose, and boy, did he try hard to lose it. At times, it seemed like Solich and the rest of the coaching staff were praying for someone else to take it from Everson.
First year Bobcat and Illinois transfer Brad Bower was given so many opportunities to take over, but he threw them all away, literally and figuratively. Still, with Everson out of the picture after graduation, Solich said Bower would be the guy next season as to be expected. He played in almost every game last season. However, even though the position was up for grabs the past six weeks, Bower was unable to fully practice or scrimmage because of a knee injury.
Enter college-transfer, junior Theo Scott.
Scott, a California native who admitted to not even knowing there was an Ohio University, was the only offensive player who made anyone “ooh and awe” during Saturday’s Green-and-White game. Granted, Kalvin McRae, the best player on this team, saw the ball only six times, all in the first quarter. Still, Scott was the only quarterback of the four who saw time to show the ability to produce.
On his first drive, Scott ran an option left with back-up running Josh Abrams, and fans saw something they never could see when Everson ran the play. Scott pressured the defense and saw the pitch wasn’t there, so he cut back on a dime and exploded through a tiny hole. After the explosion came the break away speed, capping a 44-yard run.
Both the Green and the White teams combined for only two touchdowns, both with Brandon Jones under center. Translation: the offense stunk the familiar smell of inaptitude and inability featured a season ago. A smell that is comparable to old fish, in my opinion.
Scott was not exempt from the offense’s shortcomings, but he did lead all four quarterbacks statistically with 9-of-16 passes for 86 yards. However, like all the quarterbacks, he did not show the ability to throw downfield, and he only had the one big run.
Now on to why Scott should be the guy come September.
After the game, Scott carried himself with a swagger that no other quarterback on the roster has. He’s confident and cool. Everson was nice, a model citizen and an extremely intimate and emotional player. Scott is just cool. He’s the kind of guy who could lead because he kept his emotions under control.
It was just the spring game, but third string quarterback Josh Febus was pretty perturbed afterwards. Febus talked about the offense’s “potential” to be good. He also sort of spun the poor offensive performance into an "us against the world, chip on his shoulder" type of deal.
If the "Ohio offense against the world" isn’t enough of a conflict, Febus even blamed the inaptitude of the offense on the spring game concept. “They [the defense] know the scenarios,” he said with a stone-cold face. “They know the plays. They know what’s coming at them. They know what defenses to run to stop it. With their athletic ability, you would hope they would be able to make the plays.”
Febus is supposed to make this a three-way race, but he’s more likely to get in a fist fight on Court Street than become the starting quarterback. Everyone else who thought Febus had a chance was probably convinced otherwise after watching him play. At least he can break a tackle.
“I work really hard in the weight room,” Febus said of the tackles he broke in the backfield on scrambles, which resulted in negative yardage.
Now that we have it narrowed down to two guys-- Bower and Scott-- the focus moves on to why not Bower.
Bower, Mr. Interception last season, is going to be the starting quarterback when practice starts up again. Solich said it, and I believe him. But Bower doesn’t have the swagger of Scott or the talent.
The offense is horrible. Neither Bower nor Scott will change that, but Bower only has one more season left in him while Scott has three years of eligibility left. If the Bobcats are going to constantly improve, they need a withstanding program quarterback, which is what Everson was thought to be.
On pure potential, Bower is an average speed, average sized quarterback who throws a nice ball, but is inconsistent and inaccurate. He almost completed some nice passes last season, but most of his good balls where thrown to the wrong team.
Scott seems like the kind of guy who can calm an erratic offense down in the huddle, get everyone on the same page and hand it off to McRae 60 percent of the time. Most importantly, if he can’t calm everyone else down with his composure and athleticism, he is capable of making a play without the help of a receiver. It would have been great if Solich had called more option plays for Scott to see if he could consistently run the play, but that would have been too easy.
I don’t know when Scott will take over the job; it might not happen until the season starts, but I have a suspicion he will overtake Bower in fall practice. Why would a guy come all the way from California unless he had some support from one of the coaches? Obviously the coaching staff is not sold on Bower. I know I’m not.