BYU vs. U-DUB: A tale of 3 QB's and 3 inches.

As I stood cheering in the final minutes at Lavell Edwards Stadium of the BYU versus Washington game, I looked at a defeated Jake Locker and a familiar line from a familiar tune came to my mind...

"You can't always get what you want."  

(Rolling Stones)

Jake Locker had high hopes of putting on a Quarterback clinic for two "less than" him QB's.  After all, this is the top preseason Heisman candidate, and a unanimous #1 pick in the NFL draft.  With 4.3 speed and a cannon of an arm, it was easy to see why... before BYU put the breaks on him, and made him look average.  Finishing the game with one TD pass, and no running TD's... Like I said, average.

A few guys in Blue on the other hand, did not look average!

The double headed monster of Jake Heaps and Riley Nelson combined for 262 passing yards with Riley pulling out the better performance on 2 touchdown passes , and a "go for two", two point conversion run in.

Let me start with Heaps...

This guy WILL BE as good as advertised.  His accuracy and throwing speed were really sharp.  The zip on the ball was almost too much for the WR corps!  He could have taken a little off and still would of been fine. With a good O-line Heaps will develop a pick-a-part offense that will punish even the best Corners!  That being said, he's not there yet.  He hurried a few throws, and as before mentioned, had a bit too much on a few touch passes. The guy could start today anywhere, save 4 or 5 spots, in the country... But he isn't MY starter.

Riley Nelson...

Was definitely the most effective QB on the field Saturday night.  Let me start with his big "?", his arm.  Uh, It's fine.  And by fine I mean good.  Not great, but good.  He has a great touch pass, and is accurate.  Period.  He misses out on the laser that Heaps has, and his throwing motion is long, similar to Tim Tebows throwing motion.  He starts his throwing motion clear down at his waist.
Now on to his running/scrambling ability... can be a game changer!  I read a great article that said if Nelson was 3 inches taller he would be getting similar accolades as Locker.  Could be.  What I was really impressed with wasn't that he had 45 really good scrabbling yards, but that he didn't have more.  A fear we had with him was that he would get happy feet and take off out of the pocket too much... not so.  He showed more than a few times that he has confidence in his arm.  He stayed in the pocket and got of clean passes or scrambled out and settled himself to get off a good pass.  Really impressive!

Some other BYU guys that will be fun to watch this year...

LINEBACKERS!!!  Whoa! This is a fast, athletic group that hits hard and has been given the keys to the blitzing vehicle!  Jordan Pendleton is a head hunter!  He was game planned for by Washington, and was still in on a HUGE amount of tackles.  His lateral speed makes him a real threat as a TE cover guy as well.

The same article that said if Riley was 3 inches taller he would be a Jake Locker comparable, also said that if you gave those same inches to Brian Logan he would be getting NFL paychecks next year... I'll add that he probably wouldn't be a Coug either. "Big tiny" as we affectionately call him, had a huge TD save late in the game, and several other pass break-ups. He is the smallest guy on the team, but hits as hard as anyone... I'll give him the Pound for Pound award... or perhaps it should be the Inch for Inch.

Game ball goes to...
 Riley Stephenson! The punter! He put the Huskies in bad field position pretty much the whole night.  I'll take a sharp shooter like that any day of the week.

So BYU starts the season 1-0 and looks to take it to 2 versus Air Force next Saturday... by the way, Bronco has yet to lose to Air Force as the BYU head coach. No Big Deal.