Friday, April 13, 2007

CU's Starting QB Battle in Tommorrow's Spring Game


Tomorrow is CU's Spring Game and we get our first real looks at the starting quarterback battle between Juco transfer Nick Nelson and Jr. Hawk, Cody Hawkins. It should be interesting to see what the offense looks like in the hands of a true passer this coming season. Nelson is a bit bigger, more of a prototype college QB and Jr. Hawk has never lost a football game in his life as a starting QB. The question is, do we want to give Jr. Hawk the reigns as a redshirt freshman and build the program around him? Or do we want to give the ball to Nelson, who may give us a better shot right away? I reserve any judgement until I actually see either one of them throw a football, which means I'll tell you what I think tomorrow.

So this means that last year's starter, Bernard Jackson, is left out of the mix. Nothing against B-Jacks, but he did lead us to a 2-10 season last year (which is only two more wins than I got as CU's starting QB last season) and he did only complete 47% of his passes. So it's kind of hard to make a solid argument about his credentials as a starter. But his talent is undeniable and CU has to get him the ball somehow. It looks like B-Jacks has adopted a new "slash" role with the team and has even picked up Kordell's old #10 for the season. Having Jackson on the field leaves all sorts of wild Pittsburgh Steeler type plays for Coach Hawkins to tinker around with. It could be exciting.

Either way you go (Hawkins or Nelson) you have to figure we'll be at least twice as good as last season with B-Jacks at the helm, and with some simple mathematics that means that we will improve to 4-8 next year. Shit.

Now if we can just get B-Jacks to walk around the Dal Ward Center in some yellow spandex, and start bench pressing the equivalent of a Ford F-250 then he'll really be like Kordell. (Inside joke and true story from my CU hoops playing days, maybe I'll explain to everyone later.)

See you at Folsom tomorrow. Go Buffs!

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