Could Cal Poly have a new starting quarterback next season? HA HA HA …
Maybe.
Quarterbacking is always the biggest topic in football. More than any other position is sports perhaps, people are the most ready to dump the one their with for the one they know little about.
It’s that “Let’s-Make-a-Deal,” door-number-three mentality. Don’t like the new fridge? You can have what’s in this box. It might be a car.
Somebody behind the curtain already knows what’s in the box, but they’re not telling.
That’s kind of how I see the Cal Poly quarterbacking situation right now. In a nutshell: The Mustangs return a senior QB who started every single game last season, none of the backups have any college game experience, and the team did not bring in a top recruit to throw in the mix.
Coming from a rational objective perspective, it’s seems to be a pretty open-and-shut case. If any of the other options were better, why wouldn’t they have gotten a shot during last season’s 4-7 campaign? The returning starter is the man.
But it’s not a slam dunk to fans who were unsatisfied with how little the ball moved last season, and who better to blame than the quarterback, right? It’s not like the offense wasn’t also replacing seven or eight other guys and an entire coaching staff.
Tony Smith hasn’t proven out to be Joe Montana, and he certainly hasn’t had the success of his predecessor, Jonathan Dally, but rational thought has to say it’s his job to lose, and Andre Broadous, Doug Shumway, Duke deLancellotti and Ken Johnston have to take it from him.
They have to show that they are that car in a box before they can get on the field.
Cal Poly head coach Tim Walsh is the guy behind the curtain. He knows who’s capable of what better than anybody else.
Maybe he knows something that would be enough to turn rational thought on its head.
I gave Walsh the chance this week to strongly back Smith when we talked about the Mustangs’ football schedule being released. He declined.
“For everybody on our football team, when we didn’t finish the season the way we thought we woulda shoulda coulda,” Walsh said, “I think you have to look back and find out why, and I think you have to open the competition up.
“We have a lot of understanding of what Tony can do, but it doesn’t mean that Tony is guaranteed to start this year.”
Unleash the hounds.
Really, many fans who became accustomed to the record-setting numbers put up in the last two seasons of the Rich Ellerson era came away disappointed with the offensive production last year.
Now that they’ve seen what Tony Smith can do, some are begging for door number three.
Twenty-five percent of respondents from a recent blog poll chose “What?! No quarterback” when asked to evaluate the Mustangs’ 2010 signing class. I didn’t think it would even be that high. There’s also a poll going on at one of the Cal Poly sports message boards asking who should start next season, and the choices include two players who are no longer on the team.
Walsh’s comments have given those fans reason to hope that there’s a new Ferrari that hasn’t been unveiled yet.
Maybe there is. I wonder how often that happened on Let’s Make a Deal.
March 31 is the start of Cal Poly’s spring practice.
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March 6th, 2010 at 6:16 pm
Josh I have seen the poll. Harlan Prather is on it and he was a senior this year and wont be back. You listed four that are in the mix with Tony Smith (Broadous, Shumway, DeLancellotti and Johnston)that are on the list. The only other one on the list is Vince Moraga. Did he leave the team?
March 7th, 2010 at 10:36 am
BTW, I agree with Walsh. Coming off a 4-7 season I think every position should be open to competition.
As far as why none of the players beat him out last year and may do so this year? I would say that the triple option is a tough offense to be thrown into with out much experience. Now that Broadous, DeLancellotti and Johnston have a year or more under their belt, they just might be ready to step in and lead the team.
March 9th, 2010 at 3:03 pm
Well, if that crap yuku forum had an edit option I could have corrected that- but it doesn’t, so what can you do.
March 12th, 2010 at 1:47 pm
Unless Tony can improve his throwing, footwork and read’s.Nothing is going to change, wasn’t there some time’s less than 20 yd’s TPY’s.And with no other QB experience or signed JC, transfers or incoming signee’s we are in a big hole. I said it before for Cal Poly to miss out on Aron Corp of USC who transferred to another 1AA team in the east is absurd. Carroll absolutely destroyed the kid, he should have kept his starting role,was the 2nd fastest player at USC. He would have made an immediate impact.Fun to watch. So where are R/C’s while he’s moving east and letting that kid get away ??? Does anyone know we CP tried to get him???
March 12th, 2010 at 2:20 pm
You can not recruit a transfer. They contact the coaching staffs of teams they are interested in.
March 13th, 2010 at 9:02 am
KIND OF MY POINT. I KNOW FOR A FACT THAT THERE WERE A NUMBER OF 1A AND 1AA SCHOOLS THAT CONTACTED HIM WHETHER LEGAL OR NOT. GETTING A MESSAGE OF INTEREST AND HARD RECRUITING ARE DIFFERENT MATTERS. AND I’M NOT SURE OF THE TRANSFER RULES FROM 1A TO 1AA AND AM ASSUMING YOU ARE RIGHT IN THEORY. WHEN GUY’S LIKE LANE KIFFIN OR SARKISIAN WANT A KID, OUT GOES THE RULES. I KNOW CP RUNS A VERY CLEAN PROGRAM AS IT SHOULD BE. BUT THEN SO WOULD A NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP.GIVEN CP’S RECENT SUCCESS UNDER ELLERSON AND THAT CORP WENT TO A EAST COAST 1AA SCHOOL, I CAN’T HELP BUT BELIEVE HE HAD TO HAVE HAD SOME INTEREST AND WONDER IF HE DID HAVE CONTACT WITH CP. JUST A THOUGHT.ANYWAY, ONWARD AND UPWARD WITH WHAT WE HAVE…
April 20th, 2010 at 6:51 pm
Vince Moraga should be considered the incoming QB recruit for 2010. He missed last year due to an injury and will have full eligibility. He ran an option offense in HS and is perfect fit for the 3rpl Option. He was an original recruit of Ellerson regime.