The most important position in any team sport is the Quarterback position in football. When you have good or great QB play it can cover up a multitude of problems with you football team. However, when you have below average or bad play at the QB position it exposes and magnifies even the smallest problems.
Right now the University of Utah is 6-2 overall and 3-2 in Pac 12 play. They are getting results due in large part to an outstanding defense and special teams, very good play from running back Devonte Booker and in spite of rather pedestrian play from the Quarterback position.
In theory, this was supposed to be the grand return of Travis Wilson, whose football career nearly came to an end last season with a several brain injury. But instead Wilson has struggled to find consistency in his game and so has #2 QB Kendal Thompson. Utah’s pass offense ranks at the bottom of the Pac 12 and 109th in the NCAA at 175.1 yards per game. This certainly isn’t all the fault of the Quarterbacks, but at the end of the day they will bear most of the responsibility.
Eight games into the season teams are supposed to be set and making a push towards the stretch run of the year. Instead, Kyle Whittingham and Dave Christensen are still trying to figure out which signal caller gives them the best chance to be productive and win football games in the Pac 12.
Let’s examine the options at their disposal:
1. Travis Wilson-The Junior QB has 23 career starts, with a 12-11 record in those games. He’s clearly the most experienced QB at Utah. He’s 1 of 4 QB’s in the NCAA without an interception this season. 9TD 0INT 1084yds and a 56% completion percentage. Something has seemed amiss with Wilson this season. He looks out of sorts and uncomfortable in the pocket. Wilson, on paper, would appear to give Utah it’s best shot to win games and throw the ball downfield, but his play has been wildly inconsistent this season.
2. Kendal Thompson-The Oklahoma transfer is clearly a run first Quarterback. His snaps and playing time has been limited this year. He’s appeared in 6 games, with one start at Oregon State. The highlight of his season was the 2nd half against UCLA where he subbed for an ineffective Travis Wilson. Thompson passed for 95yds and ran for 83 in leading Utah to a win over the 8th ranked Bruins. The next week in his only start at Oregon State, when the Beavers clearly game planned for him, Thompson played on the 1st half and was pulled for his ineffective play. We haven’t seen him in a significant role since that night in Corvallis. Thompson’s style would seem to fit Utah’s run first strategy with Devontae Booker best right now, but his inability to throw the ball down the field consistently is a problem.
3. Brandon Cox-The redshirt freshman QB from Pasadena, California appears to be a bigger version of Kendal Thompson. The reports I’ve gotten from practice indicate that Cox throws the ball better downfield than Thompson. He moved to 3rd on the QB depth chart in fall camp and his teammate rave about the strides he’s made. The major roadblock for Cox is that he’s got very little game experience. Only some garbage time against Idaho State where he went 3-3 passing. I’m not sure that you can go with Cox 8 games into the season, with so little on his resume.
4. Connor Manning-This is the 4th and final QB option for Kyle Whittingham and frankly the most improbable of all. Not because Manning doesn’t have talent. He’s the best passer on the team by all accounts and a guy that I thought should have seen some time late last season after Travis Wilson was injured. Two big things holding Manning back and why he hasn’t seen playing time. First, he doesn’t run the ball at all. He’s a pocket passer. His skill set doesn’t mesh with the offensive philosophy of Dave Christensen, who likes a more mobile/running QB. Secondly, he hasn’t taken a Divison 1 snap at all, not even in mop up duty.
Whittingham and Christensen are in a tough spot. I don’t expect them to do anything crazy like starting Cox or Manning. However, it wouldn’t surprise me to see a combination of Wilson and Thompson in various situations on the field on Saturday night against Oregon.
