Thursday, August 16, 2012

Has the Quarterback Battle Already Been Decided?

Rutgers had their first inter-squad scrimmage of the year in front of over 2000 fans on Saturday, and according to those in attendance, Gary Nova separated himself from Chas Dodd in the quarterback competition. I was not there, but based on reports I've gathered that that Gary Nova received almost all of the reps with the first team offense, while Chas Dodd worked with the second team . I have no inside information and I am totally speculating, but this indicates to me that Nova has already been named the starter.

Nova was the presumed front runner for the starting position heading into camp, and if he's getting all the first team reps he is probably the starter. If Chas Dodd is getting all the snaps with the second team, he is probably the back up. This is generally how things go. If there was a true competition, they would be spliting the snaps with both the first and second units. The few snaps Dodd got with the first team may have just been because it's a common procedure for the back up QB to get some reps with the first team. You want him to be familiar with leading the first team offense in case the starter gets hurt, every team does this. Nova took no snaps with the second unit.

Now you may ask "If this is the case, why doesn't Flood just announce that Nova is the starter?" The answer is, he may just be playing games with Tulane's coaching staff, as he has no reason to tip his hand here just yet. The longer he waits to make this announcement, the more the Green Wave (and others) have to spend valuable time breaking down two quarterbacks and making game plans to stop both of them instead of just one.

Once again, this is pure speculation, and I was not there on Saturday, so please correct me if I'm wrong about the snap distribution. We shall see how things shake out the last two weeks of camp, but I think there's fire to go along with the smoke here.

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