Chas Dodd Named Starting Quarterback

 Kyle Flood announced on Monday that senior Chas Dodd will get the starting nod over Gary Nova at quarterback on Saturday against Connecticut in East Hartford. The change comes on the heels of Nova's fourth miserable performance in a span of five games, and Dodd will make his first start since the 2011 Pinstripe Bowl. The move marginally improves the team this season, but it really does nothing for the program going forward.

I have long been a big Nova supporter, but this change is probably over due. His Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde act has grown old, and he's just not giving the team a great chance of winning right now, even though there are bigger problems than him. His gun slinging ways have resulted in many more turn overs than positive plays as of late, and all of those turn overs are killing the offense and putting an already struggling defense in tough spots. He has definitely been the victim of bad coaching over the last two years, but he's not a youngster anymore. It's late in his junior season and he is making the same mistakes over and over again. There may not be hope for a turn around.

Dodd did an alright job as the Scarlet Knights' primary signal caller in 2010 and 2011, but he was replaced by Nova for a reason. He was recruited to play in a wide open spread offense, and Rutgers has obviously changed philosophies since he first set foot on campus. He is at his best when he can get the ball out quickly on short passes out of the shot gun and be a distributor in the spread, not dropping back from under center and throwing vertically in the traditional offense they now run. He has played only garbage time minutes the past two seasons, and I honestly have no idea what to expect out of him. Hopefully he can at least manage the game.

Considering Dodd only has between two and three games left in his career as a Scarlet Knight, I would have liked to have seen Mike Bimonte or Blake Rankin get a shot since they will compete for the starting and/or back up spot next year. I'm not at practice every day, so I don't know how ready these guys are to play, but at some point you have to see what you've got in these two. The only thing Rutgers has left to play for at this season is a bowl bid, and considering they only need one more win with two very week opponents left, they could probably attain that goal with any of these guys. (You can throw in Chris Laviano here too, but it's not worth burning his redshirt this late in the season).

Dodd is no certainty, but this is probably the safest decision Kyle Flood could have made. The team is in an uncontrollable slide, the fans are angry, and he needs to save his own skin. A change was needed, but I'm not sure how this will payoff in neither the short term nor the long term.