QB Scuttlebutt II - News from the First Press Conference of the Spring

4 comments so far March 24, 2009 by Brandon Vogel

What was billed as your every day, ordinary press conference featuring Ndamukong Suh and Bo Pelini turned into an epic hour-plus media afternoon featuring Quentin Castille, Jacob Hickman, and Roy Helu among others. Lot of information there and we'll be working through it all here over the next few days, but for now let's get back to the topic that seemed to pop up in every line of questioning: The QB Race.

Two legitimate news items surrounding the QBs came out today:

1. Cody Green will miss at least the first few practices with a minor hip injury.
This resolves the cliff-hanger that wrapped up the legendary finale to "QB Scuttlebutt I." Cody Green is injured. Sort of.

When asked how much this would set Green back in the grander scheme of things, Bo Pelini's response was a quick, easy "not much." Pelini said the training staff had classified Green's injury as a one on a scale of 1 to 10 and that they were simply taking precautions to insure a full recovery. As Pelini pointed out, Green is still really a high school senior so the fact that he's here at all is gravy. Now we can all take a deep breath and let the kid compete for and learn his position.

2. LaTravis Washington is going to take some reps at QB.
This was the big news item out of today's press conference. Washington, who recorded two tackles as a freshman linebacker in 2007, was a talented quarterback in high school attending Nebraska's Elite Quarterback camp in 2005 and 2006. Most schools--Ohio State, West Virginia and Louisville all offered according to Rivals--recruited Washington as a safety and, much like we'll likely see with Taylor Martinez, he was willing to do whatever it took to get on the field. But you rarely see the itch to play quarterback really go away and now, with Witt gone and Green temporarily shelved, Washington will get his chance to take some reps under center this spring. That's a good thing.

On the defensive side of the ball, unless this is purely a position preference, it says something about the depth at the linebacker position. Washington liked his prospects at the unsettled QB position more than the unsettled LB slots. (Or even safety, I suppose.)

On the offensive side of the ball it gives us another clue as to what Nebraska is looking for from its signal-callers. When Ndamukong Suh was asked today if the current offensive system was a mobile quarterback's offense, Suh's answer was "definitely." Washington's move, Bo called it "mutual," lends some credibility to that notion. At 6'3, 225 lbs. at the start of last season, with a 4.8 40 out of high school, Washington is nothing if not mobile. The theme of Pelini's first press conference of the new season was "competition" and Washington's move to quarterback only ratchets that up a level for the, what is now, five hopefuls.

But the one impression I took from the press conference was that we have a clear cut front-runner and that's Zac Lee. Pelini was appropriately ambiguous about the quarterbacks but the players were a little more forthcoming. Suh called it "Lee's job to lose" and praised the work he put in throughout winter conditioning. Quentin Castille said Lee had "skill-position speed" which, considering he is a quarterback, seemed merely appropriate to me but I think it was supposed to be a compliment. Almost across the board--Mike McNeill merely deferred to the coaches--the player reviews for Zac Lee were glowing and, somewhat unusual for a press conference, they seemed genuine.

You can talk about talent all you want, but the one thing a quarterback has to do is get a team behind him. On the eve of spring practice, it sounded a lot like Zac Lee already had.

Did you enjoy this article?

Get Husker news by email
Follow us on Twitter

NextPrevious