QB Spring Battle

As much curiosity as the future of Ben Braun evokes from Cal fans, it pales next to the question of who will line up behind center against Michigan State next Fall.

Nate Longshore lost most Bear fans last season with his inability to recover from an ankle sprain and his obvious lack of cool under fire. Worse still was the likely loss of his teammate’s confidence in him. Enter Kevin Riley, who wowed fans with his big time arm, his mobility and his obvious moxie. Tedford has said the job is up for grabs going into the Spring but he may be tipping his hand by listing Nate Longshore first on the depth chart. You have to empathize with Tedford, a coach who puts so many mental demands on quarterbacks and thus instinctively has to view Nate’s experience and knowledge of the offense as huge factors. Tedford knows well that teams with senior QBs starting for them markedly outperform those that don’t.

That said, you have to wonder how Nate will respond to the teams melt down under his leadership and more specifically his consistently awful 4th quarter gaffes. And it’s not like Longshore didn’t have a front row seat at the Armed Forces Bowl when Riley looked like a young Joe Montana. Keep in mind this is a young man who lost his father a few years ago and played spectacularly a year earlier than and as recently as last October looked ready to leave early for the NFL after leading the Bears to a 5-0 start and #2 national ranking. Given all that transpired following it, it’s easy to forget how well Nate played against Oregon hitting a myriad of big third down passes.

And as obvious as Riley’s skills are, he wasn’t sitting on the bench last year for no reason at all. Word is that Tedford was reluctant to play him earlier than the Bowl game in large part because he was a bit off a goof, not the most intense practice player and generally acting more like a 19 year old frat boy than the back up QB to the #2 team in the country. Even his at times impressive debut against the Beavers masked a myriad of misreads and mental mistakes. It’s also worth noting that Air Force doesn’t represent the best pass defense in D1 football.

The one thing that is crystal clear is that the Bears will have tremendous depth at QB next year with both Longshore and Riley

I won’t pretend to have any special insight into the QB battle, but I will offer a simple perspective. Riley’s strengths (physical tools, confidence and leadership) are innate while his weaknesses are not unique and almost always get better as a player matures and gains experience. Juxtaposed to Longshore, whose challenges are a crisis of confidence and an inability to make plays when the game is on the line, which are not things that can easily be fixed. To my eye, Riley has a special quality, a certain “it” factor. If he can go into the Spring and demonstrate his mastery of the playbook and his maturity, it would be hard to imagine Tedford not betting on him knowing he has Longshore in the wings if things go awry. If JT goes the other way, he risks alienating the team and his fans and putting even more pressure on the already heavy shoulders of Nate Longshore.