Monday July 06, 2009

Football Questions-#1 Which QBs Will Play?

Football Questions-#1. Which Qbs Will Play?
July is here so that means the second session of summer school and pre-pre-season practice has begun. The team will go out with voluntary workouts each afternoon now and we are about one month away from the actual pre-season August camp.

This also means that we have held off long enough so it is time to really start talking some football. We could talk about it 365 days a year but July is the month when I think a lot more people are ready to start getting excited about the upcoming season.

So over the next two months we are going to talk football. Specifically we will try to answer questions and tackle some of the issues that the pre-season brings.

For example:
1- How many quarterbacks will play?
2-Who will start at quarterback?
3-How effective will the new quarterbacks be?
4-How will Spiller respond without James Davis?
5-Is Harper and Ellington the new Thunder and Lightning?
6-Can Jacoby Ford be a number-one receiver?
7-Who will step up among the unproven wideouts?
8-Are the tight ends a strength?
9-Should we be optimistic about the offensive line?
10-How does the new offensive staff rank?
11-Is Ricky Sapp ready for a big senior season?
12-Will Da’Quan Bowers have a monster season?
13-Can this defensive line dominate?
14-Is this linebacking corps a question mark?
15-Can you have a great defense without dominating linebackers?
16-Who will step up at safety?
17-Will we see Clemson’s cornerbacks excel in a more aggressive defense?
18-Can this defense rank among the best in the ACC? Country?
19-How does this defensive staff rank?
20-How difficult is this schedule?
21-Which freshmen will play?
22-Which red-shirt freshmen will contribute the most?
23-How does recruiting stand heading into the season?
24-How can this program get over the top and win the division? ACC?

With eight weeks until game week, we will answer three of these questions each week. Today let’s look at the first question, “How many quarterbacks will play this season?”

The depth chart heading into fall camp will list Kyle Parker and Willy Korn as co-starters. Michael Wade will enter camp as the number three guy and true freshman Tahj Boyd will begin as the number four quarterback.

Clemson will be extremely young at the position this year. Wade is a red-shirt junior but has moved between offense and defense in his career. He has yet to take a snap at quarterback.

Korn is a red-shirt sophomore who saw action in each of the last two seasons. The Duncan, SC native has played in 10 games over the last two seasons and started one. As a red-shirt freshman he started against Georgia Tech but did not finish the game due to a shoulder injury.

Parker is a red-shirt freshman and Boyd is a true freshman. Obviously neither has played a down in college yet.

Tomorrow I will touch on the starter in 2009 but today let’s look at who will play this season.

Under Tommy Bowden and most head coaches in college football, when a starter is announced he is the starter for the season. Few schools play two or more quarterbacks in a season as a starter. In most cases, when the starter is announced then the competition is usually over because the starter needs most of the reps in preparation.

I do not think this will be the case for Clemson in 2009. I may be in the minority but I see this staff handling the quarterbacks differently this season. I think they would like to have one of the signal callers step up and make the decision easy but I can’t see that happening.

Coming out of the spring, Parker looked like he was ready to take the position. However, as I warned everyone ready to judge, you should not analyze players when they are injured and it was clear Korn was not 100% in the spring. I have not seen Korn this summer but have talked to some who have and they say he is much better than what we saw in the spring. Thus I think we have a quarterback competition.

I think this battle will continue throughout the season and I think we will see both Parker and Korn especially early in the campaign. As the season progresses, I think we could see one of the quarterbacks step up and separate but this should happen in the games. I think we could see Parker hot one game and Korn get the hot hand the next until about half way through the season.

Because both quarterbacks will need time in their development, it will be difficult for a third quarterback to see significant action this season. So can Wade or Boyd crack the top two? I think this is not very likely. If Boyd is healthy and can grasp the offense, I think he could have the best chance to break into the lineup but at this time I think that would be difficult to do.

The one thing that could change this entire situation is injury. Parker or Korn could win the starting job by default if in injuries arise and this could open the door for Boyd and/or Wade.

Inexperience is perhaps the best word to describe the quarterbacks at Clemson heading into the fall camp but thank goodness that talented is the other word one could use as well. This group is one of the deepest and most talented group of quarterbacks the school has had in some time also.

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