2011 BYU Football Thread

[falafel]

Who is Ziggy? If he is a BYU football player, why is KWhitt commenting on him right now?

He's a BYU walk-on that has never seen meaningful minutes on the field.

[SCcoug]

Who is Ziggy? If he is a BYU football player, why is KWhitt commenting on him right now?

He is a 6'6 walkon from Ghana who was a sprinter on the track team and until last year had never played football in his life. He got some garbage time in a few games and I think special teams. He had at least a couple tackles.

Edit: I forgot to put his name. It is Ezekiel Ansah

[Commando]

Who is Ziggy? If he is a BYU football player, why is KWhitt commenting on him right now?

I was listening to something the other day. That was Coach Poppinga who said that. Different former BYU standout.

[BigPiney]

Who is Ziggy? If he is a BYU football player, why is KWhitt commenting on him right now?

I think he meant KPopp.

[MarkGrace]

It was a joke based on the high-level hyperbole from KPopp. Come on, people.

[Commando]

It was a joke based on the high-level hyperbole from KPopp. Come on, people.

Sorry! I thought KPopp was definitely mitigating expectations by saying Ziggy would find his way in football definitely by this time next year.

[Shaka]

I think the Nelson thing is interesting and I feel that the kid is treated somewhat unfairly by the media. I listened to Hans this morning and my belief is that in regard to Riley he has a selective memory. I missed Jan's take but it wouldn't surprise me if it's the same ans Hans.

Last spring the topic was raging when camp was underway. Virtually everyone expected Lark to take the backup job at that point. The fact of the matter was Riley outplayed Lark to a significant degree during camp and was the best QB in the spring game putting forth an impressive effort. All this running the same offense as the other QB's. After camp Hans and the other members of the fourth estate were forced to admit that Riley could get the job done. In fact many were singing his praises. At end of spring Lark was deemed to be a disappointment and Nelson had a firm lock on the backup spot.

Fast forward to the second day of fall camp. After one rep resulting in a pick Nelson is now out of the race and Lark is wrapping up the backup job. Radio personalities are falling all over themselves to knock Nelson all the while contradicting what they were saying last spring. Bronco of course was more diplomatic stating that both QB's had good camps.

Truly I get why this is happening. Nelson did not help himself during the summer with some lackluster performances and it would seem that Lark has elevated his game somewhat. With that said I think all of the talk about Lark passing Nelson is amazingly premature. Like Bronco said, it's a long camp. Lark may indeed rise up and take the job. I have no problem if he does. I love QB battles and would like to see this one rage all camp long.

I love Hans and for that matter Jan. My favorite thing about them is tend to tell things like they are without regard for the feelings of the fans. I am going to disagree with how Hans is handling this issue. Today he cited Nelson's performance last fall as a reason he can't be the QB. However he also has made excuses for Heaps performance early last season stating that he didn't get the reps he needed. I find this completely unfair. Lack of reps affected both QB's. Both would have been better had they been given the reps as the starter. Instead we had a failed quarterback experiment with benefit of the doubt being solely given to Heaps.

I'm not fully bugged by this selective memory. Many fans on the boards have also completely forgotten what transpired during the spring. I do find the rush to pile on Nelson to be a bit annoying. I hope both of them battle it out and may the best guy win. So far the vast majority of the time that man has been Nelson. Maybe in camp Lark will be that guy.

[San Juan Sun]

Last spring the topic was raging when camp was underway. Virtually everyone expected Lark to take the backup job at that point.

I'm not fully bugged by this selective memory.

I don't remember that happening at all. I seem to remember that there was a lot of Jake vs Riley talk all through spring and fall camps 2010.

BTW, memory by definition is selective. We all have bias, but I would agree that some people seem to have a bias against Riley. Something about Vanilla Ice haircuts, sunglasses at night, pink socks, hazing Heaps, and never looking to a second option receiver stokes that bias I guess.

[Shaka]

I don't remember that happening at all. I seem to remember that there was a lot of Jake vs Riley talk all through spring and fall camps 2010.

BTW, memory by definition is selective. We all have bias, but I would agree that some people seem to have a bias against Riley. Something about Vanilla Ice haircuts, sunglasses at night, pink socks, hazing Heaps, and never looking to a second option receiver stokes that bias I guess.

I'm talking spring camp 2011. Jake had the job sewn up at that point. The battle is for the backup position.

[San Juan Sun]

I'm talking spring camp 2011. Jake had the job sewn up at that point. The battle is for the backup position.

No problem. When you said "last spring", I assumed 2010.

[Shaka]

No problem. When you said "last spring", I assumed 2010.

Sorry if I wasn't clear. I was in a hurry when I typed my epistle. We had the senior senator from Utah visiting my workplace.

[MarkGrace]

BTW, memory by definition is selective. We all have bias, but I would agree that some people seem to have a bias against Riley. Something about Vanilla Ice haircuts, sunglasses at night, pink socks, hazing Heaps, and never looking to a second option receiver stokes that bias I guess.

You forget the biggest one: a horrible arm that will never allow him to be a meaningful QB at BYU. But I do admire him for being willing to go out and knock heads around on special teams -- we could probably use his help there.

[Hsaru]

I have a hard time taking any performance by Riley seriously where the defense isn't stacking the box and sitting on all the short routes like AFA did. BYU obviously won't do that in practice.

[Shaka]

I have a hard time taking any performance by Riley seriously where the defense isn't stacking the box and sitting on all the short routes like AFA did. BYU obviously won't do that in practice.

I'm not going to go around with you on that one. There were other issues with the AFA game and anyone who lumps that solely on Riley wasn't paying attention.

Nelson ran the same offense everyone else did in the spring game. He didn't just dink and dunk and completed decent length throws down field. stacking the box would not have worked.

Give the kid credit when it's due.

[oxcoug]

I'm not going to go around with you on that one. There were other issues with the AFA game and anyone who lumps that solely on Riley wasn't paying attention.

Nelson ran the same offense everyone else did in the spring game. He didn't just dink and dunk and completed decent length throws down field. stacking the box would not have worked.

Give the kid credit when it's due.

As a known Riley-basher of the past year I'll agree w/ Shaka here that (a) it's weird when people switch positions on the basis of a handful of throws (only one of them by Nelson) and (b) the idea that Nelson is totally unable to throw the ball effectively gets hugely exaggerated.

EDIT: Riley was apparently just picked off by one Loni Fangupo. Hmmm.