The Quarterback Competition

Beyond busy these days, but I'll weigh in briefly on the quarterback competition. Everyone's talking about the results of today's scrimmage, which just turned the quarterback race into a real mess. For weeks we've been talking about Connor Cook challenging Andrew Maxwell, and now suddenly it seems like the race may be between Tyler O'Connor and Damion Terry. Of course, that's premature to suggest because the bottom line is that we don't have enough info as fans to make any sound judgments about the QB race.

However, why do blogs exist, if not to speculate? So I'll say this. If O'Connor and Terry faced the same defenses as Maxwell and Cook, then I think the latter two have been surpassed. If O'Connor and Terry did not face the 1s, then I think the coaches need to experiment over the next week and give these guys a shot at the 1s.

Maybe that's all that's going on here. Maybe Maxwell and Cook faced the 1s while O'Connor and Terry faced the backups. But if in fact all four quarterbacks faced similar circumstances, then the QB race has completely changed. Then suddenly we have a whole new set of questions to think about.

First, is Terry good enough to supplant O'Connor? Is he good enough to burn his redshirt? If so, that would create a big problem with the depth chart next year, because Maxwell would graduate and you would have to assume that O'Connor and Cook would transfer. That would leave Terry and true freshman Chris Durkin for the 2014 season, and that would be a dangerous situation.

So then you say to yourself: maybe Terry is the best QB, but is O'Connor good enough to get you a B10 championship? By going with O'Connor you can still redshirt Terry, and you improve your chances that O'Connor will come back next season so that you can have 3 scholarship QBs on the 2014 roster.

You also have to worry about how Terry, a true freshman, would do in big games. This is a critical year for the Spartans and even the most talented true freshmen QBs struggle against good defenses (think of Terrelle Pryor and Braxton Miller). Then again, if he consistently outproduces MSU's other quarterbacks (combined!), then what can you say? Maybe the guy is just a real prodigy. How do you justify keeping him off the field?

The results of the scrimmage are exciting, but they certainly do not make the decisions the coaches must make any easier.