Even though we’re now halfway through the season, the BYU football team is still struggling with a basic question that was supposedly answered last year: who should be the starting quarterback?
During Saturday’s 29-16 win over San Jose State, BYU decided to use Riley Nelson as the main quarterback. In the team’s best interest, I believe BYU should continue to use Nelson instead of Jake Heaps, even though Heaps has more talent and potential.
Heaps was originally named the starter last year, but did he really earn it? Before Nelson went down with a season-ending shoulder injury, BYU had no idea who should be the team’s quarterback.
Heaps won the job by default, which probably caused him to relax a little bit. You hear BYU players and coaches constantly praising Nelson for his work ethic and leadership, but not so much for Heaps.
Heaps still is one of the most talented quarterbacks in the nation and still has tremendous potential. If he was living up to that potential, then we wouldn’t be having this discussion right now.
But Heaps has gotten off to a rather lackluster start. Through four games, he threw only three touchdown passes and five interceptions. BYU went 2-2 through that stretch, but those two victories really belong to the defense and special teams.
Then came the Utah State game.
Heaps started off well enough, benefitting mostly from a couple of pass interference calls, but then things turned sour in a hurry. BYU had to call a quick timeout on first down and then got called for a false start right after the timeout. Who is more at blame for this, Heaps or offensive coordinator Brandon Doman?
Whoever’s fault it was, the problem was evident: BYU’s offense was not on the same page.
Soon, Heaps was overthrowing and underthrowing his receivers, who often didn’t seem to know the pass was coming their way. Mistakes like this had plagued BYU all season, but for them to be so prevalent in Game 5? How long should it take for a quarterback to develop?
Finally Doman decided to make a change. In comes Nelson and the rest is history. It wasn’t always pretty, but he did lead BYU to the win. Most impressive was the game-winning drive, on which Nelson accounted for all 96 yards, either through the air or on the ground.
On Saturday against San Jose State, Nelson not only got the start, but also got to play the whole game for the first time in his BYU career. By halftime, he matched Heaps’ touchdown pass total with three. Nelson also led BYU to a season high 29 points and the largest margin of victory this year at 13 points.
But is a 29-16 victory over San Jose State really that impressive?
The Spartans finished 1-12 last year, and have only beaten lowly New Mexico State and Colorado State this year. Plus, they didn’t have their top running back, Brandon Rutley, on Saturday night. He’s not just their top rusher, but their heart and soul, averaging more than 100 yards per game and scoring six touchdowns in five games. These guys aren’t quite the same as Texas or Utah.
BYU should have been able to win this game with LaVell Edwards starting at quarterback.
But Nelson was the quarterback and he did play well. He got a little help when an unforced safety made up for his fumble on the 3-yard line. He then took advantage of the good field position by finding tight end Richard Wilson for a touchdown.
But Nelson did commit a few mistakes that Heaps wouldn’t have made, especially one play where Nelson scrambled and backpedaled to about 15 yards behind the line of scrimmage and had to quickly throw the ball away to avoid a major sack. Problem was, he didn’t throw the ball away, but instead simply heaved it toward the middle of the field and was lucky no one intercepted it.
In the end, Nelson threw two interceptions and had two other passes that should have been intercepted. He also lost a fumble to bring his total to three turnovers to go with his three touchdowns.
Despite all that, Nelson really was better than Heaps has been this year. He did a lot of good things that Heaps doesn’t do, like running for first downs when receivers were covered and the pocket collapsed. Nelson also has a knack for finding wide-open receivers; whereas Heaps’ completions are usually thread-the-needle passes to double-teamed players.
And most importantly, Nelson was able to energize the crowd and his teammates and get the win. People just seem to respond better to Nelson than Heaps.
BYU made the right choice by starting Nelson and playing him the whole game. And the right choice for the team will be to continue with Nelson as the quarterback for this year and maybe even next.
But won’t this hurt Heaps’ development? Maybe. But how does continual poor play that draws ire from teammates and fans help a quarterback develop? Maybe Heaps’ best option is to watch from the bench and work harder in practice to try to beat Nelson.
BYU has the potential to be a really special team in a couple of years with Heaps as the quarterback. He still is young enough to become the next Ty Detmer or Steve Young. But until he develops into that, fans want to see wins.
Not all of us fans are so callous as to demand a win every game, but we do want to see effort and progress, especially after paying good money to watch the team.
Right now, for whatever reason, it looks like Nelson is putting forth more effort than Heaps. And until that changes, he should remain the starting quarterback.
