Fresh Keller Article
- Thread starter CENTEXHUSKER
- Start date
tattooedhusker
All-Conference
:yeah i'm excited as hell for this year and next, but this year is closer
BIGREDIOWAN
Mods
I can't wait to see what Zac does this year!!! :box
BigRedRick
Three-Star Recruit
A newbee here.
Great to see Keller sign on.
However, I prefer to focus on this season. I want to see Zac contend for the Heisman and the Ganz show what he can do. I want to see our rushing stats get back up and the return of the devasting linemen of old.
The Beck and Freeman sagas should have been enough to bring us back to reality. Callahan and Co., seem to have a plan and I for one am anxious to see it come to fruition. :restore
Great to see Keller sign on.
However, I prefer to focus on this season. I want to see Zac contend for the Heisman and the Ganz show what he can do. I want to see our rushing stats get back up and the return of the devasting linemen of old.
The Beck and Freeman sagas should have been enough to bring us back to reality. Callahan and Co., seem to have a plan and I for one am anxious to see it come to fruition. :restore
Eric the Red
Team HuskerBoard
Pac-10 QBs lack pizazz
By TED MILLER
P-I COLUMNIST
We should be thanking Arizona State coach Dirk Koetter instead of ridiculing his quarterback who-done-it that already feels like it deserves coverage from "E! True Hollywood Story."
To recap:
Aug. 18: Koetter announces senior Sam Keller will be the Sun Devils' starting quarterback.
Players revolt. Rumors fly about overbearing Little League dads, long nights entertaining the lasses at watering holes along Mill Avenue and powerful boosters making a few well-placed telephone calls.
Aug. 20: Did Koetter say Keller? What he meant was ... sophomore Rudy Carpenter!
Keller transfers to Nebraska, with a near-guarantee he'll be the Cornhuskers' 2007 starter.
What fun! Now a team celebrated for its quarterback riches -- both threw for more than 2,000 yards and combined for 37 touchdowns in 2005 -- suddenly is a sprained ankle away from starting a true freshman.
At least that tumult created quarterback buzz. Otherwise, the Pac-10, the conference of quarterbacks, would be generating this sound over its array of signal callers: Zzzzzzzzz.
Quick: Name the Pac-10's marquee quarterback this fall. Don't consult the All-Pac-10 team or honorable mention list. None of those guys is back.
If Stanford's Trent Edwards didn't pop immediately into your mind, that's OK. The Cardinal senior, listed as the nation's No. 3 senior quarterback by ESPN NFL draft guru Mel Kiper, has started 24 games during an injury-riddled career for a team that hasn't posted a winning record since 2001, which goes back three coaches to some fella by the name of Willingham.
Edwards is one of four conference quarterbacks who have started at least 10 games. The others -- Washington State's Alex Brink (16 starts), Washington's Isaiah Stanback (15) and Oregon State's Matt Moore (15, with five coming while at UCLA) -- are nearly anonymous outside the Northwest after their teams combined for an 11-22 record in 2005.
This is noteworthy because no other conference is as quarterback-centric as the Pac-10; witness eight conference quarterbacks picked in the first round of the NFL draft over the past decade (don't ask what happens when they get there).
Quarterback play almost invariably determines the Pac-10 pecking order. Over the past 10 years, starting with Arizona State's Jake Plummer in 1996, the first-team All-Conference quarterback led the eventual conference champion.
In eight of those years, that quarterback was a senior. The exceptions were made only for the exceptional: USC's Matt Leinart split the award with Cal junior Aaron Rodgers in 2004, took it solo in 2003 and, as a senior, in 2005.
As of today, Moore, Edwards and Stanback are the only senior starters, and their teams are expected to finish seventh, ninth and 10th in the conference, at least according to the preseason media poll.
The rest of the league features four sophomores and three juniors, only one of whom, Brink, has been a starter for an entire season.
So after all the Leafs, Tuiasosopos, Harringtons and Palmers from the past, we're left with ... what?
"Who's going to step up?" UCLA coach Karl Dorrell said. "It's kind of a transitional year for everyone."
Dorrell will start the least experienced but most talented quarterback in sophomore Ben Olson, 23, a former consensus prep All-American who signed with BYU in 2002 but joined the Bruins after a two-year Mormon mission.
The 6-foot-5, 225-pound specimen may turn out to be the conference's biggest X-factor.
"He's progressed faster than anyone we've had here," Dorrell said.
In fact, it feels like there's a budding star trend at work across the conference. Olson, Cal's Nate Longshore and USC's John David Booty are unknown as starters, but each was a marquee recruit. Meanwhile, Carpenter, Brink, Arizona's Willie Tuitama and Oregon's Dennis Dixon each showed flashes of playmaking ability as starters a year ago.
It sort of feels like 1999, when Stanford senior Todd Husak was the most accomplished returning quarterback before the season. He led the upstart Cardinal to the Rose Bowl, while Kyle Boller, Joey Harrington, Jonathan Smith, Cory Paus, Carson Palmer, Marques Tuiasosopo and Jason Gesser were just starting to make their marks.
Nine times over the past 10 years a Pac-10 quarterback finished in the top 10 of Heisman Trophy balloting. Four times two QBs finished in the top 10. The only shutout? 1999.
And 2006?
"Somebody is going to surface like that in our league," Oregon State coach Mike Riley said. "It's kind of the changing of the guard."
And, unlike the past three seasons but much like 1999, the conference race appears far more wide-open.
When the Pac-10 quarterback slate elicits a "Who?" things tend to be less predictable.
"I think that's why everyone is saying it's a pretty fair fight this year," Washington State coach Bill Doba said.
By TED MILLER
P-I COLUMNIST
We should be thanking Arizona State coach Dirk Koetter instead of ridiculing his quarterback who-done-it that already feels like it deserves coverage from "E! True Hollywood Story."
To recap:
Aug. 18: Koetter announces senior Sam Keller will be the Sun Devils' starting quarterback.
Players revolt. Rumors fly about overbearing Little League dads, long nights entertaining the lasses at watering holes along Mill Avenue and powerful boosters making a few well-placed telephone calls.
Aug. 20: Did Koetter say Keller? What he meant was ... sophomore Rudy Carpenter!
Keller transfers to Nebraska, with a near-guarantee he'll be the Cornhuskers' 2007 starter.
What fun! Now a team celebrated for its quarterback riches -- both threw for more than 2,000 yards and combined for 37 touchdowns in 2005 -- suddenly is a sprained ankle away from starting a true freshman.
At least that tumult created quarterback buzz. Otherwise, the Pac-10, the conference of quarterbacks, would be generating this sound over its array of signal callers: Zzzzzzzzz.
Quick: Name the Pac-10's marquee quarterback this fall. Don't consult the All-Pac-10 team or honorable mention list. None of those guys is back.
If Stanford's Trent Edwards didn't pop immediately into your mind, that's OK. The Cardinal senior, listed as the nation's No. 3 senior quarterback by ESPN NFL draft guru Mel Kiper, has started 24 games during an injury-riddled career for a team that hasn't posted a winning record since 2001, which goes back three coaches to some fella by the name of Willingham.
Edwards is one of four conference quarterbacks who have started at least 10 games. The others -- Washington State's Alex Brink (16 starts), Washington's Isaiah Stanback (15) and Oregon State's Matt Moore (15, with five coming while at UCLA) -- are nearly anonymous outside the Northwest after their teams combined for an 11-22 record in 2005.
This is noteworthy because no other conference is as quarterback-centric as the Pac-10; witness eight conference quarterbacks picked in the first round of the NFL draft over the past decade (don't ask what happens when they get there).
Quarterback play almost invariably determines the Pac-10 pecking order. Over the past 10 years, starting with Arizona State's Jake Plummer in 1996, the first-team All-Conference quarterback led the eventual conference champion.
In eight of those years, that quarterback was a senior. The exceptions were made only for the exceptional: USC's Matt Leinart split the award with Cal junior Aaron Rodgers in 2004, took it solo in 2003 and, as a senior, in 2005.
As of today, Moore, Edwards and Stanback are the only senior starters, and their teams are expected to finish seventh, ninth and 10th in the conference, at least according to the preseason media poll.
The rest of the league features four sophomores and three juniors, only one of whom, Brink, has been a starter for an entire season.
So after all the Leafs, Tuiasosopos, Harringtons and Palmers from the past, we're left with ... what?
"Who's going to step up?" UCLA coach Karl Dorrell said. "It's kind of a transitional year for everyone."
Dorrell will start the least experienced but most talented quarterback in sophomore Ben Olson, 23, a former consensus prep All-American who signed with BYU in 2002 but joined the Bruins after a two-year Mormon mission.
The 6-foot-5, 225-pound specimen may turn out to be the conference's biggest X-factor.
"He's progressed faster than anyone we've had here," Dorrell said.
In fact, it feels like there's a budding star trend at work across the conference. Olson, Cal's Nate Longshore and USC's John David Booty are unknown as starters, but each was a marquee recruit. Meanwhile, Carpenter, Brink, Arizona's Willie Tuitama and Oregon's Dennis Dixon each showed flashes of playmaking ability as starters a year ago.
It sort of feels like 1999, when Stanford senior Todd Husak was the most accomplished returning quarterback before the season. He led the upstart Cardinal to the Rose Bowl, while Kyle Boller, Joey Harrington, Jonathan Smith, Cory Paus, Carson Palmer, Marques Tuiasosopo and Jason Gesser were just starting to make their marks.
Nine times over the past 10 years a Pac-10 quarterback finished in the top 10 of Heisman Trophy balloting. Four times two QBs finished in the top 10. The only shutout? 1999.
And 2006?
"Somebody is going to surface like that in our league," Oregon State coach Mike Riley said. "It's kind of the changing of the guard."
And, unlike the past three seasons but much like 1999, the conference race appears far more wide-open.
When the Pac-10 quarterback slate elicits a "Who?" things tend to be less predictable.
"I think that's why everyone is saying it's a pretty fair fight this year," Washington State coach Bill Doba said.
StuckinChicago
Starter
Its called lack of defense pac 10, not great quarterbacking...