Football - The QB Race Thins

Well, you knew it was eminant. With a gazillion QB's on the roster next season, something had to give - and it did. Jonathan Garner is transferring. Now, while we know that his chance at playing time was limited. He's one of the guys caught in the middle. Only one guy is likely to pick up the mantle from Reggie Ball, and Taylor Bennett has a firm grip on that spot. However, check out what Coach Gailey said about the situation:

"We've got a lot of things to get accomplished in spring practice at that position," Gailey said. "I think he realized that he was going to be in that group that was not going to get as many reps because we knew what he can do. So he wanted to go somewhere else."

How do you feel about those comments? On one hand I agree. There's a lot of new blood to be evaluated. However, is it really fair to Jonathan? To say that he "knew what Garner could do", is to say that JG had not improved in the off-season, and that he wasn't going to get a solid chance to get reps to actually improve his game.


So my question - will the number of reps in the spring be allocated on an inverse proportion basis to their experience in the program? Will Bennett get the fewest reps? Will Threet get the most?


I'm not challenging how Coach Gailey runs spring practice. I trust his judgment. More than anything, I'm just curious how the reps are structured and doled out.


The most interesting nugget out of this for me is that Garner had developed a bit of a reputation as a guy whose game play was superior to his practice reps. Could Garner have been one of those "gamers" that just stepped in and stepped up his game once on the field? We'll never know - unless of course he pulls an Andy Hall and goes and wins a I-AA championship somewhere.


One last bit - remember that Garner was originally committed to Florida with Ron Zook. When Urban Meyer came in he told Garner he didn't really fit the offensive style he was going to put in place - and he ended up at GT.