Capitulation

I am going to write this one last note on the Riley vs Longshore issue. I think JT has capitulated, and I do not think Nate will be seeing the field again (unless there is an injury, or in a huge blowout).

Based on the comments from JT at the press conference, where he backtracked and said that the offense was actually doing well, that there were some breakdowns on each play that made it less effective, but that in general it was coming along (paraphrasing). That being said, I think that Riley is going to start. The question that I have is, does this mean that JT thinks Kevin is now finally better than Nate, or does it mean that JT has given up on this season and is playing for the future.

Wilner had a column in the Mercury News urging JT to play Riley, because essentially, since Arizona in 2006, Longshore has not played well in Pac 10 games. 19 interceptions, 20 TDs, 50% passing. That is not good. Nate has done a good job out of conference, and he did a good job last year in the first few games, but it just has not been his time.

Not that Riley had done a heck of a lot better, but the biggest thing for the Bears this year has been turnovers, and that is Nate's biggest downfall. I would say Riley's biggest downfall is holding on to the ball too long, and taking the sack. That can be just as bad as a turnover (see, Oregon State, last play of the game, 2007). But generally it is not.

So, as justification I think Jeff Tedford has agreed that the interceptions are too much, and Kevin is now the guy. The Longshore interception against Arizona sunk the ship.

i hope that this is the case, but I also hope that Riley still has the fire lit under him. I am not going to call any NCAA player lazy, but I do think he needs to work harder at understanding the offense, at getting the other players off to a fast start, and in general commanding the team. He also needs to work on accuracy, as least, as far as his game performance this year has shown.

Aaron Rogers was a great QB for the Bears. We need that level of QB to perform at the level that a Tedford team can. If we do not, the whole thing bogs down. In his best days, Longshore was 90% of Rogers. That was good enough for second in the Pac 10. We need Riley to get to that level and be consistent, and that will only come with a tremendous amount of hard work for him.

(Speaking of Rogers -- he just signed a $65 million deal with Greenbay until 2014. Not too bad. I wonder what Alex Smith's next deal will be?)