'Z', or not to 'Z'

Once upon a time there was a man - we'll call him Mr. Z-Basher - who attended a game and sat three rows behind me. During the course of the game, Mr. Z-Basher continuously berated and condemned the play of one Jared Sabransky, the current QB for BSU. If 'Z's play was not perfect, Mr. Z-Basher let everyone in the section know about it. "Oh, that was a crappy pass" "Did you see that deep receiver open? Is he blind or something?" "Put Tharp in, get that amateur out of there."

As the game progressed, and 'Z' got into more of a groove, the comments from Mr. Z-Basher dwindled. Finally, BSU got ahead by a big enough margin, the coaches sat 'Z' down, and told his backup Taylor Tharp to get ready to play. Then, the most amazing thing happened. The opposing team's inconsistent punter actually kicked the ball instead of shanking it. The result: BSU ended up with field position inside their own five yard line. Boy, this would be a good test of the clean-up crew.

Young Tharp, handed the ball off to a second string running back. Loss of a couple. Then young Tharp threw a deep ball to a receiver - a very pretty pass even if somewhat short. Incompletion. On third down an apparent middle screen or flare pattern was called - the coach later said the receiver ran the route wrong - a moot point because it was a very poor pass easily picked off by the opposing team. I doubt if the receiver had run the route perfectly it would have mattered.

Suddenly from behind me I hear, "What the hell is 'Z' doing? Is he trying to lose the game for us? They need to replace that guy with a decent QB - like Tharp." (I dunno - maybe this guy is Taylor's uncle or something?)

I immediately turned around and responded, "That was Tharp." and under my breath added you idiot. Mr. Z-Basher looked confused, so I explained, "They sat 'Z' down after that last score and put Tharp in." Suddenly, without missing a beat, Mr. Z-Basher transformed into -- Mr. Hawk-Basher! "What the f...? They put him in inside the five yard line? That's the stupidest coaching decision I've ever seen. Has Hawkins lost his mind?"

I rolled my eyes and shook my head. I figured there was no sense in trying to explain that once the coaches took 'Z' out and gave the next series to Tharp, there is no way in hell they would completely crush the kid's confidence just because of poor field position. "Sorry kid, we'd leave you in if we were close to the 20, but we don't have enough faith in you inside the five." I wouldn't even expect that from a bad coach.

Moral of the story: I wonder how many other fans either weren't paying close enough attention, or - perhaps even worse - subconsciouly want Zabransky to fail so badly, that they attributed a screwup by a nervous backup to 'Z' in order to further their "'bench 'Z'" campaigns.

QB comparison

'Z's detractors like to compare him to his immediate predecessors Bart Hendricks and Ryan Dinwiddie - both record setting quarterbacks and excellent passers. There's no question 'Z' is not as good a passer as either of them. He is more like Hendricks thatn Dinwiddie in that he is ver mobile. He just lacks that deep ball capability that Dinwiddie had. But, is that all there is to the story.....?

In 2003, in my opinion the best team BSU had ever fielded, Dinwiddie was "the man". But, he also had a cast of supporting characters that made his job look really easy. His receivers were the kind of players who could "make up" for a not-perfect throw, juke a DB, and run down the field for a big gain. He had running backs who could run a pass route better than a lot of receivers. (By the way, why is nobody calling for benching the receivers or running backs? None of the current crop has pulled off the kind of big play that were common that season). I can remember few times when Dinwiddie threw up a prayer and let his exceptional receivers make the play.

In 2004, Zabransky took the wheel. The record improved over the 2003 team, but the schedule was lighter and there were far too many close games - especially on the road. 'Z' had some explosive receivers left, the running backs made some huge plays, and most importantly in my view - Tyler Jones was kicking field goals at an unbeatable pace. It was common to see the offense stall inside the 35 yard line, only to see TJ come in and save the day. Without his foot BSU would have been 8-3 at best instead of going 11-0.

In 2005, we have a crop of new receivers, and a couple new faces at running back. None of those players have put in any really dominating performances so far this year. They are truly playing like the "blue collar" team they aspire to be. And, because there has been no "big play" magic, some folks seem to think that's 'Z's fault.