This sort of thing cracks me up: Rivals has some news about "one of Auburn's top signees in the 2009 recruiting class" who "could compete immediately for playing time at the quarterback position" and just happens to look exactly like Tyrik Rollison ... but to find out who that signee is, you're really going to have to go behind the paywall, sorry. Honestly, they should have just gone all the way and referred to him as "this signee, whose name rhymes with Blyrik Blollison."
As for the actual news, well, until there's some official, public word from the NCAA Clearinghouse (or Rollison's Facebook page ... no update yet, jrs?) I'm holding off on the kazoos. But obviously Rollison's qualification has never looked more likely, that much we can say.
UPDATE: Commence kazooing: he's in.
Immediate reax: whether you buy Rollison's substantial recruiting hype or not, whether you think any true freshman quarterback is capable of coming in and contributing immediately, whatever you think of Burns, Caudle, and Chris Todd 2: Son of Todd, the fact is that Auburn cannot have a successful 2009 season without lining up someone competent at quarterback. Having Rollison on campus puts one more bullet in the chamber, one more shot at having that someone emerge from the scrum and taking this team by the reins. Maybe that person will be Rollison; more likely--he is a freshman after all--it won't be. But that extra bullet could also make all the difference, and I'm damn, damn glad it's there.
9 comments:
the last word from said mystery QB's facebook page was:
"Tyrik Rollison is realizing that nothing in life comes easy. You must cherish the things you earn and the people who helped get you there."
which to my trained eyes reads:
"Shit! i think i might be goin' to prep school."
...but i could be wrong.
good job with this blog, just started reading
woops. guess i spoke too soon. i just read the article and it says Rollison has been cleared to play and he's on campus right now and will be starting classes next week.
how do you spell A W E S O M E!
I'll wait 'til it's free info somewhere, but that's excellent news.
With Todd as a senior and Burns and Caudle as juniors this year, it makes no sense to burn a possible redshirt season for Rollison. One of the three will emerge as the best choice for this year and the next.
Rollison's impact will be best used in the 2011-2014 time frame with a full two years under Malzahn's coaching. Throwing a true freshman into the mix is simply premature.
Sullivan013
Jerry,
i feel like no matter how well Rollison or Mosley do in summer/ fall drills it would be a very unwise move to start them this year and eat up eligibility. We have at least two older qbs that already have sec playing experience and know what to expect. why not, when we don't expect too much out of the season already, let these kids take a year to learn the system before throwing them in the fire. look at Kodi, i could have killed T-ville for playing him in the miss st game, and what did it get us? we didn't win that game and we burned Kodi's red shirt. (I know we played him against NM st as well to get him experience, but you would know that from watching games last year) i just feel like the drills with be NOTHING like an actual game, even if they let the qbs take hits. No doubt one or both of these player will be great, but lets give them a chance to get there.
i appreciate your thoughts.
ah, Sullivan, don't know how i missed your comment. as you can see, i agree totally.
bharris, welcome aboard.
As for the redshirt question, I can't believe I'm about to disagree with you guys, but ... I think Auburn has to put the quarterback who gives them the best chance to win on the field. Period. There's too much pressure coming off of 5-7, too much angst, too much everything to risk going 4-8, 5-7 again just to preserve an extra year of eligibility. If Rollison's the best guy for the job, even by a tiny margin, he needs to be the quarterback. And I do think there's a chance he will be that best guy.
That said, I don't buy the argument he ought to be playing "for the experience." If he's not the best guy or even if he's dead even with someone else, he redshirts.
For whatever it's worth, on paper this should be a peak year for Auburn in terms of experience on the field, and if Chizik lets this year (and to some degree next year) pass him by in an effort to "build a foundation" then we will be left waiting on next year's recruiting class to mature before we do anything significant. Therefore, I'm with Jerry in saying that we need the best QB option on the field this year, regardless of who that is. If its Tyrik, then so be it (don't count Mosely out yet). The way this staff recruits skill players I'm not worried about who will replace Tyrik in four years.
Also, the easiest way to transition through rebuilding your offensive line is to have an experienced QB. If we start a Jr this year, then we are going to be trotting out a new QB and a new offensive line at the same time in a couple of years. That will probably be ugly.
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