I know were all ready to move on from football to the greener pastures that is Louisville Basketball, but there’s one question that’s been on my mind really since the midpoint of this past season: just who will be our starting quarterback in 09? We’ve really been spoiled here at U of L for the past few seasons with great quarterbacks, now for the first time in 6 or 7 years we face a wide open battle for the position. With all that in mind here’s my take on the battle: (I’m just going to assume none of these players will transfer out before next fall)

Matt Simms

Ok, we all know how ugly the throwing motion is, despite that Simms has demonstarted an ability to throw an accurate ball (as long as it dosent get batted down at the line of scrimmage that is). Simms was probably one joint away from having a chance to win (or rather prevent us from losing) the game against Uconn, and he has speant 2 years under Koach preparing for his this shot. At this point I consider him the early favorite.

Odds of being the starter: 3 to 1

Tyler Wolfe

After the spring game I actually thought Wolfe had the early edge over Simms. Hes probably the best scrambler of all the QB’s on campus right now, but with Yeager coming in his added mobility is less of a factor. At this point Wolfe is probably a long shot, but should Simms, Stoudt, or Yeager get the start and struggle early we could see him take the reigns at some point midseason.

Odds of being the starter: 12 to 1

Zack Stoudt

Without a doubt my personal favorite. The fact that Brohm recruited Stoudt himself would seem to indicate that he’s someone that could fit into the system well. Just from looking at videos of him on rivals (for whatever they’re worth) the kid has Hunter’s rocket arm but with a tad more accuracy. There’s always a risk with starting a freshman at QB, if he were to succeed we have a solid base to build a team around for the next 4 years (and that vic kid isn’t too bad either), if he were to fail it could ruin him for his whole college career.

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZgNRaEo1tdc

Odds of being the starter: 5 to 1

Adam Froman

Ok, I know we haven’t landed him yet, but if we get beat out by Colorado state for a Juco qb…well im just not prepared to accept that. The fact that I havent seen anything from him, whether it be in person or via video, prevents me from making a good judgement call. I would say if the coaching staff decide they want to go with one of the young guns theres a great chance that Froman could start the first few games with Yeager or Stoudt taking snaps until they were ready to take over.

Odds of being the starter for the first game: 5 to 1

Odds of being the starter for the majority of the games: 10 to 1

Emmanuel Yeager

Yeager has to be considered the wild card in the race. Under normal circumstances I would bet money that the staff will red shirt him, and that very well may still happen, but Koach has repeatedly expressed his desire to play a dual threat QB. Maybe even more so than Stoudt, chosing to go with Yeager would be a high risk, high reward move.

Odds of being the starter: 8 to 1