I’m optimistic as well. I’ve supported Roper, but I’ve always thought that Masoli has the upside and that excites me. He’s had a few games to get some snaps, and gets to start his first game at home, then basically get a gimme road start at WSU. The only thing that has scared me about Masoli so far is that he seems to be too pumped up when he gets in the game and it seems to take him about 2 – 3 series to settle in.

I read something (I think on ATQ) that summed it up: Roper is a good backup QB, but he just doesn’t seem to have what is needed to win a PAC 10 title and/or a Rose Bowl. It’s going to be interesting to see if Masoli entrenches himself as the starter.

I personally don’t want Harper to start….I see so much potential in this kid and would love to see them continue to take it slow with him. I’ve always hated the 2 QB system, but we’ve never had a situation quite like this where Harper is so electric that you’d be crazy to not get him some snaps. I’d like to see it something like 80% Masoli / 20% Harper.

I’m on the fence about J-Will. I think that the wind probably had some effect on the receivers in the Purdue game. J-Will and the rest of the receivers REALLY need to step up now, so he’s got every chance in the world coming up to prove that too much of the blame is being placed on him.

Very excited about their future, not sure about the present.

Harper is definitely a guy for the future. He’s not ready to Start. Hopefully Masoli has brushed up on the offense, and he’s ready.

I’m not worried with the QBs, we have amazing talent. Chris Harper and Darron Thomas are awesome athletes, and Masoli has a few games under his belt, and has shown he can play ball. Despite the overall inexperience, I feel pretty good about our situation at QB, from top to bottom. More so than last year, Post-Dixon.

J-WIll has only one legitimate drop, which was against Purdue – yes, he’s missed some catches, but they haven’t been easy ones to make (Though he still should have made them). The 4th down drop was bad, but he hasn’t had enough opportunities to make the catch this year, and I for one would really like to see him more involved. He towered the Purdue defenders, and he was almost always in a man-on-man match up, but we didn’t toss the ball his way. That’s a match up he wins.

Great post. Masoli is ready, or as ready as he is going to be, and his decision making can’t be worse than Roper’s. I spent 3 hours looking at giant holes with 15 yards in front of them that Roper chose to ignore for no good reason.

I’m not sure you have justified the lack of desert for 50/50’s received blame. The passes he dropped were almost invariably at clutch times, and fantastically thrown. He is our #1 receiver, and he needs to step up.

I mean, I’ve never heard so much criticism for a guy whose 4-0 as our starting quarterback.

Roper isn’t great, and Masoli definitely has more tools for the offense. I’m excited to see what we do, and confident that we’ll win the next two, even if its just on the strength of the run game alone.

But I’m not ready to bury Roper yet.

Roper didn’t do the things we needed to do, and yet we still won. He is still green and has some refining to do on many parts of his game. After he is healed and gets more game time, he will be an efficient QB.

However, there is MORE than enough talent to supplant him as the starter. We have seen that with Masoli and Harper. Even Thomas will give him fits. All four of these men will get more reps and get stronger.

The two-QB system is working and will continue to work as long as they make the right play calls for the right situations. Bringing in either Harper or Masoli will have success because it will keep Defenses on their toes. They can’t prepare a good game plan because they don’t have the knowledge of what we can and will throw at them. CK will get a game plan together and the Ducks will execute.

On to Darron Thomas…who cares if we lose his redshirt status? If the guy is as good as why we recruited him, we can’t afford him to transfer to another team like the other two QBs did when it was obvious they wouldn’t see ample playing time. He should be able to fall into the game plan in the same way that Masoli and Harper have.

Are you suggesting a 3 QB system? I’m okay with burning his redshirt IF Masoli and/or Harper go down, but I wouldn’t want to burn it just to get him a few meaningless snaps. If you aren’t suggesting 3 QB system, what are you suggesting? I’m not trying to be a jerk, I just really don’t understand. I don’t know enough about Thomas, but clearly Harper has shown the coaches that he’s better at this stage. Any snaps we give Thomas are snaps taken away from Harper, so we would risk losing him at that point too. It’s a tough decision, but one I trust the coaches to make.

I know first hand what it’s like to love a QB one minute, and hate him the next and then love him 2 minutes after that. Moevao has only lasted because of his, er, “persona” on the field. Matt Moore (much like Dixon) was absolutely the most hated man in Corvallis his JR year. By the end of his SR year, he the hero of the 2nd best team in Oregon St history, leading us to 8 victories in 9 games. People were calling for Sean Canfield(!) over Matt Moore. Now we’ve had Sean Canfield, and he has found himself the most hated QB in Corvallis. I think when he returns he’ll be 3rd string. Ryan Gunderson anyone?
My point being, is don’t be too hard on a kid who’s only 3 games into his Sophomore year. He’s going to make mistakes. It’s bound to happen. Roper has done well for you guys, and don’t expect Masoli to be much better right away. He may be more athletic, yes, but how do you know how his leadership skills are?

I can’t believe I just stood up for Roper. I’m going to gag myself

There have been a few defenses of Roper…I’ll deal with them all here.

I’m not disputing that he’s young, or has room to grow. But to say that Roper has a lot of room to grow is not very true. He doesn’t have all that much room to grow. If he’s have completed a few more passes and had a few better reads, we would be seeing most likely the best out of him.

And after a few games, I feel confident saying that type of QB will not beat the USCs of the world.

He could become the best decision maker in the world, but if he can’t throw it deep, the safeties are gonna come in on us all day, and stop the running game and over the middle passes, and Roper will be screwed.

On top of all this, at this point in his career, Roper will have down games. We just saw one. And because of this, it’s not a bad thing to see what the more talented backups can do. They may have more poor mental play, but with an increase physical ability. So let’s see what happens. It would be tough to play worse that what we saw this weekend.

Is this bashing Roper? Not at all. I’m appreciative of what he’s done, but I’m also being realistic about his skill. At it’s most refined level, it will never be a Dennis Dixon, Joey Harrington, or Kellen Clemens. He simply does not possess the physical skills necessary to take the team to the next level.

I was willing to overlook this when Costa went down. But after seeing what the offenses lack, and how we can no longer go down the field, I really don’t think we will be able to beat talented, competent defenses unless you have a QB that is a deep threat.