Aside from Tim Tebow at Florida and Andre Woodson at Kentucky there are few sure things playing quarterback in the south. The biggest mess of them all may be in Starkville, where three quarterbacks have thrown at least 35 passes so far this season and none more than 70. Original starter Michael Henig sports an atrocious 1:9 touchdown to interception ratio while completing under 50% of his passes. Fellow junior, Josh Riddell leads the team in TD passes with two, but he is also completing less than half his throws, and as a JUCO transfer his other college opportunities included noted football powerhouses, UCONN, Idaho, and Western Illinois. Which brings us to the new starter, as reported in yesterdays Clarion-Ledger, Wesley Carroll. Carroll is an example at how bad things are at Mississippi St. The true freshman was rated as just the 69th best QB recruit and only two stars by scout.com. How this trio is 4-2 (2-1), including a win at Auburn, is beyond me.
In Nashville, Chris Nickson was tabbed by many as a possible breakout performer this year and potential All-SEC player. Instead he has played terribly in both big games for the Commodores so far this season. In Vandy's two biggest games so far this season against Alabama and at Aubun, Nickson has gone a combined 10-34 for 98 yards and a pick, opening the door for Mackenzi (McSlizzy) Adams to possibly get the start against UGA this weekend. Coach Bobby Johnson emphasized this in his news conference after the Auburn game last weekend, “there's a chance that we'll look at making a change at quarterback.” Whoever starts will likely be in for a tough afternoon as Georgia looks to avenge last seasons loss at home against the commodores.
Despite setting single season records in passing yards, touchdown passes, completions and attempts last year, John Parker Wilson is catching some heat and even coach Nick Saban is sending mixed signals. In todays Birmingham News, Saban both defends and criticizes his QB. Despite all this, Wilson's job security is probably not in doubt. However, this is more due to the fact that his backup is a redshirt freshman, who has thrown 9 passes, all in a 52-6 rout of East Carolina. On top of that, McElroy only started for one year in high school and is clearly not ready to play in the SEC.
Though they could be headed to an SEC East championship, as long as Steve Spurrier is head coach, there will always be instability at the quarterback position at South Carolina. Despite years of winning and contending for SEC and National championships, unless you were Danny Wuerffel circa 1996 you were never good enough in Spurrier's mind. So now we're supposed to think that because he's played a few good games redshirt freshman Chris Smelley is safe from a competition with former starter Blake Mitchell, who's biding his time on the bench. The guess here is Spurrier's bunch is a home loss against Vandy from pulling the trigger on yet another QB switch.
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