(Waters + #Life) x Snyder = Wins

When Snyder says he likes QB competition, this isn't what he has in mind.

Every spring and summer during a QB transition year, we hear it loud and clear:  the QB position is "... competitive and both youngsters are making strides in the right direction.  And both are making enough mistakes there's not clear cut #1, so no, I don't know who it will be yet."

So it was no surprise we heard it again this year.

And when Waters was named the starting QB, beyond a mild raise of the eyebrows, no one was really that surprised. Yes, a QB who had only been in the system eight months won out over a QB with serious athletic skills who has been mentored by Collin Klein for two year, but he was the NJCAA Offensive Player of the Year. It would stand to reason if he could learn the playbook, run the offense, limit mistakes, and move the chains, he would get the starting nod.

This year, however, is different.

This year, it's clear that both Waters and Sams should, and will, see playing time depending on the game situation, and this is new territory for Snyder, who in over 20 years of head coaching, has probably never been in a personnel situation quite this daunting, this precarious, or likely this intriguing.

Bring On The Cats does a great job breaking down the game and offers the best summary of the QB situation and how to approach it:

But this "controversy" is really nothing at all.  This isn't Highlander.  There can be more than one. 

Through two games, both quarterbacks have proved to be valuable and they compliment each other well. Based on what the we've seen so far, playing just one of them would be doing a disservice to the team as a whole.

There's a great post game wrap up here as well.

"We've got two really good quarterbacks who are good at two completely different things and who both, if we're being completely honest, deserve significant playing time ... the coaching staff is going to have to devise a system in which both quarterbacks are capable of entering the game in any situation and do whatever the situation calls for, rather than thinking "Waters pass, Sams run".

Highlander VI -- We Were Wrong: There CAN Actually Be More Than One

We also all know Snyder is notorious for keeping things so vanilla in our the OOC games there's a very high likelihood he didn't want to showcase Sams at all.  The less tape the BigXII has on our secret weapon, the better off we'll be unveiling basically a 2nd offense that D coordinators will have to prepare for.  

And since Sams has basically only thrown one pass during a game to date, and considering the balls he put in the air in the Spring Game, it's fair to say that last 10 pages of our playbook Snyder is keeping tightly guarded until it's absolutely needed.

Case in point, we had a 4th and 1 in the 2nd half of the game this past weekend, Waters was in, and we called a timeout. I would venture to say EVERY COACH IN AMERICA would have brought Sams in to run for 1-yard and keep the drive going.

Not Snyder.  

He asked Jake to run an option left that was blown up for no gain. If I had been wearing my headset on my head I would have chucked it at the TV at that moment. Hard.  Now, maybe Waters should have pitched it. Maybe Waters audibled to that play.  Maybe an o-lineman missed a key.  No matter -- it was an odd call.

So, why didn't Snyder bring Sams in to get that first down?  Why didn't he put his team in the best position to make one lousy yard in September against Louisiana? Why didn't he just do the obvious thing and bring in a guy who average 9.2 yards a play this season?

It's because Snyder doesn't care about that play, that series, that game, or that moment in general ... at all. He is 2,3, maybe 4 games ahead of you and I.  It was evident as Thompson raced down the sideline on a 60-yard punt return for a near TD.  Snyder stands completely still, hands on his hips, as the wind from Thompson blows his hair back as he glided by .. no emotion, no movement, no smile, nothing.

Why?  Because Snyder was thinking about 4 and 1 against OSU in three weeks.  And he wants absolutely no film on that play for the OSU D-coordinators.  He wants to win with the most basic, vanilla, boring, offense he can possibly get away with so that when 4 and 1 comes at OSU, if Daniels Sams does happen to be in there, he wants to have the defense completely at his mercy.  

And that's why we will continue to see this offense evolve.  By the time the Wizard is done, it's more than likely he will have created an offense that's almost impossible to stop. Waters running one offense, Sams running another.  

Two offenses, both able to move the ball, both using the same personnel, both striking at key weaknesses in the other team, could mean big things for this team in 2013.  

And our special teams are going to be pretty amazing too. (If they would just kick it to us.)