The news that USU quarterback Riley Nelson will transfer to Brigham Young after his LDS Church mission hits home especially hard. The defection of Nelson, seemingly born to be an Aggie, follows the successful college careers of ex-USU defensive players Steve Tate of Utah and Kelly Poppinga of BYU and raises questions about Nelson's loyalty and BYU coach Bronco Mendenhall's pursuit of players from other schools during their missions, which is permissible by NCAA rules.
Beyond the issues of betrayal or ethics, this is the biggest question to consider during the two years before Nelson contends for BYU's starting job:
How good is he, really?
It is worth wondering how BYU's coaches could have studied the films of the seven games Nelson started as a USU freshman in 2006 and decided he was an entirely different QB than the high school All-American they once overlooked.
Nelson deserves to choose where he wants to attend school and play football. Quarterbacks transfer all the time, although they generally do so in the interest of playing time, which makes Nelson's case different. He could have returned to USU in 2009, started for three seasons and be celebrated forever in his hometown, almost regardless of how he performed.
It will be different in Provo, because nobody will carry him off the field on their shoulders for defeating Wyoming, the way USU teammates and fans responded to his touchdown pass that beat Fresno State. As for Mendenhall, having once lost Ben Olson to UCLA and acquired Max Hall from Arizona State, he has to understand his missionaries are also recruitable.
Both sides are taking a big risk here, especially Nelson. While the Cougars' quarterbacking picture appears wide open in 2010, when he will have spent a year in the program and be positioned to take over for Hall, there's no guarantee Nelson will ever become BYU's starter.
By the end of his freshman season, knowledgable people were questioning Nelson's ability to play quarterback in major college football - at least to the extent of being any kind of savior for USU's program.
There were some obvious factors in his defense. He took over an offense that had failed to score in its four first games (while he was intending to redshirt), resulting in its coordinator's resigning. Chances are, not even John Beck or Brian Johnson would have looked good with a fill-in play-caller and that cast of players supporting him, so maybe Nelson's one victory that season was a heroic achievement.
But it's also true that Nelson regressed, via some combination of wearing down behind a struggling offensive line and having defenses catch onto his scrambling inclinations. In the last three games, he completed 14 of 37 passes with four interceptions, making that winning drive against Fresno State more of a faded memory.
Nelson is intelligent, charismatic and confident, with all the intangible qualities a quarterback needs. He's also a terrific athlete. It's just that he logically would fit better into Utah's version of the spread offense, employing the QB as a runner, than BYU's, calling for strictly dropback passing.
If the Cougars' offensive coaches did not believe Nelson was qualified to function as a genuine passer in their system coming out of Logan High, what has changed? Certainly, Nelson will have more talent surrounding him in Provo, but the expectations and demands of the BYU quarterback who follows Hall will be extreme, and I don't see the offense being changed to accommodate his skills.
Part of Nelson's rich, Aggie-centered family history is a grandfather, former USU basketball coach Rod Tueller, who once was dismayed to have forward Gary Furniss transfer to BYU after his mission. Furniss became a serviceable player for the Cougars, but not much more.
I'm picturing Nelson as the football version of Furniss, more than 25 years later. He will be part of a Top 25 program, travel to bowl games and perform in front of sellout crowds, but he may not even remain a QB with the Cougars. Without making him completely accountable for his 1-6 record to date as a collegiate starter, clip and save this: BYU will not win a Mountain West Conference championship with Riley Nelson as the quarterback.
If it happens in 2010, I'm confident someone will remind me of that declaration.
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* KURT KRAGTHORPE can be reached at kkragthorpe@sltrib.com. To write a letter about this or any sports topic, send an e-mail to sportseditor@sltrib.com.
