[Nathan Vs. Riley]

All of Riley's talents aside....this is why I am hoping Chico will keep Riley in backup for a year and let Nathan start his senior year. As "they" say...the proof is in the pudding....so take a bite out of these stats.

NAME CMP ATT YDS CMP% YDS/A TD INT RAT

Riley Dodge 205 303 1975 67.7 6.52 9 15 122.3

Nathan Tune 69 107 646 64.5 6.04 5 2 126.9

So...as you can see...Nathan has 2 Int thrown in 107 attempts...whereas Riley has 15 whopping INT in 303 attempts. This means that Nathan throws one out of every 53 attempts (admirable) vs. Riley throwing one in every 20 (needs a ton of work).

With that being said...lets take a look at what the effect of Riley's receptions have been on some close games. The key matchups are the winnable games against ULL, Middle Tennessee, Ark State, FIU, FAU and ARMY.

ULL- Final Score 39-34 ULL. Riley threw an INT and it was returned for a TD. Another INT was returned to close field goal range after a 26 yd. run and ULL drove in a FG on us. A side note is that we also had a blocked punt returned for a TD. In my eyes...Riley cost us 10 pts. this game.

Middle Tenn.- Final Score 37-21 Middle Tenn. Riley threw 2 INTs and both were returned for TDs....in my eyes he threw our momentum away and cost us 14 pts. in their favor.

Arkansas State- Final Score 30-26 Ark State. Riley threw a INT and it was returned for a TD. In my eyes Riley cost us 7 pts. and the game.

FIU- Final Score 35-28 FIU. Riley threw 1 interception and it cost us the game when it was returned for a TD. We could not close our last drive and stopped at the 10 yd line.

FAU- Final Score 44-40 FAU. Riley gets pummeled this game...keeps taking hits and beatdowns. So..Nathan takes over...starts a winning drive..then Dodge puts Riley back in who gets nailed..fumbles the ball and costs us a FG against us due to the return. Nathan then comes back in the game and tries to salvage the remainder...

Army- Final Score- 17-13- Perhaps the biggest heartbreakers of the year (tied with the Ohio game)...

3 INTs thrown by Riley this game. That alone regardless of the returns by Army on these interceptions can lose the game based on lost drives. As it pans out...1 FG was scored on an INT..and our defense did an admirable job trying to contain and shutdown a weakened Army offense. We had a FG blocked and missed an extra pt.

and I will throw Ohio in there for good measure....everything was going our way (albeit it was gonna be close). Lets be honest...we have a new season and lots of hype behind Riley at this point and we were coming off fresh after beating Ball State (in hindsight not much of a feat). When little Riley got injured it threw everything out of wack and Nathan saw his first plays on the field (throwing his 1 of two year long INTS). Had Riley not gotten injured (first of countless times it seems) we might have carried the day...though this is all speculative.

Bottom Line: Riley needs 1 yr of QB training under Canales before coming back out in the field...Conditioning...Bulking Up....and getting control of his INTs are an absolute priority. Everyone loves watching him play...and the runs he makes...awesome! However we could all feel the momentum shift at the games (half of the ones we played last year) when he was either hurt or threw one of his seemingly countless interceptions. Play Nathan and we will have a winning year...I promise.

[K State Announces 2010 Schedule]

This is perfect actually....it allows us the opportunity to shape the team over the season before having to play them.

[Usf Message Board Thinks Canales Will Do Well At Nt]

I agree that Reilly will probably be the quarterback this year....but homing in on Tune's skills and Thompson's skills is an absolute must. If you believe that Reilly gaining 10 extra pds of muscle this winter and spring will stop him from getting injured...you are wrong. We will be seeing more of both Tune and Thompson this year. I would be interested to see the quarterback try out.

[Canales Hired To Lead Mean Green Offense]

This is the happiest I have been regarding our football program in well over a year. Now there is no excuse...we have the tools...we have the staff....we had better make a strong run at the Conference Championship next year. Those of you settling for a 4-5 game win season next year are selling our talents and abilities short. Troy should be the only issue for us next year (maybe MTSU)...all others will fall to our wrath.