Bonnell wins rating derby, but...

Say, you’re a wily, old coach and you face an excellent team from a lesser conference in your opener. That team returns 18 starters and 48 lettermen and, last season, won six of its last seven games, including a 17-9 victory over UCLA in the Silicon Valley Football Classic, a UCLA team that's hammered your team over the past few seasons. Your starting QB from last season is gone and you have three young quarterbacks vying for the vacancy. Whom do you start?

In August, that’s a question that head coach Keith Gilbertson will face when his team returns for pre-season practices, preparing for a September 5 opener against Fresno State University.

None of Gibly’s young quarterbacks stood out from the rest in Saturday’s scrimmage, so supposedly the question of who will start at quarterback against FSU remains a mystery.

According to Bob Condotta's statistics (after a scrimmage, he writes this stuff in a small notepad as a UW official calls them out; whereas, I needed a voice recorder for this task at Olympia) all three quarterbacks performed about the same.

Each quarterback threw a touchdown pass: Casey Paus (photo above) hitting Quintin Daniels on a 59-yard slant for a touchdown; Isaiah Stanback finding running back Chris Singleton all alone on a 69-yard score; and a patiently waiting Carl Bonnell throwing a 19-yarder to RB Kenny James for a score.

Paus (Junior) completed 6-of-11 attempts for 112 yards, Stanback (Sophomore) was 4-of-10 for 103 yards, and Bonnell (redshirt freshman), was 5-of-11 with one interception for 61 yards. Neither Paus nor Stanback was intercepted.

After the scrimmage, the veteran coach was pretty cagy about the competition, being somewhat noncommittal as to whom will start.

"I don't think you have to (name a starting QB) if you don't clearly have someone who's No. 1, you don't have to do that," he said. "I think I want the job to be open and up for grabs, and the competition to continue into training camp."

Most of the fans and members of the media are lining up behind Bonnell. Columnist Blaine Newnham of the Seattle Times says, “Maybe Bonnell is a compromise pick, a better athlete than Paus, a better passer than Stanback. I just like the way he operates.”

One fan on the Internet says, “Looks like a two horse race to the Fresno game. I just don't see Paus as the answer with a squirrelly offensive line. Bonnell moves very well in the pocket and has some juke to him.”

Taking the aggregate statistics for the three scrimmages this spring, I computed the pass-efficiency ratings for the three QBs, tabulating them below. Bonnell has a 141.2 pass-efficiency rating, with Paus (124.0) and Stanback (118.6) trailing. Bonnell's 4 touchdowns in 24 attempts account for his big lead in pass efficiency, netting him 30 points after subtracting picks per attempt.

Quarterback	Comp/att/int	Pct.	Yds	Tds	Pass Efficiency
Carl Bonnell	13-24-3	54.1	163	4	141.2
Casey Paus	18-38-1	47.4	292	2	124.0
Isaiah Stanback	12-30-0	40.0	202	2	118.6

Do all of the stats and hype mean Bonnell will start against FSU? No. The spirited competition for the starting quarterback job is in name only. As a result, each of the competing candidates will become more proficient as he progresses towards fall. Casey Paus has earned the opportunity to start for the UW, waiting patiently in line for three years. He has the wisdom, experience and perspicacity (his mom says he's a deep thinker) to be an excellent quarterback in the Pac-10. Starting him on September 5th sends the right message to the team, like in: "if you pay your dues, you're the one we'll use."

-- QB Felix Sweetman completed 3-5, for 46 yards with no interceptions.
-- Hans Rasmussen was 1 for 41 yards in the punting stats.
-- Brian Tawney had three tackles as did Josh Okeobor.
-- Evan Knudson punted three times, averaging 35.3 yards per punt.