(First off - I know, I know. It's the off season. Gimme a break.)
Alright, so, I managed to stomach some of the grammar over at GBMW, and I came away with a few interesting tidbits. According to them, Tate and Denard look about even, with Denard's legs giving him a slight edge. They also said, however, that the offenses aren't running any plays to stretch the field at all right now, so whether that's because the QB's aren't up to it (Tate's shoulder?) or they're just working on other stuff, I don't know.
They also said the split in time right now is about 50% Denard, 40% Tate, 10% Devin, and that Devin is making substantial process, and though he's behind on the learning curve, he can do things the other two just can't. So go with me on this for a minute:
Rodriguez has stated on numerous occasions that the intention with Denard is to get him on the field wherever possible. We know that he's a ridiculous athletic talent, but to this point, he's proven to be a gamble whether he'll hurt or help more, and that's likely to always be the case to some extent.
Tate has proven to be a ridiculously awesome QB sometimes, but, also clearly has physical limitations. That can't really be argued. He's always going to be a touch smaller, a touch slower, with a touch less arm. But we do know, when healthy, he's awesome. He's not quite the athlete Denard is, but he's a safe bet to make plays and keep us in the game.
Then you've got Devin, who has the true star power potential to take us to new heights. He's simply not there yet, but actually could be at some point this year.
So then, I think we see the logic behind the QB process here. The goal is to eventually get Devin starting, at which point you don't want to relegate TWO other exceptional talents to the bench. So, we work the offense with Denard to make sure he's really good at what he's good at, then coach him on other positions. We start out the year with two QB's, similar to last year, and eventually, if and when he's ready, we work in Devin. At that point, we rotate uber-athlete Denard entirely to other positions, so we're not wasting two exceptional talents on the bench at any one time, and the QB rotation becomes Forcier-Gardner instead, with Robinson full time at other positions. Eventually, Gardner transitions to the full or most of the time starting role, and we end up with this:
Awesome, super athletic, NC winning starting QB.
Backup/split time QB that the rest of college football would kill to have as their full time starter
Athletic playmaker in the vein of Randle-El or someone similar, who takes over the game all over the field, and occasionally lines up at center to mess with defenses heads.
THAT, my friends, is a dream scenario.