Lighting a fire

Edit: This post is not a commentary on Tate vs Denard, who should start, whether Tate has been working hard, or anything else. I realize that this is a polarized subject and it is hard to read it objectively, but please try. I'm not making excuses for Tate if he's not working, nor am I condemning him either way. I am simply, only, talking about the reasons for the coach and several players being very public about it, and if there's anything more to it than what it appears at the surface level. Please try not to argue and contain your conversation towards that end.

Alright, I'm going to throw something at you here, and lets see if you catch it or not.

Rich Rodriguez - 'We need to see some maturity and development out of Tate.'

Steve Schilling - 'The Seniors have been meeting to come up with ways to keep the under classmen motivated.' ' Denard has worked very hard.'

Troy Wolfolk - "Denard has come out all the time. Tate's going to have a long way to catch up. He really hasn't come out and that's hurt him in our perception.'

Tate - No quotes this summer to speak of.

Denard - No quotes this summer to speak of.

Now, I want you to ask yourself, honestly, which of our two Quarterbacks is more competetive. When Tate signed, and then Denard, there was a quote where his mother worried about a second QB signing, and Tate said, "No problem. I'll just beat him." Denard, meanwhile, said, "I'll play wherever they need me." Tate is widely known as a little cocky and maybe even a bit of a jerk, while Denard is known as the really nice kid.

Now ask yourself something else. Has there actually been any account of who attended what practices this summer, or how those performed, etc?

Then ask yourself one more thing. Do you want to press a "nice kid" like Denard very hard? No, not really. They may break. On the other hand, what's the best way to press a cocky, self assured kid like Tate? Make them feel slighted, or inferior, and you will light one hell of a fire under that kid. If you're nice, he won't do jack squat.

Call me crazy if you want, but I don't think that what we're hearing out of the team is really a disowning of Tate, who we, they, and everybody else knows can play some serious ball. I think Rich Rod really knows these kids. I think they're just getting his ass burning so that he will come into camp angry, and ready to destroy all comers to prove everybody wrong.

Seriously, it's either that, or they're trying to color us against him so we won't be shocked when he doesn't start, but I just don't buy that. Rich Rod has never disparraged one player, not even those who left and threw HIM under the bus. He's not going to do it to last year's starting QB no matter what.

And to that, gentlemen, I say excellent. Light that fire! Get it roaring!