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Each week Big East Coast Bias polls bloggers around the conference on a football topic. How do their views differ from yours? This week, we asked:
Three Big East quarterbacks are headed into their senior year: USF’s B.J. Daniels, Syracuse’s Ryan Nassib and Pitt’s Tino Sunseri. Among these veteran signal callers, who is most likely to the best 2012 season, and why?
Survey said …
Smart money is on B.J. Daniels, who should benefit from having the best offensive unit around him. He's been in control of the offense for a while now and all of the pieces are expected to come together. They better, for his and Skip Holtz's sake.
Nassib should perform well, though I wonder how much his stats will suffer with Doug Marrone's new-found reliance on quarterback mobility, which isn't Nassib's strong suit. He does have some great weapons at his disposal, it's a question of whether or not the offensive line can stay healthy enough to protect him. And I refuse to make predictions about anyone involved with the Pittsburgh Panthers football program. Every year they could go 10-2 or 2-10 and I have no idea what's going to happen.
Follow Sean (@NunesMagician) and the Syracuse Orange on Troy Nunes Is An Absolute Magician.
It's B.J. Daniels by default, right? Tino Sunseri is a complete mess, and I don't think either Pittsburgh or Syracuse are going to throw as much as USF will this season. Without many options at running back but a plethora of receivers to throw to, Daniels should have the best stats, if not the best results. Also he can and will run more often than Sunseri or Nassib.
Keep up with Jamie (@usfvoodoo5) and the South Florida Bulls at Voodoo Five.
Of the three, I believe Ryan Nassib is poised for the biggest year. I happen to be a big fan of Doug Marrone and the job he's done at Syracuse, even after last year's somewhat disappointing season. Marrone is a very good quarterback coach and Nassib is heading into his third season as the starter. He's going to be without his security blanket in tight end Nick Provo, but I think there will still be plenty of targets and his comfort in Marrone's system will allow Marrone to be creative with him and perhaps even take more chances down the field. I refuse to trust B.J. Daniels as a passer and Tino Sunseri is on his third different offense in three seasons. For that reason, I'll go with Nassib to have the best year of the three and even, perhaps, take Syracuse back to the postseason in 2012.
@Mengus22 is a Louisville Cardinals fan and manager of Big East Coast Bias.
B.J. Daniels is the most talented of the three. While he probably will never live up to the expectations set after a successful freshman season he still can improve. Daniels should go into 2012 looking to rely less on his natural ability and more on his experience. If he can effectively manage games and limit turnovers, South Florida is sure to improve on last season's 1-6 conference record.
Ryan Nassib has less of a ceiling than Daniels, and Syracuse still has to prove they are on an upswing. Tino Sunseri will be going through his third offense in as many years. His play at the end of last season and in particular the end of the backyard brawl left many questions regarding his ability to lead a top Big East team.
Jerry is a regular Rutgers fan blogger.
The easy pick is B.J. Daniels, who is back again. But Tino Sunseri is my slection. I think he is going to become Bill Stull 2.0. A guy who was dreadful in all past appearances who puts together a great season why he finally has a chance to work in an offense that fits his skill set. Sunseri is obviously talented, but he has never had a coach offensively who knew what to do with him. That changes this year.
Matt (@downthedrive) reports on the Cincinnati Bearcats at Down the Drive.
Put me in the camp that thinks Sunseri will improve in 2012, maybe even to the point where he even contends with the other two (just check out his 2010 numbers in a pro set offense, which he'll be returning to under Paul Chryst). But realistically, it's hard to take a leap of faith to put him at the level of Daniels and Nassib. Out of those two, I think it's really a coin flip. Nassib's improved each of his three years at Syracuse and to me, he's probably the slightly better quarterback. Daniels has never completed 60% of his passes, but the fact that he has most of his receivers back from last year including Sterling Griffin and Deonte Welch makes me lean towards him.
Track the Pittsburgh Panthers on Cardiac Hill (@PittPantherBlog).
As risky a pick as this may be, I have to go with B.J. Daniels as the veteran quarterback that will set himself apart from the rest of the Big East's signal callers in 2012. He has the ability to do damage with both his feet and his arm; it's just a matter of consistency. If you glance over his game logs then you'll see days where Daniels was absolutely masterful and days in which he was downright dreadful.
Still, he set career highs in completions, attempts and passing yards while cutting his interceptions in half (13 in 2010 vs. 7 in 2011) last year. I'm very high on USF this season so I guess I'm high on Daniels by default.
John (@owlsblog) has Temple covered at OwlsBlog.
29sonski
There are too many questions about Pitt and the new offense to choose Sunseri. Daniels seems the safe choice, expecting that the Bulls to go to the air consistently. I’ll take Nassib though. He is not flashy, but he is efficient. He’s already thrown for more than 5,000 yards and 44 touchdowns against just 18 INTs. His offensive scheme is well-balanced to allow him to keep the opposing defenses honest. I expect him to put up numbers consistently and be the league’s top-ranked quarterback.
@29sonski is a Connecticut Huskies fans a regular contributor at Big East Coast Bias.
Check out last week's confab: Which Head Coach Has The Most To Prove?, and the BECB Football section.