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DEL.ICIO.USBennett knows role is to push Ball
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Mark Bradley
Barely a week into practice, this much is clear: Taylor Bennett isn’t going to take Reggie Ball’s position. This isn’t to say Ball couldn’t lose his position, which he has come close to doing twice already. But Ball, for better or worse, is simply the superior quarterback, possessed of a stronger arm and fleeter feet and 25 games of collegiate seasoning to Bennett’s none.
Chan Gailey confirmed â€â€? or conceded â€â€? the point this week. Reggie Ball is Georgia Tech’s No. 1 quarterback, Taylor Bennett its No. 2. That order isn’t apt to change before the season commences, if then.
So what, you’re wondering, was that December blather about Ball having to re-win the job? And what did Gailey mean when he said two weeks ago that he might well deploy two quarterbacks? If the competition is essentially closed less than a week into practice, was it ever really otherwise?
Asked if Ball had risen to the challenge or Bennett had fluffed his audition, Gailey was loath to say either had occurred. Here’s what he did say: “Reggie has increased in knowledge, but until he gets on the field [in a game] we won’t know how much he has improved. And it’s hard for [Bennett] to show very much because he hasn’t been with the No. 1 [unit] that often.”
No, that didn’t sound like a gushing endorsement (or a rank dismissal) of either, but that’s what happens when you’re a coach and Reggie Ball is your quarterback. You wait for the other shoe to drop. In two seasons you’ve seen him do enough good things to win 14 games but enough silly things to keep Tech from winning two or three more. You’d like him to be more consistent, and sometimes you get so frustrated that you trot out Taylor Bennett as an option. Only Taylor Bennett, a redshirt freshman who played in high school only as a senior, isn’t really an option yet.
After Ball had one of his wretched days against Miami last October â€â€? eight completions, three interceptions â€â€? Gailey considered playing Bennett, who was supposed to be redshirting. “Before the Maryland game, they told me to get ready,” Bennett said. “I got a little nervous.”
But Ball was solid enough against the Terps that the issue was tabled. Then he lost track of downs against Georgia and Gailey declared that the job would be open come 2005. On cue, Ball was MVP of the Champs Sports Bowl, and he outplayed Bennett in the spring and has looked much better in the first week of fall practice. And now Gailey sounds as if Ball will again take every important snap unless he messes up royally.
“I don’t believe in jerking a guy out,” Gailey said. “Nobody out here is perfect. If I’m looking for that first mistake, then that’s wrong on my part. It would take something somewhat prolonged before I’d make a change, and I’m not looking for that. I actually think [Ball is] going to play pretty good this year.”
So where does this leave Bennett? Of Ball, he said: “He’s our starter; he’s our man. I’m out here trying to push him.”
And maybe that’s the most important function Bennett can perform. For two seasons Ball has played knowing there was no viable alternative behind him. (Gailey, you’ll recall, demoted A.J. Suggs and moved Damarius Bilbo to receiver two summers ago when he handed Ball the job, and Ball essentially worked without a backup last season.) Bennett seems an alternative. He could move Tech in a pinch. He’s just good enough to keep Ball focused on boring stuff like precision and execution, which is more than half the battle.
Reggie Ball can do the big things. What has kept him from being a true big-timer is his failure to grasp the basics. Just by being on the active roster, Taylor Bennett is performing a vital service. He’s both safety net and nagging reminder.
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