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It’s official. Conor Rhoda is the official starting QB for Minnesota Football Football.
#Gophers QB Conor Rhoda named starter, PJ Fleck said.
— Andy Greder (@andygreder) September 11, 2017
Given that Twitter is a medium that inhibits complex discussion of a topic, this tweet may have left you with some questions that I will now attempt to answer:
1) Wasn’t Conor Rhoda already the starter? Yes, because someone has to trot out there for the first series. But it appears as though this is the decision for who is officially QB1, not “which of the two potential QB1 options plays first.”
Source: Conor Rhoda is the starting QB for #Gophers going forward.
— Randy Johnson (@RJstrib) September 11, 2017
2) Is this ever going to change? It certainly could, but if this is truly the “Rhoda is QB1” outcome it appears to be, that change would likely come only if Rhoda is struggling and Croft is showing the coaches a lot in practice. The thing to remember is once you’ve got your QB1 you traditionally give his backups fewer snaps with the #1 offense in practice and you’re obviously limiting the potential game reps (especially when you can’t expect Minnesota to blow out teams every week).
3) Is this good or bad? Rhoda has been doing a solid job. We’ve talked repeatedly about the extra dimensions Demry Croft offers in the run game, but if Fleck and Co are ready to make this move then I’m excited to see what Rhoda can do when he gets to practice and play as “the guy” instead of as part of a tandem.