Wet Behind The Ears

Joe Santoro: Tyler Lantrip gets nod to start season for Nevada Wolf Pack

Ault, after all, never even relaxed the pressure valve on Kaepernick, even benching him for two series in a conference home game last season because he didn't like the way the greatest player in school history was reading the defense. Lantrip saw his most extensive and meaningful playing time since his days as Jesuit High's quarterback in Roseville, Calif., with Kaepernick on the bench that evening against Utah State, leading the Pack to two touchdowns. Lantrip is the sacrificial quarterback this year. That doesn't mean he can't win games. Actually, he's really the only one equipped to win games right now. But if Oregon, San Jose State, Texas Tech and Boise State destroy the Pack quarterback's confidence, well, better it be the senior who was leaving after this season anyway than the guy who has to lead you into the Mountain West Conference next fall. The Pack's schedule the first month of a season could eat a young, wet-behind-the-ears quarterback alive. Kaepernick might have even had a tough time coming out of these four games with all of his limbs attached. The Pack has opened only one other season (1949) in its long football history with four road games. Ault has vowed to never let it happen again. And that's OK. Ault has earned the right to change his mind whenever he darn well pleases when it comes to who plays quarterback. Ault, after all, has changed his mind about his starting quarterback before, guys with a lot more impressive resume than Lantrip. Just ask Nick Graziano, Fred Gatlin, Chris Vargas, Steve Baxter, Jeff Ardito, Marshall Sperbeck, Eric Beavers and Joe Pizzo among others. Ault will have a quarterback school at Nevada this year complete with on-the-job training. The big quarterback competition, after all, is not really this year. The competition that will determine the long-term success of the Pack in the Mountain West will take place starting next spring when Fajardo, Roderick and Magleby (and others) fight it out. So, yes, Lantrip will start the year against Oregon. And if he survives that frightening day, he'll start against San Jose State. And so on. But don't be surprised to see all three (Lantrip, Fajardo, Magleby) on the field this year, maybe all in the same game. It would be silly (and short-sighted) for Ault to give almost all of the playing time to the 6-foot-4, 220-pound Lantrip. You don't, after all, want to go to the Mountain West with a quarterback who has never played a meaningful down in a college game.

Wet Behind The Ears

This is a story of when I was just 12 years old. There used to be a dirt track that I would walk to school on. One weekend I was walking it to go to a friends house on the same track when a young girl came out from a house alongside the track. She said she had lost her cat and would I help her find it. Being very fond of cats I agreed and she asked me to stand in a specific spot while she went to get some pictures of her cat. I stood there for about a minute when from above the fence to their garden appeared a young boy with a hose in his hand. He proceeded to drench me in water and then disappeared back behind the fence. I left very wet with the sound of two kids laughing.

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