[Stardust]

For University of Cincinnati football coach Brian Kelly, it must have been like trying to decide if he should drive the Rolls or the Bentley.

He has senior Tony Pike, a sleek 6-foot-6 model with a powerful arm and plenty of experience who only a few weeks ago was considered a legitimate candidate for the Heisman Trophy.

http://news.cincinnati.com/article/20091...will+start

Or Kelly can turn to 6-foot sophomore Zach Collaros, a speedier model who is 3-0 as a starter in Pike’s absence and last Saturday set a school and Big East Conference record for total yards with 555 yards in UC’s 47-45 victory over Connecticut.

Kelly spent some mulling it over during the weekend, and decided he would go with Pike at quarterback Friday night when No. 5 UC (9-0 overall, 5-0 in the Big East) faces West Virginia (7-2, 3-1) at Nippert Stadium.

“If Tony is fully healthy, he’s our starter,” Kelly said Monday. “The issue is if this becomes day-to-day. There’s so much out of my hands relative to the risk factor. If that’s not an issue and you take Tony Pike’s body of work, Tony Pike is the starter. There’s no question about that.”


But there certainly was question about it immediately after the UConn game Saturday when the UC coach said Collaros was making it difficult to automatically go with a healthy Pike.


“I was dead serious,” Kelly said. “I went back and thought about the plusses and minuses. There’s a lot of plusses with both guys. After careful consideration, Tony is our guy.


“He’s at the level he needs to be. He’s 6-6. He can see the entire field. He’s got a great arm. All the things he’s shown this season, I haven’t forgotten about any of that stuff. I really had to spend some time thinking about this decision. It’s a difficult one