As I told you as soon as the news broke on Tuesday, Lyle Moevao has been cleared to begin throwing, putting him right on schedule to return to fall practice after missing the spring workouts due to surgery.
Cue quarterback debate, take three.
Ever since Matt Moore departed to leave the sophomore versions of Sean Canfield and Lyle Moevao in his shadow, we've never really made up our minds on the #1 starter. For awhile last year it seemed like Moevao, but now the scales have shifted in Canfield's favor. Will we ever figure this out?
I've heard a lot of people express concern that Moevao will try to come back too quickly and aggravate the injury. Cliff Kirkpatrick points out that the Beavers have experience in bringing back a quarterback from surgery:
Since the Beavers have experience from Sean Canfield coming back from throwing shoulder surgery, expect them to monitor Moevao from over doing it early.
And he's right. Canfield, who was never the same after sliding to the turf to meet Will Harris against USC at the LA Coliseum on November 3, 2007, re-cooperated from arthroscopic shoulder surgery following the Beavers victory over Maryland in that years' Emerald Bowl. He would return to start just two games last season-- after Moevao got into injury trouble-- but many have him favored to start at quarterback this season.
But whether it's Moevao or Canfield who starts September 5 against Portland State, you've got to like the fact that we'll be prepared with arguably the best back-up quarterback in the conference.
Commenter hualalai06 had this to say over at Ted Miller's blog:
The Beavs, along with USC, are the only two teams in the Pac that are 100% confident with 2 different QB's. That is very comforting if you are a USC or OS fan.
I could be mistaken about this, but didn't every Pac 10 team except AZ have a QB injury last year? If that happens again, OS is in good shape. Can you say that about your team? I'm a Duck fan, I can't. If Masoli goes down, I'm loading my shorts.
I suppose that's the one thing we know for sure... we'll have an experienced #1 guy, and an experienced #2 guy. Add in Katz back of Canfield and Moevao, and you've got to be pretty confident with the depth at quarterback.
Another thing we know for sure is that having Moevao back in throwing shape will only make Canfield better... the added competion has proven to make these two better in the past, as Ted Miller echoes:
There was some concern about how fast Moevao would heal and whether he would be ready for full-go action by fall camp. While it's premature to judge him to be 100 percent by the first practice -- shoulders can be tricky -- it's fair to say that the competition between the two capable players appears back on in earnest and will be of major interest before opening day.
It's possible to be a vocal leader from the sidelines in a sling, but it's a lot easier to do so when you're participating in the action. Whether or not Moevao is 100% seems to not be the issue right now... it's just good to see that he'll be back in time for fall camp.
--Jake (jake.buildingthedam@gmail.com)