Just got confirmation from Wyoming a little while ago that redshrit freshman quarterback Emory Miller Jr., is leaving the team for personal reasons. From what I can gather, and I have not confirmed it, this has nothing to do with Miller Jr. getting into trouble or anything like that. Sounds like family/personal issues.
That leaves UW with two quarterbacks on scholarship — true freshmen Brett Smith and Adam Pittser. The likelihood of one of these guys being the starter was pretty good prior to Miller Jr., leaving. Now, it appears obvious.
In two scrimmages and the spring game, the 5-foot-11, 190-pound Miller completed 56.4 percent of his passes for 277 yards with a touchdown and four interceptions. He also ran for 38 yards, but most of his snaps came against UW’s No. 1 defense.
Against mostly backups, Smith completed 72.6 percent of his passes for 469 yards with three touchdowns and two interceptions. He also ran for 88 yards and a touchdown.
Still, Smith looked like a more complete quarterback to me with more tools and a better skill set. With 15 spring practices under his belt, he’s got to be the early favorite to be the starter.
Pittser was arguably the most highly-touted recruit in UW’s 2011 class. He was the 19th-ranked dual-threat quarterback in the nation by Rivals.com, and the No. 25 quarterback overall by Scout.com.
In about a two-year span, UW has had three quarterbacks leave. Junior-college transfer Robert Benjamin left after the 2009 season after he lost his starting job in the season’s fourth game to then true freshman Austyn Carta-Samuels.
Carta-Samuels, unexpectedly, left after the 2010 season for “personal reasons.”
Now Miller Jr.
What can you read into this? All had different stories and circumstances. I don’t see a pattern here. With Benjamin, you bring in a JC guy to play, and if he doen’t t play you expect them to leave. Benjamin didn’t move on to bigger school for his final year of eligiblity. Carta-Samuels’ departure still raises questions, but in the end the brief, roller-coaster relationship between ACS, his teammates and the coaches ended and probably needed to end. If Miller Jr., has family/personal issues, then those should come before football.
What do you think, and who do you think will be UW’s starting quarterback? Are you concerned about the quarterbacks that have left? Perhaps UW will try and bring in a JC quarterback in fall camp to add depth? Maybe, but it will be hard to find one now.