The challenges and questions will not go away for the Miami RedHawks football squad.
After opening the season with two straight road contests, the RedHawks return home to Oxford with a 1-1 record and an emerging quarterback controversy.
Saturday the Red and White take on a Cincinnati Bearcat team that has won its first two games by a combined score of 93-6.
Starting off the season with two consecutive road games against a conference foe (Ball State) and a Big Ten opponent (Minnesota) is no small challenge for any team.
The RedHawks certainly rose to the occasion-playing well enough to squeak out a win in Terre Haute, Ind. and rallying to nearly steal a victory from the Golden Gophers.
There is no doubt that winning is always preferable to losing, but some 1-1 road trips are better than others. This was one of the good ones.
The main question for Miami now as they return home is who will start at quarterback. Sophomore Daniel Raudabaugh's stat line (13 for 24 with two touchdowns and a monster 151 passer rating) and his ability to propel the team into overtime in a road game that looked lost should bring into the forefront a quarterback controversy that until now had been lurking slightly below the surface.
Whatever margin for error Senior Mike Kokal previously enjoyed is gone now. Indications seem to be that he will get the start Saturday against Cincinnati, but if Miami doesn't get off to a fast start in the Battle for the Bell, expect fans to call for Raudabaugh to enter the game.
The allure of Raudabaugh is his impressive stat line from the Minnesota game; however, fans should realize that Raudabaugh hasn't had many starts.
In fact, he has started only one game in his college career-a 24-10 loss at Cincinnati last season. Kokal, by contrast, is a quarterback who is known well by RedHawk fans.
Statistically speaking, he had a very good season last year, completing almost 59% of his passes for a 121-passer rating. His touchdown to interception ratio was nearly 2:1.
Unfortunately for Kokal, these are not the numbers with which he is most readily associated. Fair or not, those numbers are 2 and 10, the respective numbers of wins and losses that the RedHawks tallied last season-with Kokal at the helm.
Kokal does bring to the table, however, attributes that cannot always be measured in numbers-leadership and poise. At this point in the season, it would be foolish to make a drastic change just yet.
Raudabaugh, for all his success, did have the luxury of playing against a Minnesota defense that may have gone to sleep.
The slightest flash of potential by a young quarterback always seems to incite irrational hysteria among fans. This list of inexperienced quarterbacks who have been thrown into games too quickly and failed as a consequence is long, and provides caution to those who call for a quarterback change at every sign of trouble.
It is for this reason that I remain somewhat skeptical of the thought of making Raudabaugh the starter this week, though the irrational, hysterical, portion of the fan in me would love to see a change under center. Kokal won the job during the preseason-and 13 completions on Raudabaugh's part shouldn't cause all of his accomplishments to be forgotten.
That being said, Daniel Raudabaugh has put Miami on notice that should there be any problems at the signal calling position, there is another option.
