Brent Rausch is the starting QB!

Ferd wrote in the HA: "Until this week the sophomore had been running No. 3 in drills at UH and, truth be told, if Rausch had come out of witness protection he couldn't have been more of a mystery to a great many people. It wasn't until last year as a redshirt freshman at COD in Palm Desert, Calif., where he threw for more than 2,600 yards and 28 touchdowns, that Rausch played 11-man football. His previous experience had been as a three-year starter at Desert Chapel Christian School, then a 90-student private school where he played both ways on the eight-man football team."

Ferd wrote in the HA: "Consider that Rausch played his JC home games in a stadium seating 1,000. Actual crowds were probably a hundred times smaller than what will scream back at him in two weeks in The Swamp, where capacity is listed at 88,548."

About how Brent did in practice yesterday, where he threw 48% of the passes and 2 of the 4 2-minute-drill series (before this the reps were evenly divided), Rolo said:
"(Rausch) did great. He made some great throws. He knows where to go with the ball. The guys buy into his personality. He's vocal. He's confident. He wanted it." (HA)

About how Brent has received the highest scores among the QBs since Saturday, Rolo said:
"Brent keeps going like this [Rolo raised his left hand in an upward-step motion]. When you look at it day by day, the graph goes (up)." (HA)

Rolo told Mack yesterday morning:
"Let's see what he's got. Let's give him a chance." (HA)

HA Note: "It was agreed that Rausch, for the first time in training camp, would be the leadoff quarterback in the passing drills."

About how he did not participate in the afternoon drills on Wednesday due to tightness in his right (throwing) elbow, Brent said:
"Nothing to worry about." (HA)

HA Note: "Indeed, he came out firing yesterday, lasering completion after completion in the red-zone drill. He also excelled in the two-minute drill. To add to the drama, the defense was allowed to blitz and the offense was told it had to use silent counts. Against an aggressive defense and the clock — graduate assistant Craig Stutzmann would yell out the dwindling time — Rausch remained poised, completing passes to the flats and downfield."

Praising Brent, Rolo said:
"I love the way he throws. He's very accurate. He has a strong arm. He throws a pretty ball. He controls it. He knows where he wants it, and he puts it there." (HA)

HA Note: "Rolovich also is impressed with Rausch's U-turn in attitude. Entering training camp last week, it was decided the rotation would go like this: Funaki, a fourth-year junior who exited spring training as the co-No. 1 quarterback; Alexander, a junior-college transfer who has only two years to play two seasons; and then Rausch, who has three years to play three seasons."

About how he had fallen behind Inoke and Alexander when working with inexperienced WRs early in camp, Rolo said:
"He was upset about it. I told him: 'What are you getting upset about? You're getting reps. You're in Hawai'i.' I want to see how tough people are. In the first few days, he struggled. I think it was his mindset, 'Oh, they've got me out of the competition. I'm just taking reps to take reps.' (After) the first two days, he was low on the grading. He was low on body language. He wasn't a good teammate as far as getting people going. He was quiet. He was kind of going in the tank. I said, 'Look, if you want to go in the tank, go in the tank. This isn't over for you.' " (HA)

Remembering his conversation with Rolo about how the competition wasn't over, Brent said:
"I had to suck it up, quit being a little baby. I'm glad he put it on me like that." (HA)

About how he had to relax and not put too much pressure on himself, Brent said:
"I was stressing too hard about making my throws. I couldn't relax. ... I was down on myself. I definitely was. I thought I was going to be third string. Then stuff started coming together. I came out of my shell. Now, I can relax, look around and make my throws." (HA)

HA Note: "His neighborhood high school football team was led by a 5-foot-7, 220-pound quarterback who was the head coach's son. Figuring he would not play much at that school, he instead enrolled at Desert Chapel High in Palm Springs, Calif. That school competed in an eight-man-on-a-side football league. The offense did not have tackles or a fullback. When four receivers were used, Rausch was alone in the backfield, with little protection."

About playing in an 8-man football league, Brent said:
"It was pretty fun. I was a running back and quarterback in high school." (HA)

HA Note: "He then attended College of the Desert for two years, playing football — 11-on-11 for the first time in years — for one season. Dan Morrison, who was UH's quarterbacks coach last year, spoke highly of Rausch to Rolovich, who was an assistant coach at City College of San Francisco. After Morrison left UH to join June Jones' new coaching staff at Southern Methodist, Rolovich was hired as the Warriors' quarterbacks coach in January. Rolovich remembered Rausch, and made the recommendation to Lee and McMackin. Rausch had visited UH on a family vacation the week before receiving the scholarship offer."

About UH, Brent said:
"It's a good school. I watched them a lot (on television) last year. I love their offense. It's a good place for me, being a passing quarterback. I'm not much of a runner." (HA)

About how UH offered a scholarship to Alexander soon after he committed to UH, Brent said:
"It's always good to have a challenge. It makes everyone better." (HA)

HA Note: "In the final twist, SMU made a scholarship offer — the day Rausch signed a national letter of intent with UH."

About how SMU made a scholarship offer to him through his JC coach, Brent said:
"He didn't even tell me about it until the day I signed. It didn't get to me. But I didn't even consider going to Texas." (HA)

Dismissing comparisons with Colt, the 6'4", 190-pound Brent said:
"I don't want to be compared to him. He's a great quarterback. He definitely has a different style. He's definitely better than me." (HA)

Understanding the difficulty in being the QB after Colt, Rolo said:
"Texas Tech wants to call itself Quarterback U or whatever, but coming after Colt Brennan is not the easiest job in the world. (The successor) needs to understand the importance in this state. That is a lot of pressure. Somebody has to handle it." (HA)

About how he saw the difficulty that Denver had after John Elway retired, Rolo (who was in the Broncos' training camp then) said:
"(Brian) Griese struggled with it in Denver. Those are the experiences that I can vocalize. The people of this state have a passion for this football team, especially for this position." (HA)

Referring to the QB they selected to be the starter, Mack said:
"There is one guy who has gotten better every day. I think we have a guy I think is going to continue to get better. We made that decision. It's not an easy decision, but we're confident in it and I just want to talk to the players first." (HSB)

"We feel one of the guys has moved in front and we're going to make a move. It's important for our football team to have a guy they can rally around and it's also important he gets the reps with the first team. We'll start practicing that way (today). We don't start game-planning against Florida until next week, so we had the weekend, but we're ready to make a decision and it's time to move on." (HSB)

"Yeah, I think there's one guy that's gotten better every day. Some guys have gone up and taken a step back. We have a guy who, I think, is gonna continue to get better. And we made that decision. It's not an easy decision. But we're confident in it. I just want to talk to the players first." (HSB)

Praising Brent's play in practice yesterday, Mack said:
"I thought he played very well. Today was our best practice. Our tempo ... we have a chance to be a good football team." (HSB)

HSB Note: "If Rausch starts at The Swamp in his first Division I game, it'll mark a remarkable swing for someone who was playing 8-man high school football in California just two seasons ago and didn't play quarterback until his junior year."

About how he started to get comfortable in the offense last Thursday, Brent said:
"Now I can see the defense moving and setting up and I can read it a lot better now. It did, all of a sudden, click for me." (HSB)

"I dropped back and I saw everything. Everything started moving. I was picking out my safeties I needed to see, my outside linebackers. It was clicking. I was seeing what I needed to see." (HSB)

About how Brent has "continually gotten better", Rolo said:
"That's what we wanted, we wanted a slow incline. It didn't have to be you know everything right away. But you had to get better every day and he's one guy who did." (HSB)

Praising Brent, Greg Salas said:
"He's always thrown a good ball. It looks like he's making his reads and has more confidence." (HSB)

About how he didn't know that he would get a lot of first team reps when he got to practice yesterday, Brent said:
"Not at all. I threw a few good passes and they just kept me going. The next drill came up and I went first. ... I was too happy to be surprised." (HSB)

About the pressure in the starting QB position, Brent said:
"I love the pressure, it's awesome." (HSB)