Oh, Big Red

Things aren't always grand in the land of the Cornhusker.

Sophomore quarterback Harrison Beck, touted as one of the best QBs from his recruiting class, has quit the team apparently disgruntled over the number of reps he was getting during Nebraska summer camp.

The loss of Beck isn't so much significant this season — senior starter Zac Taylor is the locked-in No.1 and the Big Red faithful are excited about this season with Taylor — but I think many people were anxious to see what Beck could do if the keys to the car were handed over to him.

Beck burned his red shirt last season and stepped in for an injured Taylor in a win over Kansas State in November and was less than impressive. Still, he is widely regarded as one of the better passers in pro-style, west-coast offences and it's too bad he's moved on.

What's more interesting though is what this does for him as a college QB. Having burned that red shirt and appeared in NCAA games, Beck won't be elligible to play for anyone until at least November, the liklihood of that happening being very slim. The reality is that Beck now has to find himself a place to play — likely back in his home state of Florida where he was heavily recruited by the Big 3 there — learn a new system, work his way up a depth chart and then eventually, he hopes, get himself in as the No.1.

The alternative? Suck it up and take your lumps at Nebraska and battle your ass off for a chance to be No.2 behind Taylor and the favourite to step in for 2007.

Instead, Beck backed down while his mother of all people chirped about how he wasn't getting enough reps behind Joe Ganz, the guy on whom Nebraska future hopes now rest. But all this goes to show a bit of Beck's mentality and far be it for someone to crucify the decision-making of a guy not even out of his teenage years. Lord knows, we all wouldn't want to be held up to that light.

But maybe it stands to reason — through his actions and the observations of teammates — that the competitive juices just aren't there the way they need to be. Would a true competitor slink off because he wasn't happy about his reps, leave town, skip meetings and not tell anyone? Especially when things for the 2006 season haven't even been decided.

And Mom? Stay out of it. Evelyn Beck-Bothwell, Harrison's mother, was quoted in the Lincoln Journal Star as saying maybe her son should have stayed in Florida.

"Maybe if he would have stayed in the SEC, he would've been playing," Beck-Bothwell said. "Maybe he made the wrong decision. He knows that playbook. It's just an issue of not getting respect from the older players."

She then went on to take a shot at Taylor saying her son would beat him out for the starting job if the coaches devoted more time to him.

"It'd be different if he was sitting behind Matt Leinart or Brady Quinn," she said.

Really Ev? Just so happens that QB is a senior, has a full year of live action in that complex offence under his belt. That guy, who isn't Notre Dame's Quinn or USC's Leinart, led the team to a bowl game and a win in that bowl game. And during that game, Ev, while Nebraska's offensive line was struggling and Michigan's defence was unloading on him all night long, Taylor showed the poise and grit you want in your starter, a guy who takes all the beatings, injuries and knocks and still gets back up.

Beck, meanwhile, quit before a real pass had even been thrown. Sounds to me like a player who's been babied at home, pampered as the star quarterback all his life and now everyone in his camp expects the same from the world of Division 1. This is a guy, after all, who has his own web site devoted to all that is Harrison Beck.

You think for a second Evelyn is chiding her son for making a poor life decision right now? Doesn't sound like it to me. In fact, if her public remarks are any indication then she's very likely telling him it was everyone else's fault, when Harrison needs to own up to the fact that things were handled poorly from his standpoint.

Beck will be 19 in September and often times in the world of competitive sports — whether its NCAA or WHL — you have to remember you're still dealing with teenagers and the fanaticism that comes with following your teams very often clouds — if not completely blacks out — that fact. Further, it's a crapshoot when recruiting and drafting kids. In the WHL you're trying to draft 14- and 15-year-olds in anticipation of what they'll be like as 19- and 20-year-olds, a difficult task to say the least. Guess work at best.

Beck will find himself another spot on another roster in another state somewhere down the line. The Huskers will move on and perhaps are fortunate they found out now the character of the kid they thought was the jewel of Bill Callahan's 2004-05 recruiting class.

After all, in a few years when you're searching for a guy who will go to war, I wouldn't be too exhilarated to be lead by the guy who didn't want to enlist in the first place.