Although Tanner Lee did not practice again today in the hour that I was there, CJ did not close the door on him playing, at lead publicly.
The reality is Lee won't play except in an emergency, but clearly CJ does not want UConn to know for sure. Montana will get the call --he's had an extra bounce in his step all week long--and Powell will be ready if needed.
CJ's telling quote came about a minute after he refused to rule Lee out:
"Tanner has to show me that he can throw it enough to run this offense, and I've seen a couple of plays and nothing to indicate he can run this thing like we want him to."
Offensive coordinator Eric Price toed the party line and professed a little more optimism about Lee, who did not get a single rep in any of the three practices I watched this week. Again, I've never seen a college team that played a quarterback who got zero reps in practice during the week.
"I think Tanner's feeling a lot better," Price said. "He'll be back soon."
Price praised Montana and Powell's performance in practice and said the offense would not change with either of them at the helm.
"We'll tweak the offense a little bit each week based on who we're playing anyway," he said. "The run game and some of the screen game stuff has really helped us this year. It took some pressure off Tanner originally, but it will not necessarily change for any specific quarterback."
Montana and Powell certainly should be ready for UConn. They've gotten all the reps any No. 1 or No. 2 QB get before a game, with the reps divided a little more evenly between them than they were between Lee and Powell in weeks past.
"It's pretty common throughout the country--if the starting quarterback gets hurt, next man up," Price said. "We have a plan. We had a plan before that happened. They've had a good two weeks of practice, so it's kind of business as usual right now."
Powell threw a pretty deep touchdown pass to Xavier Rush against the scout team defense, and Montana threw a nice fade to Devon Breaux for a score a little later on. Montana was good on the fade passes early last year before hurting his throwing shoulder. He was effective at times in the red zone, throwing 14 touchdown passes.
He's raring to go.
"I didn't get any reps before the last two weeks," he said. "I just come out and play and try to do my best and let the cards fall where they are going to fall. I'm trying to make up for lost time as quickly as I can."
In other news, CJ said long snapper Mike Lizanich likely will not play Saturday. That was one significant hamstring pull he had in warm-ups against Duke, and although CJ said replacement snapper Matt Marfisi was getting better every day, I saw at least five terrible field goal snaps on Tuesday and Wednesday, all of which bounced to holder Peter Picerelli.
The reality is Lee won't play except in an emergency, but clearly CJ does not want UConn to know for sure. Montana will get the call --he's had an extra bounce in his step all week long--and Powell will be ready if needed.
CJ's telling quote came about a minute after he refused to rule Lee out:
"Tanner has to show me that he can throw it enough to run this offense, and I've seen a couple of plays and nothing to indicate he can run this thing like we want him to."
Offensive coordinator Eric Price toed the party line and professed a little more optimism about Lee, who did not get a single rep in any of the three practices I watched this week. Again, I've never seen a college team that played a quarterback who got zero reps in practice during the week.
"I think Tanner's feeling a lot better," Price said. "He'll be back soon."
Price praised Montana and Powell's performance in practice and said the offense would not change with either of them at the helm.
"We'll tweak the offense a little bit each week based on who we're playing anyway," he said. "The run game and some of the screen game stuff has really helped us this year. It took some pressure off Tanner originally, but it will not necessarily change for any specific quarterback."
Montana and Powell certainly should be ready for UConn. They've gotten all the reps any No. 1 or No. 2 QB get before a game, with the reps divided a little more evenly between them than they were between Lee and Powell in weeks past.
"It's pretty common throughout the country--if the starting quarterback gets hurt, next man up," Price said. "We have a plan. We had a plan before that happened. They've had a good two weeks of practice, so it's kind of business as usual right now."
Powell threw a pretty deep touchdown pass to Xavier Rush against the scout team defense, and Montana threw a nice fade to Devon Breaux for a score a little later on. Montana was good on the fade passes early last year before hurting his throwing shoulder. He was effective at times in the red zone, throwing 14 touchdown passes.
He's raring to go.
"I didn't get any reps before the last two weeks," he said. "I just come out and play and try to do my best and let the cards fall where they are going to fall. I'm trying to make up for lost time as quickly as I can."
In other news, CJ said long snapper Mike Lizanich likely will not play Saturday. That was one significant hamstring pull he had in warm-ups against Duke, and although CJ said replacement snapper Matt Marfisi was getting better every day, I saw at least five terrible field goal snaps on Tuesday and Wednesday, all of which bounced to holder Peter Picerelli.
