Chazz Anderson:
The Good:
As a player he knows Coach Quinn very well, knows the offense as well as any Quarterback on the roster. He also has experience running it against Big East opposition (mostly in practice but he did see limited time as a starter and in cleanup duty for the bear cats.
As a man I hear nothing but good things from Bearcats fans both on the fan boards and from SBNation's own BearCat blog "Down the Drive"
The Bad:
While he had limited success as a backup and leader Butch Jones, who knows from Quarterbacks, moves Anderson to a wideout after spring camp ended. This, more than anything else, may have prompted him to transfer
Thats the 10 thousand foot view that Bulls fans got of Anderson when it was announced he was transferring to Buffalo for Graduate School. I threw some questions over at Cincinnati super fan Matt Opper, who manages Down the Drive. He was kind enough to bring us up to speed on "The Next Bull In"
Bull Run: This spring that he was being moved over to wide receiver. What was the reasoning? Was he not getting system or was he just a step behind the other quarterbacks.
Down the Drive: Jones moved him to WR for the last week of spring practice after the spring game was done and dusted the week prior (weird, I know).
The impetus behind the move was two fold. Whenever a staff has to make a decision on a back up there are two key factors that have to be considered. First among equals is if my starter goes down which of these other guys give me the best chance to succeed?
In this regard it wasn't great news of Chazz. He started the Syracuse game and though he wasn't terrible overall, but he did make a couple of really costly mistakes that killed off what slender hopes UC had of beating the Orange.
The other key factor is the back up QB job should always be about the future. That's the guy that gets half the snaps in practice and that should be used to groom the successor of whoever is the incumbent, in this case Zach Collaros who is departing this year. Keeping Anderson at QB didn't make a ton of sense for the coaches. They had already turned to the future in the course of spring practice. Anderson's reps were already being doled out triumvirate of Munchie Legaux, Jordan Luallen and Brendon Kay.
Moving Anderson to WR just confirmed what many close observers had long since anticipated, that Chazz was no longer going to be a factor at QB for the Bearcats
BR: As a QB what are his strengths and weaknesses?
DTD: The more regimented the offense the better.
All QB's are really system QB's but some are able to make plays through improvisation when things go bad, and some just make bad decisions and mistakes in those same situations. Anderson is in the later camp. And there is really nothing wrong with that. But he clearly had more success as a younger player when thrust into the more free flowing offensive scheme of Brian Kelly and Jeff Quinn.
Butch Jones offense is a little more buttoned down and regimented and isn't great for a QB who's first inclination is to leave the pocket when facing pressure. His arm strength is pretty decent, but he really struggled with his accuracy at the tail end of his career at UC. He is a surprisingly good running threat, he ran for 66 yards in the game against the Cuse.
BR: On a scale from 1-10 how much might the bearcats miss him this season
DTD: In the locker room i'd say it's about a 6. Chazz is an intelligent, thoughtful and well respected member of the team. He commanded a lot of respect. On the field i'd rate it at about a 2.
Butch Jones and his staff have moved on to the next guard at the QB position and Anderson isn't a part of that group. There is of course the odd chance that UC will have to play 5 QB's in a season again, in which case the Bearcats could miss Chazz quite a bit more. Then again that might not be a bad thing...
BR: Random fact or anecdote?
DTD: ...Chazz Anderson was one of five QB's to play in the 2008 Big East winning, BCS bowl clinching team. He started the Marshall and Rutgers game and performed admirably for a young redshirt freshman with nothing in the way of college experience. Besides that I guess it would be his expressed desire to become a minister at some point.
BR: Aside from a chance to start his final year what do you think drove him to Buffalo..
DTD: The relationship with Quinn. Chazz was originally rumored to be heading to Ohio Dominican University and their nascent Divisiion II level program upon his graduation in June. I don't know what precisely happened that led Chazz to the Bulls, but I have to beleive that Quinn played a big role.
BR: Do you have any good offensive linemen that are not happy with the amout of playing time they are getting?
DTD: You might want to take a look at last years sack numbers before you start asking for UC's linemen. Not pretty