Does Brian Kelly Want A Bucket Of Gold Or The Power Of Flight?

If Cincinnati QB Tony Pike had enough attempts to qualify for the NCAA's passer efficiency ratings he would slot in ninth, about a point behind a guy named Tim Tebow. That's rarefied air—hey, I know, let's move him to defense!

maybe pike can play defense?

10:53 PM Nov 7th from API

Sarcastic or not, that's a tweet from Cincinnati-area radio guy Lance McAlister in the late chaos of the Cincinnati-UConn game, which Cincinnati won 47-45 thanks to the exploits of backup quarterback Zach Collaros. Collaros came in late in the South Florida game, ripped off a 75-yard touchdown run, threw a few balls including an interception, and looked surprisingly functional for a backup quarterback dragged onto the field unexpectedly. Good for him; let's watch him struggle until Pike is healthy and hope we can escape unscathed, right?

Not so much. This is Brian Kelly, the guy who dug through the scrap heap at a middling Big East school and found a fifth-string quarterback named Pike who lead Cincinnati to the BCS last year. Pike's backup, correspondingly, must be incredible. And lo: after three games as a starter Collaros is completing 76 percent of his passes for 12.3 yards per attempt, has 10 touchdowns to that lone interception, and has run for 6.5 yards per carry. If eligible for the passer efficiency ratings, Collaros would be first.

By 40 points.

Okay, okay, a lot of quarterbacks could rack up sick numbers in three games against Louisville (No. 104 in pass efficiency defense), Syracuse (No. 117), and UConn (No. 97), but national leaders Kellen Moore and Max Hall play at Boise State and BYU, respectively. They're not exactly going up against Florida's D every week and they're not even within hailing distance of Collaros.

So ... what do you do this weekend, when Cincinnati faces West Virginia, its toughest game since an early-season road trip to Oregon State? If you're Brian Kelly, you giggle a lot and buy powerball tickets. Then you stick with the guy with a hand as hot as the sun:

Brian Kelly said this morning that Zach Collaros will start in Friday's game against West Virignia at quarterback. On Monday, Kelly had said Tony Pike would start if he was healthy.

Pike will play, apparently, but Collaros will start. This is nominally because Pike is not healthy ...

"If Tony's fully healthy, he's our starter," Kelly said. "The issue is, this becomes day to day. There's X-rays and so much that's out of my hands medically. And the risk factor - what's the risk factor in putting him out there?"

... but if Collaros keeps it up against West Virginia, the Illinois game in two weeks is going to be a fascinating game in which Wally Pipp gets brought up 20 times. And then both of them will get hurt and the third-string quarterback will turn out to be a frankestein combination of Michael Vick and Peyton Manning, and no one will hire Brian Kelly this offseason.

This post originally appeared on the Sporting Blog. For more, see The Sporting Blog Archives.