CORKY: A QB controversy is a sportswriter’s dream

As it prepares for another tough road trip this week, to Oregon State, the Arizona football team might want to look on the bright side of its first loss.

The Wildcats didn’t return with a victory at Iowa, but they brought back something better:

A quarterback controversy.

It’s the star atop the media Christmas tree, the answer to a sportswriter’s whispering dreams and wistful yearning, the jackpot of every sports department even remotely interested in a football team.

Reporters swear to absolute objectivity in covering the games (and some of them actually observe it). But they are hopelessly devoted to — and in fact fanatically obsessed with — any team that can’t decide who should start at quarterback.

Matt Scott, the starter, had a poor game in the 27-17 loss at Iowa City Saturday so Nick Foles was sent in and journalistic hearts fluttered with delight.

Now there was something to write, without a lot of work.

A quarterback controversy is a lovely sonnet that composes itself. Newspapers can count on it bringing out the pleaders, exhorters and preachers of the gospel of gloom.

And, of course, television talkers who get their reports from the pages of newspapers, have something of hurricane-velocity to put before their watchers and listeners.

Thankfully, there’s a cloud behind every silver lining.

Scott versus Foles isn’t the only media bonanza of the week. Accustomed to opulence in all personnel matters, Southern California has a quarterback controversy that includes not two, but three players.

A sore shoulder sidelined USC freshman Matt Barkley, who watched his teammates suffer an unbelievable 16-13 upset at Washington. Back-up Aaron Corp, who had been the starter until he was hurt in preseason, replaced Barkley. But wait, there’s more. Also on the sidelines was Mitch Mustain, who transferred to USC from Arkansas and who has more experience than either Barkley or Corp.

As the Tin Woodsman said in Wizard of Oz, “Oh joy! Rapture!”

Exactly what it is that makes a quarterback controversy so irresistible. so bodacious to the media and its readers, viewers and listeners I’m not certain. Surely the loss of a great linebacker or cornerback, a kicker or tackle or ball-carrier can be equally distressing — even though the quarterback is the triggerman of an offense.

But the QB is Saturday’s hero, the glamour boy, the guy on the cover of the media guide.

And if a coach can’t decide on a starter, the media gets to decide for him. And THAT’S the ultimate prize.

Not that it matters — no coach reads the paper or listens to radio or TV to choose his starting lineup. But it’s the reporter’s everlasting joy to tell him what he ought to do.

It’s a ritual as old as leather helmets and moleskins, as old as the position of quarterback itself.

Old-timers in Green Valley may recall the mid-1950s when the great New York Giants team couldn’t quite decide between Charlie Conerly and Y.A. Tittle. Or the 1965 New York Jets when the media fretted over whether Mike Taliaferro or some youngster named Joe Namath should start at quarterback.

At Kansas City, the Chiefs had a battle between Len Dawson and Pete Beathard.

In the 1970s, reporters feasted on the competition at Pittsburgh between Terry Bradshaw and Joe Gilliam as to starting QB for the Steelers. In the late 1980s at San Francisco, there was Joe Montana versus Steve Young.

Arizona media had a field day in recent seasons trying to decide between Kurt Warner and young Matt Leinart.

The Philadelphia Eagles currently have a controversy even larger in numbers than the one at Southern Cal. With starter Donovan McNabb injured and the infamous Michael Vick transferred from prison and the �tlanta Falcons — not to mention Kevin Kolb and recently acquired Jeff Garcia, whew! — the Eagles have had a beautiful mess.

So the Arizona Wildcats are in good company, blessed with the potential for dithering and doubt and conflict.

Not to mention the everlasting gratitude of sportswriters, who love a quarterback controversy more than free beer.

Former Tucson Citizen columnist Corky Simpson writes a weekly commentary for the Green Valley News.