1) Saturday's game was a study in confirmation bias. Most people saw what they wanted to see. If you believed Connor Bazelak was Missouri's best option at quarterback, you saw things that reinforced that for you. If you believed Tyler Macon is the future and would bring a new dynamic to an offense that has sputtered, you saw things that reinforced that for you. If you believed that Brady Cook was being unfairly pushed to the side in this discussion and that he should have something to say about who the quarterback is going forward, you saw things that reinforced that for you. Ergo, the results of our "who should start at quarterback if Bazelak is healthy?" poll with exactly 1000 votes.
2) So who should start? I don't know. I can only tell you my opinion. It doesn't make it right or wrong. It isn't a prediction for what will happen. It is simply my opinion after watching the game Saturday. I would start Brady Cook against South Carolina and I would play Tyler Macon too. First of all, I don't really believe Bazelak is going to be healthy. But even if he is, I think you need to find out what you've got in the other two against a defense that isn't generationally dominant. Saturday's game counts because all the games count, but I don't think you can really draw a lot of conclusions from the fact that Georgia made two freshman quarterbacks largely look like, well, freshman quarterbacks. They've made every quarterback look like that. Anyway, my personal view coming out of that game is that I don't know how you could watch it and come to any conclusion other than that Cook is the most complete healthy quarterback Missouri has right now. Bazelak is no threat at all running the football. Macon doesn't look like he's a college ready passer right now. Cook might not be the best runner or the best thrower of the three, but I think as of today he might be the best combination of the two. He made some throws that make me want to see more. He showed a willingness to run and he did so relatively effectively. That's why I'd lean toward him this weekend against the Gamecocks. I think Macon did enough to earn some more snaps, but I view him as more of a situational player right now than a guy I think is ready to play every down from the jump of a game. If Bazelak is 100% healthy and completely mentally good to go, then you probably play him. But I just don't think that's really going to be the case yet. And if you get to the end of this season and you still don't know what you have in Cook or Macon, I think that's a failure (which goes back more to why didn't either of them play against Tennessee or Texas A&M as much as anything else). Either way, I doubt we know anything until Saturday morning.
3) I've got a novel idea here: What if we look at some actual data comparing the quarterbacks?
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