a Sharper Image | by Jay

No, I'm not talking about massage chairs or swinging ball desk toys. In an effort to kickstart the offense, Charlie's tabbed a different kind of novelty, Evan Sharpley, to start on Saturday. Here's what the big man had to say about it:

Charlie Weis: Evan Sharpley will start at quarterback. Both Evan and Jimmy were told that yesterday afternoon after I had time to visit with our medical staff and our coaching staff, and that's the way we're going. So Evan will be one, Jimmy will be two.

Q: Is this now a permanent switch, is this a week-to-week thing?

Charlie Weis: We're just talking about USC. That's all we're talking about. Evan Sharpley is the quarterback for USC. That's all we're talking about. How would I know if it's permanent? I don't know that answer. It's a permanent switch for the USC game. Evan is the starter. I'm not changing tomorrow and picking Jimmy as the starter (laughing). That's the best I can do.

Q. As far as since Penn State, has Evan just increased dramatically? Was the chasm between them that large at that point?

Charlie Weis: No, I don't think at any time this year has there been that wide a discrepancy between these two guys. I think it's been fairly close most of the year. So I think that we're at a stage now where we think that Evan playing gives us a better chance of winning, so that's why you go with Evan.

Q. Having seen how hurt Jimmy is from a physical standpoint, was there ever any consideration earlier on of starting Evan?

Charlie Weis: When?

Q. At any point earlier on.

Charlie Weis: At any time we would have thought the best person for us to win a game would have been Evan, Evan would have been in there. We have reached that point. So the answer to that question would be no.

We were in the midst of pulling the clips of every pass in the BC game to assist Charlie with his decision when he jumped the gun and went ahead and announced the starter on us.

Well, let's pull 'em anyway. Here's the first half. It's every pass Jimmy threw in the game, save his costly INT to open the second half. Notice the stellar blocking, the sure-handed receivers, the-- ah, I can't do sarcasm well these days.



Second half passing coming in a bit. Get ready to compare/contrast.