FanHouse Marques Hagans

One of the most intriguing prospects in this weekend's NFL draft is West Virginia quarterback Pat White. A sensational athlete, White dominated the Big East during his college career and enters this weekend as a man without a position. Can he overcome his lack of size and succeed as a quarterback in the NFL? Will he became the latest quarterback-to-wide receiver project and follow in the footsteps of players like Antwaan Randle-El? Or will he bring back the "Slash" position, combined with the recent fad that is the wildcat offense, and become a unique weapon that gives opposing defensive coordinators fits?

Welcome to another successful installment of Five Questions with an Enemy Blogger, where each week, via email, I will be exchanging hot questions and [sometimes] answers with a rival blogger about their team and the upcoming matchup.

This week I sat down with Brett Knight of RAMblings, a Most Valuable Network column that covers the St. Louis Rams.

Dan Benton: "For many, the Rams offseason expectations were extremely high. How frustrating has it been to watch your team struggle for the first quarter of the season?"

Brett Knight: "Obviously, with so many pundits picking the Rams as a darkhorse playoff team, it's been difficult to watch the team stumble thus far, with no end in sight. But I don't know what's been harder to deal with: all the forces that have been out of our control or all the blown opportunities. It's one thing to watch your offensive line crumble and your Pro Bowl backfield taken out of games by injury - it's tough, sure, but there's really nothing you can do about it. It's a whole different story, though, to sit through the sloppy play this team has been exhibiting this year: penalties, turnovers, blown coverages, missed tackles, awful play-calling. For all the talk of the talent on this team, it's really been a shock to see such a lack of fundamentals. It's been said that the mark of a good team is how it responds to adversity; with that in mind, I'm not sure how to respond to this team."

Virginia quarterback Christian Olsen has but one fleeting season to define his college career. Highly recruited out of Wayne, N.J., Olsen committed to Notre Dame but transferred to Virginia in 2003 when it became apparent Brady Quinn would be Notre Dame's next quarterback.

Since that transfer, he's patiently waited behind Marques Hagans, finally earning a starting opportunity in his final collegiate season. A mediocre 2005 season that saw the Cavaliers go 6-5 and a tumultuous offseason have dampened expectations at UVA, but it's unknown how Olsen will handle his own expectations after all the hype coming out of high school.

Two Sunday articles (link + link) in The Roanoke Times paint Olsen's picture as a jumpy drama major, something worth monitoring as quarterbacks often ruin themselves when they try to do too much on the field.

The word on Olsen is that he's a little bit hyper.

"Maybe that's why we had the conversation," [coach Al] Groh said.

That conversation was about not trying to make up for three years of playing in his one season at the helm.

We obviously won't know how Olsen will handle his own expectations, but he's on a fairly talented team that is flying under the radar after recent tumult and transfers within the program. Olsen's proven he can act, having completed his drama degree. This season we'll see if he can play.