Great player buried on the depth chart

I was just thinking about Tanner Roderick, a kid from Bozeman, Mont., who committed to Nevada out of high school.  As a redshirt freshman this fall, he was fighting for the backup quarterback position.

The team's current depth chart lists him as third string. He's behind two sophomores. One of those guys is Cody Fajardo. He was one of only three sophomores in the country invited to the Manning Passing Academy. Against Cal, Fajardo was 25-32 for 230 yards, and was the WAC's freshman of the year last season. 

If Roderick does indeed have a stud firmly planted in front of him — not to mention the RS sophomore at No. 2 on the chart — we can assume he's predicted to play as a senior, right?

But of course, at programs like Nevada, new, young, heralded prospects are always coming along. In three years, Nevada head coach Chris Ault could find that Roderick is his best quarterback, but that new young sophomore has such potential! Think of Denarius McGhee at Montana State, Landry Jones at Oklahoma, Matt Barkley at USC or Denard Robinson at Michigan, all those guys played before they were ready. But teams live with growing pains because of the payoff when they're juniors and seniors (well, everyone but Michigan).

Bringing this back to Roderick ...

He was the man at Bozeman High. In both basketball and football, Roderick was the best player in the state his senior year. Shoot, he was all-state four times in basketball and was a three-time Gatorade State Player of the Year in football. He's been a winner his entire life.

And now, like many young men who go off to college, he finds himself buried on the depth chart behind other guys that were just like him in high school.

What should he do? Keep fighting to earn playing time at Nevada? Transfer somewhere else?

Neither seems like a great option. He's an interesting example of what happens every year at programs all over the country.