I can tell you he was right at the top with Coker entering fall camp.
You're a good source of information, I value your contributions, and I am sure you know more about this than I do. But, I never fully bought into the hype for one reason. He's young and inexperienced. Now, I absolutely believe that he was given a shot, that he for a while might have come close to pulling ahead, but there's a mile of difference between giving him the starting job and being in contention for the job. This isn't done yet though, it appears to be Morris and Coker at the top right now that but could change yet again, it's still fluid.
None of that is speculation. Something happened. The only speculation is exactly what that something was.
Maybe he didn't lift anything other than 12-ounce curls over the summer. Maybe he mouthed off. Maybe he didn't go to class. Maybe he told somebody to do something he shouldn't have mentioned. Maybe he hit on Miss Terry. I have no idea.
I just know that to fall that far that fast, it had to be something other than on-field performance.
All of that is speculation, and I have yet to see anything, one iota of proof that it was something other than on-field performance. That doesn't mean it's not the case, but you went way out on a limb there with nothing other than a mere omission of a name. Like I said, if you've been following the QB situation for the past couple of years you'd notice that he omits practically every single guy one time or another. Does it likely point to Cornwell not being one of the top two guys? Yes, absolutely. Does it say anything else? No, not necessarily.
Some people are going to go nuts anyway, regardless of what I say. But we've gone from a point in time most people would have thought it was Coker, to people thinking it was Cornwell, to what I shall think of as Barnett week, and now last I saw Morris was leading in a poll. If people think they have this figured out, they have very short memories. But... I'll try to explain the situation as I see it in another context.
Let's say you have five astronauts competing for one spot right? The presumed favorite is a guy who has had a great career as a pilot, he looks good on paper, but it's not his first time trying to be an astronaut and so far he hasn't made it. Then you have this other guy who looked good to, in fact he kind of looks better. He made great grades in college, he's excelled as a pilot, but he's young and inexperienced. So, those two emerge as front-runners. Well, sooner or later the young guy, he's no longer a front-runner. What did he do wrong, did he do something wrong? Not necessarily. We know that astronauts tend to be people in their 30s. They favor some degree of experience. Did the younger guy just plain screw up? Did he go out late drinking one night? Or did his inexperience and his inconsistencies just gradually prove he wasn't ready yet?
How would we know based on that information? What we do know is that quarterbacks don't tend to start as freshman and astronauts tend to be in their 30s. Barnett and Cornwell were always long-shots, it appears they were in fact given a shot but all those little things they had to figure out, wrap their minds around, adjust to, on and off the field are way more than a junior or senior has to learn.