BYU to name starting quarterback by ‘Wednesday at the latest’

Now that the Cougars are in their third week of fall camp and completed their second scrimmage, it seems questions will finally get answered.

At the top of the list: who will be BYU’s starting quarterback?

Offensive coordinator Aaron Roderick repeated a phrase he used a week ago and said “the picture is starting to clear up for us,” but announced a clear deadline on the issue. After reviewing Saturday’s film, he could name the starter as early as Monday, “Wednesday at the latest.”

“We’ve been going equal reps all the way to today, and I’m getting close now to being ready to divvy up those reps a little more to give the starter, whoever is going to start the first game, give him a little more [reps],” Roderick said.

Head coach Kalani Sitake agrees with the timeline his offensive coordinator has for naming the starting quarterback, but also said there hasn’t been a lot of separation between the three contenders, but the coaching staff feels good about all three quarterbacks.

“We have an idea of what we’re doing and then we can see it,” Sitake said. “We thought that maybe one would be elevated, but all three have elevated their game and we’re starting to see how this is going to shape up. I just want to confirm it all with the film and communicate with the quarterbacks themselves, and then away we go.”

Besides having to take a good look at the quarterbacks, coaches had 100 plays to evaluate all of their players.

The offense was slow to start, which could make an argument for defense winning the day, but the offense eventually got things rolling to make it a back-and-forth affair, Sitake said.

Following the second scrimmage, coaches said they feel the team is on track to start the 2021 season in two weeks. So, with just the final pieces waiting to be put into place, the Cougars will soon start shifting from fundamentals and building the team, to preparing for Arizona — BYU’s first opponent of the season.

Roderick said he likes his team. The Cougars have good skilled players, a good offensive line and a competitive quarterback battle, Roderick said. Now, they just have to keep up the progress.

“Yeah, we’re in good shape,” Roderick said. “We got a lot of work to do, though. We can’t take any days off at all — we’ve got to keep progressing. We still have a lot of work to do, but I feel good about where we are.”