Nevada Names Malik Henry Starting Quarterback vs. San Jose State
The Last Chance U QB gets his first start.
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Wolf Pack making a change at quarterback.
Nevada head coach Jay Norvell announced during his weekly press conference to name Malik Henry his starting quarterback this week against San Jose State.
The Wolf Pack have had a few changes at quarterback this year due to injuries that dated back to fall camp when Cristian Solano hurt his hand.
“We are going to start Malik Henry at quarterback this week,” Nevada head coach Jay Norvell said during his Monday press conference. “I said it at the beginning of the year, I felt all of our quarterbacks were going to play and had to win for us.
“And I guess we’re there. Carson won a couple big games for us. Cristian won a game for us. I just feel like at this point in the season with where we are as a team that Malik deserves his opportunity. It ain’t musical chairs. Malik is going to play. His opportunity to play is this week. We’ll do what we feel like we have to do as a team to win.”
Henry is a former four-star quarterback who started his college career at Florida State in 2016 but never saw the field in part due to an undisclosed suspension. He left the Seminoles in December of that same year.
He ended up going to Independence (Kansas) Community College for the next two years. Henry had a decent JUCO career with his first year as the starter by completing 132 of 245 passes for 1,383 yards to go along with 10 touchdowns and eight interceptions. His next year he hardly played and had just 237 yards passing with one touchdown and three interceptions.
While at Independence he was part of Netflix’s Last Chance U but he had no offers after his two-year stint and walked on for Nevada this year.
His only action of the year came in a pair of series against UTEP where he was perfect on his three passes for 28 yards. Now he has the full week to prepare and try to get the Wolf Pack offense back on track after scoring just three points against Hawaii.
“Quarterback is unlike any other position. You have to come in and study and spend time asking questions, understanding the packages and he’s made tremendous progress with that,” Norvell said. “Since he’s been here, everybody who sees him practice appreciates his talent and he just had to make the transition here. It’s not easy to transfer.
“He’s earned his opportunity here. I’m excited to watch him play. I really am.”
Henry starting is not going to be a magic switch to fix this offense which has not found the end zone in two of its prior four games. There is more to this team in getting better than just changing up who is at quarterback.
Even though San Jose State is improved, this is a good opportunity for Henry and the Nevada offense to get back on track.
