[jwplayer 18QegcJn-sNi3MVSU]
New Mexico Could Play Four Quarterbacks In The Opener
Bob Davie is not sure what to do at quarterback
Contact/Follow @JeremyMauss & @MWCwire
When you have four QB’s you have ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
New Mexico is still searching for its quarterback as it enters the first week of the season, but head coach Bob Davie is taking it to the extreme and is seriously considering playing four quarterbacks.
The four in contention are Tevaka Tuioti, Sheriron Jones who started seven games last year, redshirt freshman Trae Hall, and JUCO transfer Brandt Hughes.
The favorite to be the full-time starter is Tuioti but he has had to fly back and forth from California to be with his ailing grandfather. Davie’s thinking is to give everyone a shot against an FCS team in Sam Houston State.
“We’ve seen enough of all the quarterbacks that I think it’s going to be based on who does the best and how (Sam Houston State is) playing us defensively and what packages give us the best chance,” UNM coach Bob Davie said after Monday’s practice.
“We’re not in a position where any one of the four would come out of this camp just head and shoulders above anybody else. Quite honestly if there was one guy it would be Tevaka, based on spring and based on the number of reps we’ve seen him in games around here.”
[lawrence-related id=15618]
This is beyond odd but it also makes some sense because the Lobos should beat Sam Houston State. This Bearkats team is really good at the FCS level and there is a chance that New Mexico could fall in this game by being cute with four quarterbacks.
The other way to look at it is that Davie wants to see his guys out there in a meaningful game to see what these quarterbacks are made of with something on the line. Davie feels that he has something special with whoever is under center permanently.
“A lot of times you go into it as that old saying: ‘if you have three, you don’t have any,’” Davie said. “If you have four, in our case, you don’t have any? I don’t really think that’s the case. Each one of those guys have now had a lot of reps.
“We’re optimistic. We’re excited. It’s not going to go exactly to script. Nor do we have a concrete script at that position. We’re going to let it go and we have confidence in all these guys.”
Not sure if we are buying the “excitement” level that Davie and his staff has by playing multiple signal-callers. However, Davie has gone against the grain when he came to Albuquerque and decided to go with a very different run option attack that brought success, so he is willing to be different.
Believe it or not, Davie is familiar with playing so many quarterbacks in a game and we coined the term quinterback — kudos to though who get this joke form our old website — when the Lobos played five quarterbacks and won a game five years ago against New Mexico State.
That even prompted us to make a t-shirt years ago, maybe we could bring it back if the Lobos have a fifth signal-caller against Sam Houston State.
[lawrence-auto-related count=3 category=1360]