Oregon State football quarterback battle too close to call midway through fall camp

The Oregon State Beavers have reached the midway point of fall camp and their starting quarterback battle is still too close to call.

As first-year offensive coordinator Ryan Gunderson sees it, that isn’t necessarily a bad thing.

The Beavers held their first fall scrimmage over the weekend and were back at Prothro Field on Tuesday for their 12th preseason practice. During the 11-on-11 periods, all three of the Beavers’ scholarship signal-callers — Ben Gulbranson, Gabarri Johnson and Gevani McCoy — rotated with the first- and second-unit offenses.

All three have flashed bright moments throughout August. Gunderson said earlier this month that OSU is open to the idea of utilizing a dual-quarterback approach if it boosts the Beavers’ chances of winning games. On Tuesday, he reiterated the notion that whichever player consistently makes good decisions and avoids turnovers will get the keys to the offense.

“We’re repping all of them, so it’s close,” Gunderson said. “We need them to start separating and be consistent day after day. That will be the guy that we end up going with.”

Gunderson said the coaching staff doesn’t have a hard-and-fast date that it intends to decide on a starter. While McCoy and Gulbranson monopolized the first-team reps during Saturday’s scrimmage, Johnson repped with the ones during several series on Tuesday.

“I think (the quarterback battle) is starting to clear up a little bit,” Gunderson said. “But then the next day happens and it’s almost back where it started. It’s a good thing, though.”

Oregon State freshman running backs making strides

Oregon State is going to have a formidable one-two punch in the backfield this season with Anthony Hankerson and Jam Griffin both vying for game reps.

Hankerson, a Colorado transfer, racked up 390 total yards and two touchdowns on 94 touches as a sophomore last…

Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/oregon-state-football-quarterback-battle-001643912.html

Author : Statesman Journal

Publish date : 2024-08-14 00:16:43

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