Red Wolves ready to find starting QB
NEW ORLEANS — Blake Anderson was a first- year offensive coordinator at Southern Miss in 2008 when the Golden Eagles entered the season needing a quarterback.
Anderson settled on a walk- on from Meridian, Miss.
“And he definitely wasn’t the one everybody talked about,” Anderson recalled this week.
That walk- on, Austin Davis, went on to win 34 games over four seasons for the Golden Eagles, including a Conference USA title as a senior in 2011. Now, Davis is on the Cleveland Browns’ roster preparing for his fifth NFL season.
Eight years after making that decision, Anderson is set to begin his third fall camp at Arkansas State with quarterback undecided. It’s not likely that a walk- on will emerge to start the Red Wolves’ Sept. 2 seasonopener against Toledo, but Anderson isn’t
closing the door on any of his four scholarship quarterbacks.
“I really think all four of them deserve an opportunity,” Anderson said Monday at Sun Belt media day. “We can’t watch four quarterbacks for very long, but they’ve done what they’re supposed to do through the spring and the summer and leading up to camp.”
When practice begins Thursday, ASU’s most important position battle will feature senior Chad Voytik, sophomore Justice Hansen, redshirt freshman D. J. Pearson and true freshman Logan Bonner all taking snaps.
None of the four has taken a snap in a game for ASU, and only Voytik, a graduate transfer from Pittsburgh, has taken a snap in an FBS game. Hansen, who started his career at Oklahoma, started last season at Butler County ( Kan.) Community College.
Pearson, who redshirted last season after having hip surgery, and Bonner, from Rowlett, Texas, haven’t taken snaps beyond high school. Considering what Davis became, Anderson won’t eliminate anybody from the competition to replace Fredi Knighten.
Anderson said Pearson had “one of the most improved springs,” and Bonner entered this summer “well prepared.”
“I feel a lot better about our quarterback situation from the day Fredi played his last game up until now,” Anderson said. “This is the best I’ve felt about it. I really like the four guys in it and I like how they’ve prepared. I like our chances of having a really good quarterback on the field.”
The youngest players in the race will be given a
chance, but they might not have a lot of time to prove they can stick around. Anderson said he wants a starter picked, at the latest, 10 days before the Sept. 2 opener, but he would like the competition trimmed down to two quarterbacks before that.
That could suggest Voytik and Hansen would have an edge, given their experience. Voytik started 13 games in 2014 at Pitt, when he completed 61.3 percent of his passes with 14 touchdowns and 7 interceptions. Coach Paul Chryst left for Wisconsin the next season, and the Panthers hired Pat Narduzzi.
He brought in offensive coordinator Jim Chaney from Arkansas, and Voytik lost his job. That prompted him to transfer to Jonesboro this summer. Hansen transferred from Oklahoma to Butler County ( Kan.) Community College, then to ASU in the spring.
Hansen started the spring game, after which Anderson stopped short of naming him the starter. Then James Tabary transferred to McNeese State after the spring and Cameron Birse left for Western Illinois, Voytik entered. Anderson said Voytik and Hansen have become friends on campus this summer.
“Together they have done a lot of things,” Anderson said. “That’s been one of the most impressive things about both of them. How they’ve handled this, knowing both of them want the job. But taking their own interest out of it and really trying to do something
as a group to create a good team environment.”
Anderson didn’t take any quarterbacks with him for the Sun Belt’s media day at the Superdome in New Orleans, but tackle Jemar Clark and safety Cody Brown each said they liked what they’ve seen from Voytik and Hansen.
“I feel like it’s pretty close,” Brown said. “It’s going to be a good battle to watch this fall. It’s going to come down to the wire with both of those guys.”
Clark said off the field, Voytik is more outgoing, while Hansen is a bit more reserved. On the field, there isn’t much of a difference.
“Neither one of them have separated for me,” Clark said. “Both of them work extremely hard, both of them are being more vocal leaders on the team and speaking out. Honestly, I’m ready to get in pads and see which one of them is going to edge it out. I’m looking forward to it.”
Anderson noted ASU’s tough first month as a reason for urgency in the quarterback race. ASU opens against Toledo, which beat ASU 37- 7 last season, then play at Auburn, at Utah State, before hosting Central Arkansas and Georgia Southern, which is 14- 2 in its first two Sun Belt seasons.
“If you have bad quarterback play it’s not something you hide well,” he said. “They’re all physically capable of being very good at the position, but carrying that over to the game time and being effective is something different and what we’re searching for.”