QB job remains up for grabs at Baylor, TCU, UT
The Big 12’s reputation as the nation’s top passing conference could take a jump next season.
Every team returns a quarterback with previous college starting experience. And only TCU, with the graduation of Trevone Boykin, will lose its regular starter from last season.
But even with most positional battles settled, spring practices produced several interesting quarterback battles that will stretch through the summer.
The league’s two favorites from last season both will enter the summer without a clear No. 1 designated.
Baylor coach Art Briles and his counterpart at TCU, Gary Patterson, have named “co-starters” coming out of the spring. Injuries play a role
The open competition at Baylor is a bit of a surprise, considering that Seth Russell was contending for the Heisman Trophy before suffering a seasonending broken neck in the Bears’ seventh game last season. All he had done to that point of the season was throw 29 touchdown passes and lead the Bears to the No. 3 ranking in the country.
Freshman Jarrett Stidham took over and threw for 934 yards and six touchdowns in 10 quarters before an ankle injury ended his season and dashed the Bears’ national title hopes.
After recovering from neck surgery, Russell was clearly the favorite coming into the spring. But a pectoral injury set him back most of the spring and enabled Stidham, a heralded recruit, to show more of what he can do.
“Honestly, we didn’t really have a chance to fully evaluate Seth through the spring because he hurt that pec muscle about halfway through and didn’t get to finish spring ball,” Briles said. “We’re going to kind of carry it through fall camp. We’re just not really definitive on which way we are going to go yet.”
Despite Russell’s injury, Briles is excited about the development of both players.
“I’m going to classify them as both good and not equal,” Briles said. “Both that we can win with and win championships with. That’s just the way we view it.”
TCUwill have a simmering summer battle between Texas A&M transfer Kenny Hill and Foster Sawyer. Neither emerged during spring practice, and they are listed as co-starters.
Most expected Hill, who threw for 2,649 yards and 23 touchdowns in his final season at A&M, to win the job, but Sawyer, who started the Horned Frogs’ narrow loss at Oklahoma last season, has remained close.
Patterson likes the intense competition between them.
“It’s better for us not to have a starter right now,” Patterson said. “I see leadership and growth, and I want to see more of that this summer and into the two-a-days. They were real close in the stats, as far as spring is concerned.” Buechele stands out
At Texas, incoming freshman Shane Buechele passed for 299 yards and two touchdowns in last weekend’s rain-shortened spring game. Tyrone Swoopes, the only other quarterback to play, completed four of 16 passes for 71 yards and had two interceptions. Jerrod Heard was out with a shoulder injury.
Buechele’s fast start since arriving intrigued UT coach Charlie Strong, particularly in how his new teammates responded to the newcomer.
“The players respect him,” Strong said following the Orange-White game. “Players know players. ‘My man’s a baller’ — that’s what a lot of them say.”
But Strong cautioned not to make too much of Buechele’s early success.
“The competition is still there at the quarterback position,” Strong said.