Record crowd expected to watch spring battle among QBs
COLLEGE STATION — No matter how quarterbacks Nick Starkel, Kellen Mond and Connor Blumrick play in Texas A&M’s spring football game on Saturday, it will not impact who will start this fall.
But, if history is a gauge under coach Jimbo Fisher, the one who throws the most interceptions is bound for big things.
“One time, our quarterback, before he started the next year and won a national championship, he threw six interceptions in the spring game,” Fisher said of the 2013 spring game when he was the coach at Florida State. “These things can happen in a spring game. The guy then went out and threw for 4,000 yards and 40 touchdowns (that season).” “The guy” — current Tampa Bay Buccaneers starter Jameis Winston — went on to win the Heisman Trophy that same season. So spring games mean little in the overall scheme of things, but they are a festive way to wrap up spring drills and involve fans.
Putting on a show
Texas A&M has turned this year’s Maroon & White game into a destination event, complete with a halftime flag football game featuring former A&M players, and with Johnny Manziel, the Aggies’ 2012 Heisman Trophy winner, serving as “all-time quarterback.”
Fisher has pushed for a record turnout for a spring game at A&M, and the athletic department isn’t quite sure what to expect for the 4 p.m. kickoff at Kyle Field, in terms of attendance. The stadium’s capacity is more than 102,000.
“It’s just a great weekend to remind you of why you loved A&M, why you went to A&M and why you still want to be a part of A&M,” Fisher said.
Manziel, who is trying to work his way back into the NFL, was partly responsible for the school’s current spring-game attendance record. Five years ago, 45,212 fans showed up to see Manziel light up his teammates over a couple of quarters a few months after winning the Heisman Trophy and leading A&M to an 11-2 record.
An athletic department official said he expects more than 45,000 for Saturday’s game. The seniors split up and chose sides this week, and the sophomore Starkel and redshirt freshman Blumrick wound up on the Maroon squad, while the sophomore Mond will lead the White.
Finding the ‘main guy’
This likely will be the fans’ last chance to see this much action from multiple quarterbacks, too, as Fisher goes about the process of identifying a starter and sticking with him.
“It’s hard to play two quarterbacks,” he said. “Everybody can say (they’ll play two) all they want, but it’s hard to do. They can have certain roles in a game. There’s going to be a main guy, and there’s another guy who might get 30 or 40 percent of (the action). That’s feasible; we did it at LSU, and we did it at Florida State a little bit at different times.”
Fisher, who was offensive coordinator at LSU and Florida State before becoming the Seminoles’ head coach in 2010, insists the race is wide open among Starkel, Mond and Blumrick.
In addition, highly recruited James Foster from Montgomery, Ala., is scheduled to arrive this summer and get a long look from the new coaching staff. Fisher said he has always handled quarterback battles the same way.
“The best way in all of that is being honest with them,” he said. “This is what I see, this is why I’m doing it. When the race is going on, this is what we’re judging, this is what we see. … Just be honest with them about how you’re going to practice them, and when you look them in the eye and communicate with them.”
Starkel’s job to lose?
Starkel earned the starting job last summer under then-coach Kevin Sumlin but broke his ankle in the season-opening loss at UCLA. He returned to start four more games late in the season and threw for 499 yards in A&M’s 5552 loss to Wake Forest in the Belk Bowl. Mond started the other eight games for the 7-6 Aggies.
“We’re all trying to make each other better,” Mond said of the ongoing quarterback competition.