Richt weighs letting defense tackle his QBs

CORAL GABLES — Mark Richt knows he will have to make some tough decisions as he evaluates the Miami Hurricanes quarterbacks.

What the veteran coach — now in his second year at the helm at his alma mater — doesn’t quite know yet is how some of that decision-making process will go as the Hurricanes prepare to don full pads today.

With Miami set to have its first scrimmage of camp a week later on Aug. 12, Richt is still wrestling with the idea of making his quarterbacks live. The Hurricanes let their signal-callers take full contact during their first scrimmage of the spring back in April and ultimately one — Jack Allison — injured his shoulder.

Allison missed practice time after that and ultimately opted to transfer from Miami.

Still, with two true freshmen, a redshirt sophomore and a redshirt junior who has started only one game competing for the job, Richt understands the need to test quarterbacks before naming a starter.

“I don’t know what I’ll do yet. I just have to figure it out,” Richt said Friday after Miami wrapped up its fourth practice of camp. “If I think I need to do it to learn more about all these guys, and their ability to make a play with their feet, or maybe get hit and get back up, we’ll probably let them play.”

Through the first few days of practice, seniority and experience have been factors in the quarterback race, with redshirt junior Malik Rosier handling most of the firststring reps during portions of practice reporters can watch.