Heupel: QB competition still alive and well
Mack’s season not over, but his initial absence adds doubt to position
NEWPORT, R.I. — UCF coach Josh Heupel is no closer to naming a starting quarterback for the upcoming season than he was at the end of spring.
But the injury to Darriel Mack Jr. has changed the competition, with the redshirt sophomore set to miss an indefinite about of time as he recovers from a broken ankle he suffered last week during a non-football activity.
“You hate it for him, for the team too, but you hate it for him,” Heupel told the Orlando Sentinel at American Athletic Conference media days. “A guy who’s changed a bunch since we got back in January from the bowl game. … He had a great spring, a good summer, and I hate that he’s going to lose the opportunity in training camp.
“For the football team, it’s a team sport and it’s another opportunity for somebody else. I think our coaching staff and our players feel really confident in the guys that we’ve got there going in to compete. I fully feel like we’re going to have someone playing at a championship level when we kick off that first opening weekend.”
Heupel said Mack recently underwent surgery to repair the injury and the second-year coach expects him to return sometime during the season.
“It’s not season-ending,” Heupel said of the injury.
The quarterbacks have the support of their teammates. They saw Mack help them win a conference title after star McKenzie Milton was hurt in the 2018 regular-season finale against USF. Now they trust another quarterback will take over for Mack and thrive.
“The train keeps moving,” UCF receiver Gabe Davis said. “We just have to pray for DJ to have a speedy recovery, but you’ve got to move on and move on to the next guy. The three guys we have competing right now could do the same thing or better than what DJ did. That’s not too big of a worry.”
UCF center Jordan Johnson added, “It was a minor setback for DJ, but I know he’s really resilient
just like all of the quarterbacks in our quarterback’s room. We do have the next man up mindset around UCF. So that being said, we are hoping he has a speedy recovery, but the next man has to step up and be just as good or even better.”
With Mack on the shelf for the foreseeable future, the race to name a starter comes down to Brandon Wimbush, a graduate transfer from Notre Dame; redshirt freshman Quadry Jones and true freshman Dillon Gabriel.
“The other three guys in that room are really good … straight ballers in my opinion,” Johnson said. “Dillon Gabriel, Brandon Wimbush and Quad all of them are really good football players. It will be fun to see who steps up and takes it.”
Heupel said the three competitors have taken huge steps this summer, but he won’t have a good idea how the quarterback competition will play out until at least a few days of preseason camp.
“We’ll see where those guys are when we open up Day 1 and how far they can progress and how quickly they can progress and when hey separate and then we’ll make a decision,” Heupel said.
When asked whether a decision could come sooner rather than later, Heupel said each competition he’s been involved with throughout his career has played out differently.
“I’ve been a part of quarterback competitions either as a player or a coach where it’s evident and you make a decision and you go with it very early in camp,” he added. “Sometimes the field narrows from three to two really quickly and sometimes that battle continues until late. Every situation is just a little bit differently depending on how their playing.
“We’ll see where it goes.”