Chryst in no rush to find starting QB
Houston, Hornibrook competing in spring
Green Bay — Wisconsin fans likely will have to wait well into August to learn who will take over for Joel Stave at quarterback in 2016.
The two candidates — Bart Houston and Alex Hornibrook — continued to work with both the No. 1 and No. 2 offenses Saturday at the Don Hutson Center, the sixth of UW’s 15 spring practices.
Second-year head coach Paul Chryst made it clear afterward his goal this spring is to see how far he can push the players rather than identifying his No. 1 quarterback for the opener against LSU on Sept. 3 at Lambeau Field.
“You try to break it down in all the different areas that are important at quarterback,” he said when asked how he evaluates the progress of the quarterbacks. “If it is the run game . . . are they getting us in or out of the right play? The mental component, attention to the details.
“In the throwing game it is the same. And do you move the team? Are you making good decisions?
“With both Alex and Bart there is so far that they’ve got to go, so just focus on improvement. They are get-
ting a ton of reps and that is really good.
“What do you do with those reps? Do you learn from the mistake? Do you learn from what you did well?
“You’ve just got to play. At the end you’re looking for consistency.”
Hornibrook will be a redshirt freshman in the fall; Houston will be a redshirt senior.
Their play this spring has been unpredictable as they work to learn what throws they can and cannot make, when to force a throw into coverage and when to throw the ball away and move on to the next down.
Hornibrook made perhaps his best throw of the spring Saturday when he put the ball on the back shoulder of wide receiver Jazz Peavy, who beat cornerback Natrell Jamerson for a touchdown.
“With all of our players we need to push them to know what they can and can’t do within the schematics,” Chryst said. “And I think that spring is a good time.