Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
Owls football
Lane Kiffin is not in a hurry to decide between De’Andre Johnson and Jason Driskel.
BOCA RATON — With a week of spring practice remaining for Florida Atlantic and coach Lane Kiffin, the Owls’ premier position battle hasn’t been settled yet. Nor is Kiffin in a rush to select a starting quarterback.
Junior college transfer De’Andre Johnson and incumbent Jason Driskel have been splitting repetitions with the first-team offense in the first four weeks of spring, starting a battle without a set end date.
“Through these things, there’s never going to be a date,” Kiffin said. “It’s going to happen when it happens. The sooner, the better for your team but also you have to make the right decision. I’ve gone to where it happens in the spring. I’ve gone to where it hasn’t happened until week three in the season.”
Kiffin and the Owls are not expected to make a quarterback decision after the conclusion of next week’s spring game. Instead, the competition will resume in the fall. It will be the second consecutive season FAU has had a quarterback competition in preseason camp. Last year, Driskel bested Daniel Parr.
Kiffin has praised Driskel’s consistency, but said Johnson had his best practice so far on Saturday. During the scrimmage, Johnson “made a lot of outof-rhythm plays,” according to Kiffin. Kiffin added that it can be tough to evaluate Johnson in practice settings, where his scrambling ability is limited.
Reports from Johnson’s coaches at East Mississippi Community College, though, were clear.
“When the lights come on, he really performs really well,” Kiffin said.
Johnson said he’s tried to improve his practice habits but that can be difficult “when a defensive guy nips your shoestrings or nips your butt and then call you down.” After 12 practices, Johnson said he has become more comfortable in offensive coordinator Kendal Briles’ offense.
Before, everything was going too fast for Johnson — initially a Florida State quarterback before he was kicked off the team after he punched a girl in a bar. He had ideas of what Briles would call in certain situations. Now he knows. He said he still needs to improve little things, like his footwork, before he’s completely comfortable in the offense.
Driskel, who threw for 2,415 yards, nine touchdowns and 11 interceptions last season, is maintaining the same mindset entering the final week as he has all spring.
“It’s the same as going into it,” Driskel said. “Just keep working and keep getting better every day.”
When spring practice started, Kiffin identified three qualities he would judge his quarterback on: timing, accuracy and decision-making. Although FAU has suffered from turnovers this spring, Kiffin said many were fumbles and not attributed to his quarterbacks.
Kiffin said he hoped the decision-making would improve as the quarterbacks learn the scheme more.
“I think decision-making hopefully improves as they’re in the system longer,” Kiffin said. “We’re still installing stuff on a daily basis that’s new for them. Hopefully, they’ll continue to do better because the reps, and going through a whole spring and then getting to fall.”
Driskel added: “I think in the new offense, there’s always going to be growing pains when it comes to decisions and where coach wants the ball to go versus what I see when I’m playing. But that’s just part of it. I think as the spring’s gone on, we’ve gotten better. Not only myself, but as a room as a whole.”