While head coach Dana Holgorsen hasn’t quite come out and told the media who the starter at the quarterback position will be, he’s been tipping his hat at the two front-runners pretty well. It’s been rumored that Clint Trickett and Ford Childress are at the top of the QB battle, and it shows in their abilities, but today in his press conference and in practice, it was clear as to which two signal callers are separating themselves.
Holgorsen told the media Monday morning that redshirt-freshman Ford Childress had his best practice of the fall this past Saturday.
“We took about 45 live reps from the red zone, and he had his best day. He made some really good decisions and good throws in the right situations to get the ball in the end zone,” Holgorsen said of Childress’ best day.
After that, Holgorsen proceeded to tell the media that Trickett “has a presence to him.”
“Every rep he takes he gets better and does some good things,” Holgorsen said of Trickett.
After that, Holgorsen said that he doesn’t give any quarterback the upper hand in the competition purely on game experience. He said that whichever player makes the right plays during live practices and the situations that the coaches put them into in practice will come out with the job.
Monday in practice, both Trickett and Childress took snaps with the first team offense. The team lined up for live 11-on-11 drills, working on tempo and getting lined up quick. Trickett took the first snaps with the first team, followed by Millard with the second team, followed by Childress with the first team. The quarterbacks continued to rotate, but somehow Trickett and Childress always went with the better group.
Coincidence? I think not.
By the end of the fifteen minute live play, Trickett had aired out a deep ball down the sideline to hit Terrance Gourdine on the sideline in between two defenders for a touchdown. Besides that, both Trickett and Childress made short dink and dunk screen passes and short passes to running backs in the flat. There was one play where Childress had KY Myers nearly wide open but checked down to a running back when he read safety Karl Joseph lurking. This could’ve been designed, or it could’ve just been a good read by Childress.
Either way, it looks like going forward that Trickett and Childress have made it a two-man show for the top spot. With camp winding down, Holgorsen has said he has no timetable on when a starter will be named, but the race is shaping up nicely.
