RSSBot
News Junkie
Kansas State isn't the only school in the Sunflower State with quarterback issues. At Kansas, the race is even more unsettled. As in most quarterback battles, the most experienced candidate -- in this case, sophomore Kale Pick -- is the de facto front-runner. But with a new coaching staff, that experience might not put him as far out in front of the others competing for the job as it normally would. And Pick believes his experience from 2009 gave fans an inaccurate view of his skill set.
"In high school I was always a throwing quarterback, but now I got a few good runs here so everyone thinks I’m a running quarterback," Pick said after Monday's practice. "Now I just have to show that I can throw it, too. I can run the ball, but I can really throw it, too."
Pick, used sparingly in a role similar to the one Tim Tebow played as a freshman, ran the ball 14 times to just five passes. But he broke a 55-yard run against UTEP and a 20-yarder against Northern Colorado early in the season.
Pick and redshirt freshmen Christian Matthews and Jordan Webb have established themselves as the three leaders in the race to succeed Todd Reesing.
"All three of those guys bring something a little different to the game as a quarterback. They all have talent. We feel we have some guys who can do some good things for us," coach Turner Gill said.
But Gill stressed that the move wasn't permanent and was definitely preliminary. Juco transfer Quinn Mecham, Missouri State transfer Jacob Morse and KU basketballer Conner Teahan are also vying for the job.
"That doesn’t mean that when I talk to you next week, it might not change around," Gill said.
Choosing from six candidates might not be ideal for the development of the eventual starter, but Gill seems in no hurry to find his guy.
"From the public and media standpoint I know that quarterback is a position that everybody is closely watching," he said. "Everybody on our football team is very focused and they are all intense. Everybody is vying for a spot, so everybody is trying to figure out things. Nothing is permanent and won’t be permanent after we play the spring game. We will have an ending depth chart, but up until then there are going to be a lot of different parts moving."
More...