Daniel Evans led two late drives and passed for almost 300 yards Saturday to lift his team to victory in the annual spring football game at Carter-Finley Stadium. But first-year coach Tom O’Brien isn’t ready to hand the reins of his team over to a single quarterback just yet.
Evans, a redshirt junior, was 20-of-34 passing for 275 yards, three touchdowns and no interceptions — including two touchdowns to Darrell Blackman in the final three minutes to rally the red team to a 35-31 victory in the Red-White intra-squad scrimmage.
Still, O’Brien reiterated after the game the starter at the quarterback position for the fall is undecided.
“We’re not ready to name a starter. We have a lot of work to do at that position, but it’s always great to play a game and put them in situations that they’re going to have to perform and they’re going to have to make decisions,” O’Brien said. “It’s a decision-making position; whoever makes the best decisions will be the starting quarterback.”
Evans’ competition for the job, which he held for the final nine games of 2006, didn’t fare quite as well in the scrimmage, but the other two quarterbacks in the mix each had their bright moments.
Redshirt freshman Justin Burke, who played on the white team, ended up 13-of-24 passing for 121 yards and a touchdown, but he also threw three interceptions.
“I just need to throw the ball with more authority,” Burke said. “That was the biggest thing. I was just a little off, and my receivers bailed me out quite a few times.”
Burke, who said he made some “stupid decisions” he will look to improve upon, added he’s not too caught up in the decision over who will be the starter.
“That’s all their decision,” Burke said, referring to the coaches. “We just go out and play.”
He noted, though, the competition is helpful for all the quarterbacks involved.
“The competition, it’s good for us, and when Daniel comes out, I will give him some tips; he’ll give me some tips and the same with Harrison,” Burke said. “It’s a give-and-take, and it’s still a team. That’s the thing. We’re all working toward the same goal.”
Meanwhile, redshirt sophomore Harrison Beck, who played for the white team in the first half and the red team for most of the second half, often overthrew receivers. He finished 7-of-26 passing for 116 yards — 75 of those coming on a pass late in the third quarter to Koyal George.
Just minutes later on the same drive, Beck threw into the end zone, and Jimmaul Simmons intercepted the pass and ran it back 100 yards for a touchdown for the white team.
O’Brien, when asked about Evans’ performance, said he didn’t want to talk about any of the quarterbacks’ individual efforts because of the ongoing competition to see who will start in the fall.
“I don’t want to get into singling out people, the quarterbacks, one way or another. They’re still all fighting for the job, and I think they all competed well today. And they did good things; they did bad things,” O’Brien said. “It’s still an ongoing process, and they’ll learn a lot by looking at this tape.”
Running backs Jamelle Eugene and Toney Baker were the game’s top two rushers, Eugene ran for 168 yards on 15 carries and Baker racked up 163 yards on 23 carries.
At halftime, O’Brien announced the names of the players who had been at every spring practice — a list that included Eugene, but neither Baker nor running back Andre Brown, who had 112 yards and two touchdowns on eleven carries in the game.
“We found when Jamelle showed up every day at practice, he got better and better as spring practice went on,” O’Brien said.
But for the most part, O’Brien shied away from talking about individual efforts, even moving away from announcing spring awards like former coach Chuck Amato usually did at the spring game.
“I’d rather talk about the team than about individuals,” he said.
