Quarterback decision will come to coaches who wait

by **PonyPride** » Wed Aug 04, 2021 9:20 pm

Quarterback decision will come to coaches who wait
Sonny Dykes says Derek Green, Tanner Mordecai, Preston Stone all have valid claims to job in 2021

Posted on 08/04/2021 by PonyFans.com

Since before the start of spring drills, PonyFans have been asking and imagining how SMU head coach Sonny Dykes and offensive coordinator Garrett Riley will decide which quarterback gets to be “the guy who took over for Shane Buechele.”

Dykes says there are three candidates: Derek Green, son of NFL quarterback Trent Green, is the returning veteran who already has spent three years in the Mustangs’ system, first as a redshirt and then the last two years as a backup to Buechele (and holder on placekicks). Tanner Mordecai is the transfer from Oklahoma, a veteran who was a highly regarded recruit out of Waco’s Midway High School who arrives with three years of experience (also two active seasons after a redshirt debut campaign at OU, where he played for the other Coach Riley (Lincoln). Preston Stone is the heralded true freshman who turned down offers from a slew of major national programs to stay home and enroll early and play for the team he grew up supporting.

Surely this quandary is keeping Dykes and his offensive staff up at night as they try to sort through their choices, right?

Not so, according to the Mustangs’ fourth-year head coach.

“All three of them were on campus this spring and had a chance to really get comfortable with our offense,” Dykes said at Wednesday at The American Athletic Conference’s Media Day. “Tanner joins us from Oklahoma. He’s a guy that has played in big football games, he’s someone we’re really excited about. I think he has a lot of potential, so I think it should be a good battle. Preston graduated early, went through spring ball. Derek Green has been here and has really improved every single year. We really like our quarterback room, we like our competition.”

Green, of course, is the only one who has suited up for SMU. Mordecai went 48-of-66 for 602 passing yards and four passing touchdowns the Sooners over the last two seasons, playing mostly in the late moments of lopsided OU victories. All Stone did was throw for 3,429 yards and 38 touchdowns, and rush for 536 and 10 more scores as a senior, but that was against high school competition.

So while Dykes and Riley have appealing options, each of the Mustangs’ quarterbacks has plenty to prove … and Dykes said he wouldn’t have it any other way.

“You know, the funny thing about that job is … as coaches, sometimes we want that battle to be decided by a certain day, by this practice or that practice,” he said. “What we’ve tried to do in the past is let it occur naturally — bring the guys in, put the ball in their hands and let them go out and compete every day. See which quarterback consistently moves the team the best, with the fewest mistakes, and gives us the best chance to win. Really, that’s the criteria that we have.

“As I said, fortunately all three were here in the spring, they all had outstanding springs, I feel like we have an opportunity to win with any of the three, and we’ll see how it plays out this summer, as we start fall camp. The funny thing about that, is typically one guy always makes a big jump over the summer, and it will be interesting to see which one of the three does.”

Most interested parties, as outsiders looking in, have decided already which of the Mustangs’ passers should get the job when the season opens. To some, it’s the returning Green. To others, it’s Mordecai, already with three years at a top-10 program under his belt. Still others are eager to see the much-ballyhooed freshman, Stone, take over the offense for his hometown team right away.

If Dykes and Riley already have a favorite in mind, Dykes wasn’t telling at Media Day. Instead, he is looking forward to presenting the players with chances and seeing who takes advantage. That process, he said, likely will allow the quarterbacks to make the decision simpler than many anticipate.

“We’ll kind of rotate it through, give them the opportunity to work with the ones, twos and threes” in practice, Dykes said. “You know, the way we practice, we rotate receivers, and it’s not really as clear-cut as maybe you think with the ones, twos and threes. But all three of them will get opportunities to see how they perform. We’ll do a lot of team situations (in) this fall camp, because we realize how important that is for our success, being able to execute in critical situations.”

So all of those guys will get a look, and we’ll try to evaluate it and make a decision as quickly as we can when it becomes obvious to everybody.”