QB controversy once again surrounds spring ball in Ames

AMES - The playbook shrinks under new offensive coordinator Courtney Messingham.

Expectations swell.

Welcome to the Iowa State football team's second annual quarterback derby.

May the most improved player - Jared Barnett? Steele Jantz? Someone else? - win.

“I think it's heightened,” Cyclone coach Paul Rhoads said Tuesday before his team's first spring practice. “Moreso than a year ago. In 2009 and 2010 Austen Arnaud was an experienced quarterback. We had a fun competition in 2011. Now you're going to have one that should be heated, if I could choose a different word. That adds great excitement to these spring workouts.”

Heated and likely protracted.

Barnett, a sophomore, and Jantz, a senior, enter spring as the clear front-runners.

Redshirt freshman Sam Richardson could emerge as a darkhorse candidate.

Either way, the battle will almost certainly stretch beyond the 15 practices leading up to the April 21 spring game.

“I wont change anything as far as the criteria that I'm looking for in who's going to be our starter,” said Rhoads, whose team went 6-7 last season, including a second bowl trip in three years. “It starts with decision making. All of them have got to become smarter as leaders of this football team. It goes to being able to be productive with their feet, whether it's in the designed run game or just ad-libbing. Then, throwing accuracy. I don't think any one quality is more important than the other. But certainly we've got to become more accurate with our throwing.”

Jantz went 3-4 as a starter, but struggled with fumbles and consistently finding receivers while being hindered by a sprained ankle.

He directed comeback wins over Northern Iowa, Connecticut and Iowa, completing 53.3 percent of his passes for 1,519 yards, 10 touchdowns and 11 interceptions.

“Jared and I, we know - we know we both fell short in a couple areas,” said Jantz, who also rushed for 216 yards and two touchdowns. “It's always tough because you're at quarterback. If one thing if you're just a guy on the kickoff team or something, so it was upsetting, but we put it past us. We're motivated now.”

Barnett went 3-3 as the No. 1 playcaller - including a stunning 37-31 double-overtime win over national championship contender Oklahoma State, but seemed out of sync at times running the zone-read and was pulled in the 27-13 Pinstripe Bowl loss to Rutgers.

He hit on 50 percent of his throws for 1,201 yards, six touchdowns and six interceptions.

“It's just another opportunity for me and Steele to go after each other; to show the team who truly is better,” Barnett said of the quarterback race - one Jantz won last season. “It's also good because we both push each other. We know that in the end the best player will be on the field.”

As for Richardson, he's positioned as Barnett was at this point last season: Third-string, green, but confident.

“I would not say that Sam is out of the picture,” Barnett said.

It's all fuzzy for now.

Not overly warm, though.

“As a group, we feel like we definitely have to play better,” Richardson said. “They obviously have the experience, but it's always been a competition.”

Normal

false

false

false

EN-US

X-NONE

X-NONE

MicrosoftInternetExplorer4

/* Style Definitions */

table.MsoNormalTable

{mso-style-name:"Table Normal";

mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0;

mso-tstyle-colband-size:0;

mso-style-noshow:yes;

mso-style-priority:99;

mso-style-parent:"";

mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt;

mso-para-margin:0in;

mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt;

mso-pagination:widow-orphan;

font-size:10.0pt;

font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";}