MADISON, Wis. – No position battle draws more attention and scrutiny from outside a football program than a quarterback battle. Maybe it’s because a team’s starting quarterback almost immediately becomes one of the most visible players on the team, but heads turn when more than one signal caller is getting a chance to show the coaching staff they deserve to take the reins of the first team offense.
Of course, that’s just the perspective from the outside looking in — the dynamic inside the quarterback room does not always reflect a heated position battle on the field. That seems to be the case at the moment for the Wisconsin Badgers, where four quarterbacks have been getting significant reps in spring camp in the aftermath of three-year starter Alex Hornibrook’s decision to leave the program and transfer to Florida State.
But while junior Jack Coan, sophomore Danny Vanden Boom, redshirt freshman Chase Wolf, and true freshman Graham Mertz all have the same goal this spring—to perform well this spring and put themselves in position to compete for (and win) the starting job this fall—all four quarterbacks said they have benefitted from a positive group dynamic in camp while they all get reps in practice.
“I feel like we all have a good relationship in our room,” Coan said on Friday after practice. “I feel like we all bounce ideas and questions off of each other. It’s always open communication – it’s good to have a bunch of good guys in the quarterback room.”
Having Coan around has been a big benefit for the younger players in particular, according to Mertz. Coan has been helping the true freshman learn the play calls and hand signals from the sideline during practices this spring, and Mertz said Coan has been a good resource for him to lean on and ask questions both on the field and during film sessions.
“Jack has been great,” Mertz said after practice on Friday. “I’ve learned so much from him in the last four weeks of spring ball. Everything we’ve done breaking down film and stuff like that. If I see a read I don’t think was right then I’ll ask him what he saw right after it … just stuff like that going back and forth.”
Mertz said the positive group dynamic has helped everyone at the quarterback position this spring – with everyone getting reps, they all have had a chance to learn from their successes and mistakes on the field as well as watch what works and what doesn’t for everyone else when it’s their turn to take over the offense in team drills.
“Our group and our unit, what we do best is learn from each other,” Mertz said. “We’ll be in the film room and in a meeting and ask each other what we were thinking … just really learn from each other and try and bring our group to the next level.”
The quarterbacks are close enough to where redshirt freshman Chase Wolf said he felt like the other signal callers were his brothers – and Vanden Boom echoed what his teammates had said in previous interviews by saying the quarterback room is filled with guys who he wants to work with.
“It’s a really tight group. A bunch of good eggs in the room,” Vanden Boom said after practice on Friday. “There’s nobody else that I would want to be working alongside. We learn a lot from each other with a lot of guys getting reps.”
But soon enough they will have to take what they have learned from themselves and each other this spring and throw themselves in to the real competition in fall camp. There won’t be enough reps to go around for all four quarterbacks to get in on the action in a few months, but Mertz sounded like he doesn’t expect anyone to be shying away from putting their best selves on the field when the time comes.
“We all know that competition gets the best out of us,” Mertz said.
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John Veldhuis covers Wisconsin football, basketball and recruiting for BadgerBlitz.com on the Rivals.com network. Follow him on Twitter at @JohnVeldhuis.
