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CEDAR CITY — The Southern Utah University football team will travel to Nevada to take on the Wolf Pack this Saturday for their first game of the season. Head coach Ed Lamb is looking forward to the game as it will give his Big Sky Conference team a chance to see where it stands against a Mountain West Conference team. However, Lamb has still not decided upon a starting quarterback for Saturday.
The starting quarterback spot is a competition between senior Aaron Cantu and junior transfer student Ammon Olsen. Cantu was last season’s starting QB for the Thunderbirds and holds many records such as sixth most completions (213) in a season at SUU and threw for four touchdowns against Fort Lewis last season, which is the second most in a game at SUU.
Olsen transferred to SUU from BYU this spring and is looking for a starting quarterback job. Before transferring, he spent the 2013 season backing up Taysom Hill at BYU.
When Lamb was asked about the quarterback situation, he was positive towards both quarterbacks.
“We’ve got two winning quarterbacks. We’ve got a quarterback that led us to a school record number of victories last year in Aaron Cantu, and that’s not something we throw away lightly, but he is being pushed significantly by the transfer Ammon Olsen.”
Through the quarterback battle, Lamb is pleased with how they have handled it and mentioned that both have brought leadership to the team.
(They) get after it and focus on the things they can control and not worry about what the other guys do and they've been great leaders for our team.
–Ed Lamb
“(They) get after it and focus on the things they can control and not worry about what the other guys do and they’ve been great leaders for our team.”
When Lamb was asked about the quarterback rotation for this Saturday, he was not sure how everything will play out but is hopeful that the quarterback situation will just naturally work itself out.
“I think the plan is to definitely play them both. … I think what is going to happen is it will just work itself out.” Lamb added, “We’re going to continue to just do our honest best job as coaches as we move forward, and I’m not positive what that will bring on Saturday.”
While the quarterback situation seems like the main point heading into Saturday’s game, Lamb says that their communication on defense will be key. “(Our communication) will give us the chance to match up physically. … If we don’t make our communications and adjustments, then we have no chance to find out if we can physically match up.”
It will be interesting to see how the defense matches up physically with Nevada and how much playing time Cantu and Olsen will see.
SUU and Nevada will play on Saturday, Aug. 30, at 1 p.m. Live stats, video and audio will be available on www.suutbirds.com.
Contact Lindsey Peterson at lindspeterson4@gmail.com or on Twitter @LindsPetey.
