Football reporters Dillon Davis and Stephen Brooks discuss head coach Mark Dantonio’s choice to place sophomore Connor Cook at starting quarterback for MSU’s home game against Youngstown State.
—For the segment of football fans that has been calling for quarterback Damion Terry Twitter, message boards and even mid-game at Spartan Stadium, dreams may soon be reality.
The true freshman entered practice yesterday as the No. 2 quarterback in preparation for the Spartans’ week three matchup with Youngstown State, head coach Mark Dantonio said at his Tuesday press conference. Connor Cook practiced as the starter for the second consecutive week.
“All four (quarterbacks are) sort of in the mix, but … we’re trying to figure it out,” Dantonio said, adding that he thought Terry’s recent practice play had helped him.
Dantonio clarified his pecking order of Cook and Terry as the top two before heading into Tuesday’s practice. The situation is fluid depending on performances throughout the week, he said.
Last Tuesday, when the depth chart released for the South Florida game, Cook and senior Andrew Maxwell were listed as co-starters. Internally, however, coaches had been preparing Cook to start against the Bulls since Monday, he revealed after the game.
Cook completed six of 11 passes for 32 yards and ran for 29 more versus South Florida.
“I’m waiting for somebody to seize the moment and establish themselves,” Dantonio said.
Terry arrived this summer with high expectations as a result of MSU’s lackluster quarterback play in 2012 and his billing as a four-star prospect. The 6-foot-3, 222-pounder first made noise in August when he passed for 240 yards and three touchdowns and ran for 40 yards in MSU’s second closed scrimmage of fall camp. Terry was withheld from potentially playing a week ago because of a thumb injury and illness, Dantonio said.
“If we take the redshirt off of (Terry), it means he had a great week of practice and he’s ready to play, we’ll go in that direction,” Dantonio said.
It remains unclear whether redshirt freshman Tyler O’Connor will see any action against the Penguins this Saturday. O’Connor was the second quarterback against South Florida, but only ended up playing two drives, completing a pair of passes for 22 yards.
A handful of errors in the red zone under O’Connor’s command against the Bulls apparently were costly for coaching staff.
“These decisions are based not over just a game situation but in practice, too,” Dantonio said when asked if he had given O’Connor a fair evaluation. “You can’t make the very basic of mistakes.”
Dantonio circled back around to place some blame on himself and his staff for elongating the process of choosing a starting quarterback this fall. He said he wanted to slow things down and let the players’ performances dictate the direction MSU took.
“Above all else, our coaching staff, myself, we want to find the one guy,” Dantonio said. “We want the one guy to emerge. I don’t care who it is.”
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