But unlike a season ago, when Maxwell was the unquestioned heir apparent to Spartan great Kirk Cousins, the senior quarterback has company under center.

The MSU depth chart released Tuesday lists Maxwell, sophomore Connor Cook, redshirt freshman Tyler O’Connor and freshman Damion Terry as co-starters. And according to Dantonio, there’s a realistic chance to see each of the stable of quarterbacks on the field in the immediate future.

It would appear instead of being the one for the job, Maxwell is just the first one to get a crack at holding down the starting spot, which was up for grabs for much of the team’s fall camp.

“We’ve had intense scrutiny or intense competition at that position (and we) tried to open it up for everybody,” Dantonio said. “I feel like we have four young people who are major college quarterbacks.”

The Spartans have not had a serious in-season quarterback competition since the 2009 season, where Cousins and Keith Nichol dueled for the spot. Although Cousins started the majority of the season, Nichol came off the bench in 10 games and proved an efficient alternative.

Despite the Spartans finishing with a disappointing 6-7 mark in 2009, the team still managed to gain the third-most yards and score the second-most points in the Big Ten.

However, it remains to be seen how an in-season quartet quarterback battle will impact the Spartans.

A four-quarterback competition seemed uncommon in fall camp, and it’s almost unheard of with less than a week before opening the regular season.

But don’t write-off Maxwell or the chances the Spartans have for productivity in 2013.

Maxwell is a year older with better knowledge of the position and the weapons available to him. Additionally, Dantonio said Maxwell is “confident” and has shown the ability to make quick decisions in fall camp.

“He brings consistency in terms of knowledge of our offense,” Dantonio said. “He has experience with 13 games last year. He’s got a chance to get back into the arena, put his foot down, as I always say, and drive forward.

“Very, very confident that he’s going to have a great football game for us.”

Without workhorse running back Le’Veon Bell and tight end Dion Sims, much of the continuity of the offense will fall elsewhere, regardless of who’s slinging the ball in the backfield.

It’s worrisome Maxwell hasn’t been able to outright nail down the job, and the limbo of the position will have an impact on the flow of the offense for the first few games. But as was the case a season ago, the success of the offense is not entirely riding on the quarterback.

I’m not saying the quarterback is not important for success, nor am I arguing for or against any of the potential quarterback candidates.

My point is there’s a lot of question marks that either could keep the ship afloat or sink it entirely. I mean, if kicker Dan Conroy doesn’t average a missed kick per game, the wide receivers make an extra play here or there and the offensive line remains relatively healthy in 2012, are we even having this discussion about Maxwell?

We would not be.

But here we are.

There’s an old football adage that says if a team has two quarterbacks, it never truly has one. And for the Spartans, the team’s about to find out what it means to have four.

Dillon Davis is a State News football beat reporter. He can be reached at ddavis@statenews.com.