Quarterbacks vie for starting spot

Kevin Craft did not let a poor start spoil his evening Saturday.

Craft, who leads the competition for the starting quarterback position, could not guide the first-team offense to a first down in either of his first two possessions at the start of the football team’s scrimmage at Drake Stadium. He was sacked on the second possession, and as he bounced up off the turf, coach Rick Neuheisel scolded him for holding onto the ball too long.

But later Craft finally found a rhythm. He scored the offense’s first of two touchdowns on a 10-yard quarterback draw. And on the offense’s eighth possession, he found freshman receiver Nelson Rosario down the sideline for a 27-yard completion. Then he hit senior Marcus Everett on a quick out for a 3-yard touchdown.

“You go through periods where you’re out of rhythm as an offense, and that’s just part of the game,” Neuheisel said. “To go through it and keep fighting, and then come back and make some plays in the second part of the scrimmage, that’s encouraging.”

Neuheisel said that he hopes to make a firm decision on the starting quarterback this week. As the leader for most of training camp, Craft has taken most of the reps with the first-team offense. He said he finally feels acclimated after a chaotic spring, when he entered UCLA as a transfer from Mount San Antonio Junior College.

Craft said he felt much more comfortable Saturday than he did during the team’s spring game, when he was also playing with the first-team offense.

Craft said the seven-on-seven scrimmages he played in throughout the summer have been crucial to his overall comfort level. He’s held off redshirt freshman Chris Forcier so far, but Forcier had a better night Saturday.

Unlike Craft, Forcier started strong. On his first possession, playing with the second-team offense, Forcier completed two passes to Rosario. On another play, he scrambled to his right and then threw across his body to Terrence Austin, who snagged the pass just in time to touch his foot down in bounds.

But Forcier’s tendency to make little mistakes worries his coaches. Neuheisel said the 19-year-old has struggled with his game-management skills. On Saturday, Forcier mixed up a snap count and fumbled a snap.

Afterwards Neuheisel likened his feeling on Forcier to a father’s who “wouldn’t let his 16-year-old son drive until he knows all the rules.”

Still, Forcier said he feels like the competition for the starting job is open.

“You’re going to make mistakes every game,” he said after the scrimmage. “You have to move on to the next play and not worry about it. … I’m just trying to focus on building confidence and listening to everything the coaches say.”

Craft also said that he’s doing everything he can to avoid thinking about the practices and scrimmages as a competition.

“I can’t really see it that way,” Craft said. “I just try to get better. You can’t look at it as a competition ““ then you start worrying about what other people are doing, then you go in the tank.”

It will be Neuheisel’s decision, but he will certainly lean on coordinator Norm Chow.

Chow said he thought the quarterbacks’ play was a little erratic, but he was quick to add that the scrimmage is not an ideal place to judge their abilities. Quarterbacks were not given the option of switching plays at the line of scrimmage Saturday, even when the defense loaded the line of scrimmage to prevent a run.

Chow made that decision because he wanted the game to run as smoothly as possible.

“This is not a game where you evaluate personnel,” Chow said. “This is when you just want to make sure you can get all these plays run.”

Chow said he was most pleased to see only one injury Saturday, which was just a slight tweak to linebacker Korey Bosworth’s ankle. Forcier and Craft began competing for the starting spot after starter Ben Olson broke his foot during the first week of practice.

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