Blake Decker is a rarity in the Mountain West.
The UNLV senior is a returning starting quarterback, and technically, he’s one of four quarterbacks in the conference who started the majority of the games for their team in 2014.
You can’t really include Utah State’s Chuckie Keeton — he’s only started nine games in the past two seasons for the Aggies because of knee injuries. Hawaii has Ikaika Woolsey back, but is bypassing him for USC transfer Max Wittek. At New Mexico, Cole Gautsche started six games, but injury problems have made him a tight end. San Jose State could turn to Joe Gray, but his sporadic play made coach Ron Caragher open up the position for competition in the spring, and while Gray didn’t lose the job, he didn’t win it, either.
The Mountain West has been a quarterback-driven league with the likes of Derek Carr, Garrett Grayson, Grant Hedrick and Cody Fajardo in recent years. The coaches feel it will be again, they just don’t know who has the keys, as seven of the top 10 passers from a year ago are gone.
“That’s the most interesting thing to me about the conference this year,” said San Diego State coach Rocky Long, who said the Aztecs are still in a three-man battle at the spot. “Usually when you pick teams to win this thing, you go around and go, ‘They’ve got a good returning quarterback. I think there’s only one established quarterback coming back that had a good year last year (Keeton), and he got hurt. But he’s had great years before that, so you would assume he’s the best quarterback coming back, so you would assume they have the best chance to win it all.”
When media voted for the preseason all MW team, there were only two quarterbacks to choose from — Keeton and Wittek.
Because most of the teams in the league are in the same boat, none of them are really feeling they’re behind the pack. That doesn’t make it any less unsettling for the coaches.
New Mexico coach Bob Davie said offenses have evolved from a play being called and run no matter what to the point where a correct read by the offense could mean the opposing defense is in trouble.
“Because of that, the quarterback is obviously now the most important guy on the field,” Davie said. “If you have the right quarterback, the right scheme, the defense is never going to have the strategic advantage.”
All the new quarterbacks will make the league race a bit more interesting this year, but by midyear, Decker believes there will be a handful of passers people will be talking about.
“I still think there will be four or five quarterbacks come out of the Mountain West and be studs just like those kids were,” Decker said.
