Ohio Bobcats to name starting quarterback tomorrow

After a long quarterback competition that took all of fall camp and more to play out, it appears that the Ohio Bobcats will decide between senior Derrius Vick and redshirt junior J.D. Sprague and name a starting quarterback tomorrow.

"[The starting quarterback] will be named tomorrow," said Ohio head coach Frank Solich at his weekly press conference. "Our whole purpose was to get through fall camp and get as accurate an evaluation of those guys and not do anything too premature. Coach [Scott] Isphording has been really grading and monitoring basically every move they make and we will go with a decision tomorrow."

'Both guys will play," Solich added. "They both have showed ability to lead this football team. I think they've shown improvement as we've gone through fall camp, so it'll continue to be a situation where we have two quarterbacks who can play that are experienced quarterbacks."

A two-quarterback system is nothing new to the Solich-era Bobcats. Both Vick and Sprague saw time last year and Vick got his first live reps playing as quasi-backup to Tyler Tettleton, whom many consider to be one of the best players in Ohio history. This year, a third quarterback - redshirt junior Greg Windham - made a push for a spot in Ohio's quarterback rotation.

"He threw himself into the mix," Solich said. "But as we get closer to the first game, it will be one of the more experienced guys starting for us."

In his starting quarterback, Solich said it starts with finding a leader who can have a positive impact on the team when things aren't going well. In addition, he said was looking for a player 'consistent in every facet of the game' and with Ohio wanting to run its whole offense, he wants an accurate passer who will take care of the football.

When asked if Ohio will move forward with two quarterbacks for the whole season, Solich was noncommittal.

"It could be something that will unfold to where we do that throughout the season, it could be a one-game deal," he said. "We're not stepping out there too far in terms of how we're gonna do things. We'll see how the first half goes, we'll see how the first game goes and that'll help determine things for us."

Last year, Vick started played in eight games and started seven of them, finishing with 1,156 yards passing and seven touchdowns against just four interceptions. Sprague, who played in 10 games and started five of them, threw for 1,236 yards and threw three touchdowns against five interceptions.