UTSA starting QB 2024: Who will start for Jeff Traylor in Week 3?
There's currently a battle going on in the University of Texas San Antonio's quarterback room. While Owen McCown started in both games of the Roadrunners' season so far, he was benched during the second half of the 49-10 rout at the hands of Texas State in Week 2. In his place, Eddie Lee Marburger stepped in and threw for 147 yards with one touchdown and one interception.
McCown did have an impressive opening to the season, leading UTSA in a 28-16 victory over Kennesaw State, in which he threw 340 yards and had three touchdowns. He also received the Manning Award for best quarterback play of the week. He did falter in Week 2, throwing for 105 yards but completing only 43% of his passes. However, considering that Marburger's display was almost equally unimpressive, there's confidence in the fact that Owen McCown will continue to start for UTSA.
What did Jeff Traylor say about the QB battle at UTSA before the start of the season?
UTSA's coach Jeff Traylor stated before the start of the season, the team would be looking very carefully at the displays of both quarterbacks through training camp but that ultimately he would be forced to make a choice.
“We’ll also go around the room and listen to everybody in the entire building that’s on the football field, just to hear their thoughts,” Traylor said. “Just so everybody has a little bit of say in it. But in the end, my job is to make decisions, and their job is to make suggestions. Everything here goes through me, so it’ll ultimately be my decision.”
If anything can be gleaned from the statement, is that Traylor had no idea at the time of who the starter might be, but also that he doesn't seem interested to go with a two-man quarterback system. Florida famously was able to make such a system work during the national championship-winning campaign of 2006.
If anything, both of UTSA's quarterbacks seem okay with that with McCown stating:
“We trust coach Traylor. Everybody in that quarterback room does, whatever coach Traylor says, that’s what we’ll go with.”
For his part, Marburger said:
“We put all of our trust and faith in coach Traylor, we know he’ll make the right decision.”
The game between the Longhorns and the Roadrunners is set to start at 7:00 p.m. EDT on Saturday. The game will air on ESPN.