Aaron Roderick Says BYU Will 'Probably Not' Keep QB Decision Private

Last season, the BYU football program didn't announce the starting quarterback until minutes before the season opener against Southern Illinois. One year later, BYU has another contested quarterback battle on their hands. In an interview with BYU Sports Nation, BYU offensive coordinator Aaron Roderick said BYU would "probably not" wait - like they did last year - to announce the starting quarterback.

Roderick was asked whether the quarterback decision would be kept private until the first game. "Probably not," Roderick said. "I think last year it was sort of to our advantage to not let the opponent know who was going to run out there. This year, we haven't really talked about that yet, but I think this year when we do make a decision, we'll probably just make it and say who it is, but I need to talk to about that and we haven't discussed that yet, so [Kalani] might answer opposite me...But personally, I don't see any big advantage this year to not letting the opponent know."

Perhaps most importantly, Roderick said there is "starting to be a little bit of separation" in the quarterback battle. "Yes, I think there's starting to be a little bit of separation there," Roderick said. "I need to watch this film to confirm that...We keep track of every stat in practice the same way you would in a real game because stats aren't everything, but they do matter. It's part of the position and then also we grade them on if they're doing the right thing with the ball. It's not going to be equal reps forever, you know, the time is coming soon where we're going to have to make some decisions you can't keep giving equal refs to three guys or nobody will be ready so that time will be coming soon. I'm not exactly sure how soon, but we are watching it very closely every day."

After the scrimmage, Roderick echoed a similar sentiment, saying BYU was going to establish a pecking order at quarterback "soon."

"The reps were evenly divided," Roderick said on the quarterback reps during the scrimmage. "I need to watch the tape, but what I will say is it's not going to be keeping equal reps forever. There's going to be a point pretty soon - I'm not ready to say exactly when - but there's going to be a time pretty soon where we're going to have to start establishing a pecking order and getting somebody more reps with the ones and twos, and maybe somebody's going to get a little bit less."

Roderick said that if the battle continues for too long, it would negatively impact the eventual starter. He expects the competition to be trimmed down soon. "If we keep going where we're going forever, then nobody will be ready to play in our first game. So, that move will be happening soon. I would need to watch the tape and I need to discuss this with my staff and with Kalani before we decide how and when we're gonna do that."

When asked about the criteria for winning the starting job, Roderick listed things like taking care of the football, moving the chains, decision making, and he also mentioned the importance of creating chunk plays.

"Explosive plays is the final [criteria]," Roderick said. "It's hard to win games with 12, 13, 14-play drives. We love those and we've had our share of those over the years...but it's hard to do that over and over and over again without getting some chunk plays. And so we're looking also for the quarterback that can create those explosive plays for us, you know, those 20, 30, 40, 50-yard gains that you know really put pressure on the other team."

This is the last full week of Fall Camp for BYU. The Cougars will transition to game prep at some point next week.