CORVALLIS — While newcomer Jake Luton chatted with reporters following Oregon State’s second spring practice, Marcus McMaryion took a seat on the turf and leaned back against his helmet.
It was a relaxed look for the Beavers quarterback who started the final six games of the 2016 season but is now back to competing for that job.
“It’s not my first roller-coaster, I guess,” McMaryion said.
McMaryion is right, as this is his third consecutive spring as part of a quarterback derby. Ditto for this OSU coaching staff, which is again looking for stability and consistent production at the sport’s most important position as the Beavers move through 15 workouts over the next month.
“There’s a lot that goes into it as far as what you want to be able to evaluate,” said Kevin McGiven, the offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach. “But it’s a clean slate in my mind.”
McGiven said publicly last month that he hopes to name a starter “early,” after Darell Garretson earned that distinction at the end of last spring and a 2014 battle lingered into the season before Seth Collins won the job. But McGiven also acknowledges “what you say you’d like to have happen and what actually happens is always a little bit different story.”
After all, five quarterbacks have taken snaps for the Beavers since Sean Mannion departed for the NFL, with four of those signal-callers — McMaryion, Garretson, Collins and the since-departed Nick Mitchell — making at least four starts. The carousels have partially been due to injury but also partially due to ineffective play, as OSU has statistically been one of the nation’s worst passing offenses in each of the past two seasons. In 2016, the Beavers ranked 118th in passer rating (110.23), 102nd in completion percentage (54.7) and 110th in passing yards per game (173.8), prompting head coach Gary Andersen to hire Jason Phillips as passing game coordinator and wide receivers coach to help jump-start that part of the offense.
Joining McMaryion is Garreton, who is coming off a broken ankle sustained midway through last season after passing for 617 yards, three touchdowns and four interceptions. Garretson declined to talk to reporters Saturday, but McGiven said he has not noticed any physical limitations with Garretson, noting the quarterback has confidently kept the ball on zone-read plays in each practice. Conor Blount, who was Garretson’s backup for part of last season before injuring his knee, and redshirt freshman Mason Moran are also in the mix.
Then there’s the addition of Luton, who boasts a 6-foot-7 frame, quick release and big arm that set a slew of records at Ventura College.
“He’s everything, from a potential standpoint, that we thought he would be,” McGiven said. “Big kid. He’s intelligent. And he can sling the ball around.”
Added Luton: “That’s one of the big reasons why I came here. I think I fit right into that idea and trying to become more of a passing team, I think I can help without a doubt.”
That deep batch of contenders leaves McGiven creatively distributing practice reps, allowing each quarterback to work with different personnel groups and in schematic concepts while building chemistry with a receiving corps that lost Victor Bolden and will be without Jordan Villamin (knee) and Seth Collins (illness) for at least parts of the spring. During Friday’s first practice, McMaryion took the first snaps followed by Luton, Garretson and Moran. On Saturday, Luton trotted out first, before Garretson, McMaryion and Blount.
“It’s making us all better,” Luton said. “Maybe a guy that gets a ton of reps, you kind of go through the motions. But if you’ve got six plays, you gotta make the most of it. I think that’s what competition’s all about.”
And each quarterback has a different set of priorities this spring. For instance, McGiven is looking for McMaryion (1,286 yards, 10 touchdowns, five interceptions in 2016) to be more assertive in his decision-making and to prove he’s capable of taking on a greater volume of plays. Luton needs to apply the system terminology learned in the meeting room to the practice field.
McGiven plans to aggressively install the playbook throughout these early practices, as he is “not seeing a lot of assignment mistakes” so far. Eventually, he hopes there won’t be as much mixing and matching at the quarterback position, as he settles on the players “we feel like give us the best opportunity to be successful and the guys that we want to evaluate head-to-head.”
Meanwhile, McMaryion expects to stay relaxed through it all.
“If I’ve learned anything throughout the years,” he said, “it’s kind of focus on you and do what you can do and control what you can control. The rest will work itself out.
“At the end of the day, the best player’s gonna play.”
— Gina Mizell | @ginamizell
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