Quarterback Battle Rages On

PROVO -- The BYU football quarterback battle continued on Tuesday as junior Riley Nelson, sophomore James Lark and true freshman Jake Heaps took turns leading the offense in 11-on-11 drills.

“After the first two weeks of spring ball we began to notice Jake and Riley pulling ahead, creating a slight separation,” said BYU head coach Bronco Mendenhall. “We will continue to watch all of these situations very closely over the next two weeks.”

Heaps led the offense to its first score of the day, completing 3-of-8 passes for 47 yards during the drive. He found Joshua Quezada for 16 yards and Rhen Brown for completions of 17 and 14 yards as the offense marched down the field. Also contributing during that set was Malosi Te'o, who ran the ball four times for 23 yards, including the one-yard touchdown.

The second touchdown of the day was also scored on a run play, this time a one-yard dash by senior Harvey Unga. Quarterback Lark threw a 30-yard pass to tight end Mike Muehlmann on the second play of the series before also completing passes to Bryan Kariya and BJ Peterson for six and 10 yards, respectively.

The offense wasn’t the only side to have success on Tuesday. The defense had several shining moments, including two sacks by linebacker Jameson Frazier, a fumble recovery and sack by Connell Hess, several pass breakups and another sack by Thomas Bryson.

“There were bright spots on both sides of the ball today,” said Mendenhall. “The insertion and knowledge up to this point in practice is better than I thought it would be coming in. Execution is about where you expect it to be halfway through spring.”

Practice will resume on Thursday afternoon and is closed to the public.