With more than a week of fall practices in the books and the first team scrimmage completed this past weekend, University of Toledo coach Jason Candle said he and his staff are still monitoring the quarterback competition closely.
Senior Mitch Guadagni, junior Eli Peters, redshirt freshmen Carter Bradley and Cross Wilkinson, as well as true freshmen Dequan Finn, are all under the microscope this fall as Candle and the staff has yet to decide on a starter.
“No updates,” Candle said after Tuesday’s practice. “They look good and there are a lot of guys getting reps. With scrimmage number two coming up this week, we will keep evaluating and pressing on.”
Guadagni would appear to be the favorite as he is coming into his senior season and earned the starting job last season. He is healthy in camp after injuries derailed his season in 2018. Peters got a lot of good experience last season when Guadagni was hurt and the other three, while young, all came to Toledo with good pedigrees.
National ranking for Guadagni: Pro Football Focus writer Cam Mellor ranked all 130 of the FBS quarterbacks. He believes Guadagni will be the guy for Toledo and ranks the senior as the No. 69 quarterback in the nation.
“He’s no Logan Woodside, but Guadagni has certainly shown the ability to light up the scoreboard when healthy,” Mellor wrote. “His final season with the Rockets should be a fun one to watch if he can revert back to the form he saw over the first three weeks of the season in which he averaged ridiculous numbers with some uber-talented receivers.”
Ohio’s Nathan Rourke (No. 19), Western Michigan’s Jon Wassink (No. 52), Akron’s Kato Nelson (No. 55), and Eastern Michigan’s Mike Glass III (No. 56) are the Mid-American Conference quarterbacks listed ahead of Guadagni.
Fill-ins at center: With Bryce Harris out for this season with a knee injury, a key issue this fall will be how his replacements at the center position progress.
Candle said Luke Doerger, Parker Bisek, and Kendall Major have all seen reps at center during recent practices.
“We got guys that have done it,” Candle said. “You don’t just have one center in your program. Whoever we play in there has to be really consistent like Bryce was. That guy can’t go into a game and think he has got to be Bryce Harris. Bryce was first-team [All-MAC] for a reason.
Kicking battle: Toledo has to replace a veteran kicker in Jameson Vest and a trio of young kickers will look to prove worthy of the starting job this season.
Evan Davis, a three-star true-freshman recruit out of North Carolina, and local kickers Thomas Cluckey (Clay High School) and D.J. Wellons (Woodmore High School) will be vying for the job.
“It’s a work in progress,” Candle said. “We’re a long way away from that part of it. Evan Davis and Thomas Cluckey and D.J. Wellons have all had good camps. Evan has dealt with a little bit of leg stiffness and some small muscle tissue injuries that he is past now. They all had good days today.”
True freshmen: Candle was very excited when discussing this group of true freshmen. He raved about their talent and said several could push their way into playing time and a significant role on special teams.
“This a really talented class and a really strong character class too,” Candle said. “These are guys that I think will continually give more than they take with our program. Guys that do that really end up benefitting and having good careers. Some of them are going to pop through there and show what they can do. We are working on the kicking game in all four phases and some of those guys have to add value there.”
First Published August 14, 2019, 6:56 p.m.
