As the college football saying goes: “If you have two quarterbacks vying for the starting position, you don’t have a quarterback.”
So what do the Terrapins have?
Maryland coach Ralph Friedgen thinks he has three strong quarterbacks — junior Josh Portis, senior Jordan Steffy, and junior Chris Turner — battling for the starting job.
“I think it’s pretty tight all the way around. It’s more like 1A, 1B and 1C,” Friedgen said. “I’d like to make a decision on that fairly early.”
Friedgen is in the same predicament as last year, when he was forced to juggle quarterbacks. Steffy was unimpressive early, and when he was injured against Rutgers, Turner stepped in and fared well.
But not well enough to enter preseason practice atop the depth chart.
“Jordan and I are neck-and-neck as far as I’ve been told. It’s not my job to lose at all,” Turner said. “But I feel like I do have some momentum going into camp.”
Friedgen noted Turner needs to be more consistent, Steffy needs to relax and have fun, and Portis, who was academically ineligible last season, needs to have a better grasp of the offense.
“The thing is, I’ve been here so long, and we’ve done so many different things, nothing would surprise me at this point,” Steffy said. “My job is to just prepare and do the best I can to help this offense.”
Maryland ranked seventh in the 12-team Atlantic Coast Conference in passing offense last season, averaging 203.4 yards per game.
Friedgen is considering using each quarterback in the same game, depending on the situation. On running plays, he’d like to get ball in the hands of Portis, but on passing downs, he’d like to have Steffy or Turner under center.
“I think there are some things he can do that the other two can’t,” Friedgen said. “It’s just a matter of how schooled up he is and the improvement he’s made this summer.”
But offensive coordinator James Franklin suggested the two more experienced quarterbacks — Steffy and Turner — are ahead of the curve entering camp.
But which one gives Maryland the best chance to win?
Franklin doesn’t know — or he’s not saying.
“I think we have three quarterbacks we can win with in the ACC,” he said. “Whether we have one of them that we can win an ACC championship with, that’s what we need to figure out. But in some form or another, you can win with any one of these three guys.”
