A quarterback battle has been resolved in advance of Saturday’s Mountain West championship game between visiting Hawaii and Boise State.
During his weekly news conference with Idaho media, BSU coach Bryan Harsin confirmed that Jaylon Henderson would start for the Mountain Division representatives.
“That says it all right there without getting into too much detail,” Harsin said, referencing the depth chart that lists Hank Bachmeier No. 2 and Chase Cord third.
In the Broncos’ 59-37 victory over UH on Oct. 12, Bachmeier started but suffered an injury and was replaced by Cord. Henderson, Bachmeier and Cord each have nine touchdown passes this season.
“They’re always competing,” Harsin told the Honolulu Star-Advertiser during a separate teleconference for non-Boise-area media. “I think every position on the field is always competing. But the people we have at quarterback — their work ethic, their mind-set — all those guys, they’re competitors. They want to play. But they’ve all been fantastic about just how hard they’ve worked to get themselves into the position they’re in.”
The Rainbow Warriors, who had only conditioning drills on Monday, have not announced a starter between quarterbacks Cole McDonald and Chevan Cordeiro. On Saturday against Army, Cordeiro made his third start, but departed late in the second quarter after tweaking an ankle at the end of a 12-yard scramble for a first down. Despite missing all but one practice last week because of flu-like symptoms, McDonald stepped in, throwing for 250 yards and three touchdowns.
In the previous meeting between the teams, McDonald was cemented as the No. 1 quarterback.
Now, Harsin said, “you have to prepare for both (quarterbacks). I think within their system, they’re both going to do similar things. But they’re two different players, so, yeah, you’ve got to be ready for the two different guys playing that position. I don’t have an answer for you exactly what that means, but I know it’s two different guys. And, so, you prepare like that. And the defensive staff will look at both guys in more detail, and then decide what we do, and what does that mean, and how it will affect us.”
In addition to UH’s quarterback situation, there have been other changes since the Oct. 12 meeting.
“We never got a chance to watch, or never did watch, the games (the Warriors) played after we played them, not knowing that we were going to play them in the championship game,” Harsin said. “We obviously started on that now, and we’re going back and watching all the different games they’ve played since we played them last. Really, you have a chance to review what you did. I think players knew guys they played against, but there have been so many games in between now, it’s kind of a different season, so to speak, and you prepare for it like that.”
