Rebels remain undecided at QB, may not pick starter until game day

By Ray Brewer (contact)

Sunday, Aug. 14, 2016 | 2 a.m.

When the UNLV football team signed all-american junior college quarterback Johnny Stanton last December, many believed it was to be the Rebels’ starting quarterback this fall.

Well, not so fast.

It’s less than two weeks before the Sept. 1 opener against visiting Jackson State, and Stanton is still in competition with last year’s part-time starter Kurt Palandech for the nod.

The 6-foot-2, 245-pound Stanton, who passed 3,168 yards and 25 touchdowns last fall in leading Saddleback JC to the California state championship game, hasn’t been able to distance himself from Palandech. Both had flashes of good play Saturday during an 82-play scrimmage, but both also made throws they'd like to have back.

"Kurt played real well early and then slowed down a little bit. Johnny started slowly and then played well later, and then they both did some good things at the end," second-year UNLV coach Tony Sanchez said. "Our quarterbacks are doing a good job of making some good throws, but they need to be better at making the easy throw. When you look at some of the incompletions today, some were on simple, routine throws. Those need to be automatic. We have to be better at making those easy throws."

This is not Sanchez’s attempt to create competition. He’s repeatedly said that when a player emerges in a position battle, regardless of position, he’d name that player the starter. The starting quarterback might not be known until the Rebels take the field at Sam Boyd Stadium for the opener.

“I said I wanted to make a decision early. But sitting here right now, I think it may be a game-week decision,” Sanchez said after Friday's practice. “We may watch them warm-up and figure out who is doing better.”

The junior Palandech had three starts last season and played in 11 games. He was better running the ball — 293 yards and four touchdowns on 82 carries — than passing. He competed 75-of-152 passes for 794 yards and nine touchdowns, but struggled making some throws.

Palandech frequently found himself replacing the injured Blake Decker, meaning he didn’t receive first-time practice snaps during the week.

Stanton was a four-star recruit in high school out of Southern California. He signed with Nebraska, but couldn’t work his way up its depth chart. After redshirting in 2013, he was the third-string quarterback the following year, and completed one pass for six yards in mop-up duty against Florida Atlantic.

Whatever confidence he lost at Nebraska, he regained in junior college with a fresh start.

Time will tell, if that fresh start includes being the UNLV starter against Jackson State.

Ray Brewer can be reached at 702-990-2662 or [email protected]. Follow Ray on Twitter at twitter.com/raybrewer21