The University of North Texas head football coach was confident in his decision to name a starting quarterback before the season.
After holding a competition all offseason, head coach Eric Morris named Birdville High School alum Stone Earle the Mean Green’s starting quarterback for its season-opener against Cal. Although UNT lost the game, Earle threw three touchdowns. Yet his play in Saturday’s loss to Florida International, along with the emergence of Chandler Rogers, has caused some second-guessing.
“I think we have two guys that have operated this offense at a high level at times this year,” Morris told the media during a press conference on Tuesday. “We’ve got to figure out which one gives us the better chance to win.”
Rogers, a Louisiana-Monroe transfer, replaced Earle in the second half of Saturday’s game against FIU and rose to the occasion with 201 passing yards, two touchdowns, and just four incompletions after a sub-par performance in limited playing time against Cal.
“I thought Chandler did a phenomenal job,” Morris said. “He came in, didn’t have time to warm up, didn’t have time to do anything. It was like 30 seconds before going out there. … You can tell there’s a little bit of a calmness to Chandler. You can tell he’s played a lot of football. He wasn’t rattled or bothered, and I thought he did a nice job of being extremely efficient, and I thought he protected the football.”
According to the Denton Record-Chronicle, Earle is still listed as the starter for this Saturday’s away game against Louisiana Tech. Yet, Morris has acknowledged the situation has become more fluid.
“I don’t think it’s set in stone who we’re going to run out there first this week,” Morris admitted. “I think both of those guys have done some good things and some negative things.”
Whichever direction UNT decides to go with its quarterbacks, a more firm decision will need to be made before their first-ever American Athletic Conference matchup against Navy on October 7, if not sooner.
“I want to have this thing figured out going forward,” Morris said. “I don’t like going back and forth. I’m a rhythm guy at quarterback and think that the more reps they get, the more they see.”
North Texas (0-2) will face Louisiana Tech (2-1) in Ruston, Louisiana, at 6 p.m. CT on Saturday.
“It’ll be a dogfight,” Morris told the media. “We wouldn’t expect anything less, and we’re excited to go in and play our tails off.”
