Stoops has several possible choices for quarterback

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By Matt Overing

[email protected]

UK football head coach Mark Stoops is finding himself in the same situation this summer as one year ago: He has no starting quarterback.

Stoops says the team is better all around this year compared with last, which is 100 percent true.

But without a clear-cut leader on offense, the Cats will struggle to find any identity through the air.

Players have said they don’t have a problem with any of the three quarterbacks — sophomore Patrick Towles and freshmen Reese Phillips and Drew Barker.

Stoops hasn’t expressed a problem with the three either. In a teleconference Wednesday, Stoops said he was not ready to name a starter after spring practice.

The proverbial “glass” can be seen as half-empty or half-full.

On the plus side, no one, save a transferring Jalen Whitlow, has taken himself out of contention for the starting quarterback job. All three candidates performed well in the spring game. According to Stoops and offensive coordinator Neal Brown, all three still have a shot at the starting job this fall.

On the down side, the offense has no signal caller. Towles has the most experience and, to this writer, has the inside track.

But the strength of the UK offense will be in the running backs, so why not throw Barker, the youngest and (arguably) the most promising, to the wolves and let him learn against SEC defenses?

It is a conundrum that has plagued the UK coaching staff since Stoops’ appointment some 17 months ago. Last year, a starter wasn’t named until the offense jogged onto the field in the first game of the year.

Even then, games were split between Whitlow and now-injured Maxwell Smith. Will the coaching staff have to trot out three quarterbacks in one game this year?

Probably not.

The silver lining is that Stoops and Brown will be able to better evaluate their tossing trio in the fall. Receivers have struggled to stay healthy this spring, which has hampered the evaluation process.

During spring practice, Brown said he worked with quarterbacks before and after practice to make sure they received their necessary reps — meaning quarterbacks weren’t getting enough work with wide receivers during practice.

Stoops said it best when it was announced that Whitlow would transfer. He said that, in the end, the team wants to throw the ball.

A full receiving corps will help, but one man receiving all the reps under center with the first team offense avoids the defunct and ever-changing backfield that UK had last year.