Dayton quarterback competition wide open during spring practices

The quarterback competition won’t be decided so soon. It won’t be decided this spring at all — not even in the spring game, which will be held at 1 p.m. April 10, at Welcome Stadium. Whoever replaces Jack Cook, who helped lead Dayton to a 6-4 mark as a fifth-year senior last fall, will secure the job in preseason practices in August.

“We’ve got six young men that we feel are really competing,” coach Rick Chamberlin said before practice Friday. “It’s (about) learning. They’ve got skills, but what you want to see is who can handle the pressure. When you’ve got people coming at you, you have to make decisions and so forth, and we really haven’t put them in that position yet. This coming week is when we really want to start amping the pressure to see who can stand up to it.”

The player who wins the job will be someone who has never started a game for Dayton. Cook threw 67 touchdown passes and ran for 28 scores in three seasons as a starter. The only other quarterback who attempted a pass last season was Cole Dow, who completed 1 of 4 passes for nine yards in two appearances. Dow will be a redshirt sophomore in the fall.

Running back Jake Chisholm mentioned Dow, redshirt sophomore Ryan VanSchelven and redshirt freshman Shane Hamm as a few of the names competing for the job. The three other quarterbacks on the roster will all be sophomores: Will Tammaru; Dante Casciola; and Braden Woods.

“Everyone’s been competing,” Chisholm said, “and been competing well.”

The rest of the offense will have much more experience. The offensive line was a question mark going into last season because of inexperience. The entire group that played in 2019, the last season before the pandemic caused the cancellation of the 2020 season, graduated. Now it’s the opposite story.

“They’ve grown up a lot,” Chisholm said. “The offseason’s been great for them. They’ve put on a lot of a lot of weight, a lot of strength. They’ve looked good so far this spring. I’m really excited for them next year. With a little experience under their belt, it’s really going to be fun.”

Chisholm rushed for 14 touchdowns last season and caught five touchdown passes. The offensive also returns its four top receivers: redshirt sophomores Sam Bubonics and Kyle Hazell; and sophomores Joey Swanson and Luke Brenner.

The defense has more holes to fill. Chamberlin mentioned the linebacker and safety positions as areas of focus this spring. Schmiesing, who started his career as a walk-on at Ohio State before transferring to Dayton last year, is the only returning starter at linebacker, and the Flyers will have to replace one of the Pioneer Football League’s best players, Brandon Easterling, at safety.

All the players hope the momentum they built with a three-game winning streak to end the season carries over into 2022. That streak included a 39-29 victory against first-place Davidson in the season finale.

“We don’t really like to dwell on the past,” Schmiesing said. “It was great to finish with Davidson. That game was awesome for everyone. It taught us how to win big games, taught us how to play in big games. I think the theme this year really is preparing for the season and playing every game like it’s a big game, so we’re actually in games that mean something come the end of the season.”