There are a little more than two weeks before Memphis football's season opener at UNLV, and the Tigers' quarterback competition is still going.
New coach Charles Huff said Aug. 12 that this week of practice is the most important for the competition between West Florida transfer Marcus Stokes and South Carolina transfer Air Noland.
Preseason practices have been in full swing for two weeks, and that means things aren't as crisp as they were at the onset of camp.
"The mental is as important as the physical," Huff said. "How am I able to work through situations on third down, red zone, two minute, and maybe not have the speed and the perfection that we had week 1?"
Memphis held its fan fest event at Simmons Bank Liberty Stadium on Aug. 8 and then had
a day off after that. Huff said Memphis used the off day as a "middle of the semester assessment." The coaching staff divided the team into a "game ready" group and a "still developing" group after that, Huff said.
Stokes and Noland have been battling throughout the spring and into the summer. Both are former four-star recruits, but Stokes has a significant playing time advantage, although at the Division II level.
"We're at that point now where we've gone against each other long enough where the defense is anticipating what's coming," Huff said. "We don't have 100,000 plays. So they're anticipating what's coming.
"So now my location on the throw matters because the defender's probably a little closer. So those are the things that as this process and evaluation continues, the spectrum kind of gets smaller on what we're evaluating."
The competition will go on — at least for a little while longer.
"Those evaluations continue to get more and more narrowed," Huff said. "Whoever is able to kind of come through that will probably be the guy."
Memphis' opener at UNLV is Aug. 29 at 9 p.m. CT (FOX).
Reach sports writer Jonah Dylan at jonah.dylan@commercialappeal.com or on X @thejonahdylan.
This article originally appeared on Memphis Commercial Appeal: Charles Huff updates Memphis football QB competition 2 weeks before opener vs UNLV
