Arizona's quarterback room is going to grow under head coach Jedd Fisch. Whether they are already on campus or will be coming this spring and summer, the Wildcats are making several additions to the group this offseason. The program officially added two more scholarship players to the unit this week by announcing the additions of Washington State transfer Gunner Cruz and South Florida transfer Jordan McCloud.
Both of those players have a few years of eligibility left but have a very different physical makeup and differing skill sets. That's on par with the group Fisch and new quarterbacks coach and passing game coordinator Jimmie Dougherty have assembled in the first season for the new staff in Tucson.
It's about having options, and since there is no established player at the position in Tucson there will be an open competition to find that guy – or maybe a couple guys. Fisch is heading into the competition with an open mind.
He's not concerned about whether or not a player is on scholarship or not nor is he worried about how much experience his quarterback has. He is simply looking for the player who is best able to put points on the scoreboard.
"Well, we're gonna roll the balls out and may the best man win," Fish said about the upcoming quarterback competition when speaking with reporters on Thursday. "That's gonna be our mentality in spring ball and in fall. We're gonna have a very hefty quarterback room. ... For me, it's a matter of who's gonna be the guy that leads our team to the most amount of scores in practice?
"That'll be the indicator. Can you drive the team? Can you lead the team? When you get behind the center and we're having our scrimmages or we're having our move-the-ball periods or we're having those unscripted situations where your job is to go score that's what we're gonna keep track of. That's how we're gonna determine who our starter is gonna be."
Arizona has a diverse group of quarterbacks that will be on the roster once camp starts later this year. There is a clear lack of experience across the board outside of Plummer who played in a few games in the 2020 season and McCloud who enters his career with UA having started 16 games.
Most importantly for the staff could be that there is not a clear favorite. If the hope is to foster competitiveness and a true battle for the job the Wildcats certainly appear to have a collection of players who are on an even plane.
"I believe we're gonna have an unbelievable quarterback competition," Fisch said. "I believe there's a lot of players in that room that believe they should be the starter. I believe there's a lot of players in that room that aren't in even in here yet that believe they should be the starter.
"With that we roll 'em out the best man will win. The best man will start and if it's two guys then we'll have to play two I guess, but we're gonna do everything we possibly can to have a quarterback competition that's gonna really bring out the best in everybody."
Along with Plummer, Cruz and McCloud the other current scholarship quarterback on the roster is Kevin Doyle who has not yet played in a game through three seasons at Arizona. Fisch is hopeful that Cruz will be enrolled in school by the time spring ball rolls around while McCloud is finishing up his degree at USF this spring meaning he won't be on campus until early in the summer.
UA will add several walk-ons to the group by the time camp arrives in the fall and building up the position was one of the things that Fisch sought to address when he arrived.
"That was a very important part of our strategy once we arrived," he said. "It came down to the fact that we needed to find a way to have more scholarship players, more depth, more competition in the quarterback room. We wanted to bring in a bunch of players into that room to go compete and that's what we did."
UA lost starting quarterback Grant Gunnell and backup Rhett Rodriguez as transfers this offseason leaving the job wide open heading into the new season. Fisch said he is crafting his offense to allow the quarterbacks to learn the system quickly giving his players the best chance to be successful once they all arrive.
Arizona is set to open spring ball in late March and that will be the first time Fisch and his coaches can truly begin the evaluation process of the quarterbacks that will almost certainly run into the fall.
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