Who is KU football’s starting quarterback? Les Miles’ answer reflects a recent trend
Those who have followed Kansas football recently should not be surprised by the next sentence:
Just 10 days before the season opener against Coastal Carolina, KU coach Les Miles is not ready to name a starting quarterback.
“We’ll enjoy at some point in time walking our captain out and letting him represent us,” Miles said Wednesday. “I don’t think that there’s any real hurry to that. We’ll kind of wait.”
The two main contenders are senior Thomas MacVittie and junior Miles Kendrick. The 6-foot-5 MacVittie — a junior-college transfer who started his career at Pittsburgh — was last year’s assumed starter before Carter Stanley beat him out in camp. The 5-10 Kendrick, meanwhile, didn’t get in last season but played four games in 2018.
“I see leadership out of both guys. I see the ability to run the offense out of both guys,” Miles said. “So I think it’s probably, as much as anything, a compliment to how hard both of those men have worked.”
This routine still is likely getting old for KU fans, who haven’t been able to avoid a QB competition in any of the last five seasons.
Not only that, in four of the last five years, KU’s coach has not revealed his starter in advance at all.
Let’s review.
In 2016, then-KU coach David Beaty said on the Big 12 teleconference before his team’s first game that, “You’ll see someone run out there Saturday. Whenever that guy gets on the field, that’ll be the guy that takes the field.” Beaty said part of the reason for remaining mum then was in an attempt to gain an edge over FCS opponent Rhode Island.
KU, which ended up alternating between Montell Cozart and Ryan Willis, won that game 55-6.
Similar story in 2017. A few days before the opener against Southeast Missouri, Beaty told reporters he was going to inform the starting quarterback (and his teammates) who’d won the job on game day. Beaty was asked why he’d decided to wait on making the announcement.
“No advantage for us to tell anybody (else) who’s playing that position until we go out there,” he said.
Peyton Bender was the starter in that game as KU defeated Southeast Missouri 38-16.
The rare exception came in 2018, as Bender was named KU’s QB two weeks before the Jayhawks’ first contest.
Miles, in his first year at KU, kept his QB choice a secret last season. He refused to name a starter in his Week 1 media session, with Stanley later taking the first snap and every one after that while leading the Jayhawks to a fourth-quarter comeback in a 24-17 victory over Indiana State.
This year’s situation appears to be heading down a similar path. Miles will speak to reporters again Monday, which should be one of his last opportunities to provide clarity on the situation.
Miles said this much Wednesday: He’d like to stick with whoever wins the job and not have a rotation in KU’s opener.
“There’s some opportunities for us to play both quarterbacks,” Miles said, “but I don’t know that that’s necessarily in the works at this time.”
