Derrius Vick and JD Sprague battled throughout last season for the starting gig. Entering the 2015, it’s still a competition.
Although the nation may be aware of the quarterback battle underway in Columbus, the lesser-known yearlong competition in Athens persists with no end in sight, as JD Sprague is still looking to beat out Derrius Vick for the starting job.
Last year, the battle continued until the first week of the season, but after a year of observation, this year’s decision might be easier for the coaches.
The rivalry between the two leant a competitive atmosphere to their previous season, which helped improve their skills. Every play counts when the competition is as stiff as this one.
“You definitely have to bring your all every play,” said Sprague, a redshirt junior. “If you have a couple of bad plays you have to snap out of it. If he’s playing well, then I have to pick up my game, and if I’m playing well, he has to pick up his. So it just makes both of us better.”
The Bobcats settled on Vick, now a redshirt senior, to start the season last year, but after Vick went down against Idaho in September, it was Sprague’s turn at the helm.
Sprague finished that game 8 of 13 for 165 yards. He also ran for a touchdown in the Bobcats’ 36-24 victory over the Vandals. With Sprague starting, Ohio went 2-3 while Vick nursed his injury.
Vick returned to Ohio sitting at 4-5 and started for the Buffalo game. He threw a modest 118 yards and scored a rushing touchdown.
Then, after a loss to Northern Illinois, Vick led a 21-point comeback against Miami during the season’s final week with two touchdowns in the second half.
Although the win wasn’t enough to put the Bobcats into a bowl game, it secured their sixth consecutive winning season.
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“Obviously, when I was healthy, I was the guy, and things were clicking,” Vick said. “Unfortunately, things happened. That’s why we have multiple quarterbacks ready. If that happens again, then I think we’ll be fine and even better this year.”
Vick finished the season completing 59 percent of his throws to Sprague’s 49 percent. Vick’s momentum from the end of last season has continued into the off-season. He has seen the majority of the first team reps during the early spring practices.
Despite this, the coaching staff was impressed with what it saw last spring, and Sprague is seeing his fair share of field time. It also gave him confidence that he can beat out Vick before the opening kickoff against Idaho on Sept. 3.
“I’m confident in what I can do, I just have to show it,” Sprague said.
Whoever wins the job will be more prepared to run the offense this year. Ohio hired co-offensive coordinator Scott Isphording last spring and the two quarterbacks noted that it took them a little bit of time to familiarize themselves with the game plan.
“We’re light-years ahead of where we were last spring,” Vick said. “A lot of that is just being comfortable with the coach and slowing things down for us, focusing on footwork and what it takes to be a good quarterback.”
Now that both are comfortable with the playbook, Isphording can work with them more on the field and less in the film room.
Before coming to Ohio, Isphording was the quarterbacks’ coach at Toledo, which ran a two-quarterback system. That situation could happen next year as well, as both Sprague and Vick helped the team win in 2014.
Both quarterbacks agree that the time for competition is over, given that spring practices focus on team-building.
“Winter conditioning was to kind of go against each other, but now it’s kind of being there for one another and helping them if they do something wrong in practice, correcting each other on mistakes,” Vick said. “We just want to be there for each other and get better as a team.”
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