DILLON — Montana Western opened their spring practices this week, but are still in search of who their starting quarterback will be come fall. Bennett Gibson took the majority of reps last year but has now graduated, and JD Ferris moved to the defensive side of the ball after a shoulder injury.
“That’s really the goal for us through spring ball — to find our two deep going into the fall,” Western head coach Ryan Nourse said. “That’s one of the main goals for the program. We want to know who our two deep is going to be, and quarterback is no different.”
The Bulldog’s depth chart has three freshman quarterbacks — Jon Jund, Blake Sentman, and Sean Miller. Miller is the only one of the three to take any snaps, as he filled in for Gibson for stints during last season.
Melvin Wassler, the team’s leading returning receiver, doesn’t feel familiarity will be an issue with the youth behind center.
“We’ve got two real young quarterbacks now, but one — Sean Miller, he’ll be coming back,” Wassler said. “I think we’ve had enough reps with these guys, we’ve got pretty good comfortability I think. We’re going to pick up right where we left off last year to tell you the truth. I think we’ll be alright.”
“We really like the guys we have in our (quarterback) room right now, and we’re going to rotate them through and give them lots of opportunities to do the things that we need to have them do,” Nourse said.
Nourse is in no hurry to name a starter, but he hopes through the course of spring practices a leader will emerge.
“You’ve got to eventually pick one and roll with it,” Nourse said. “We hope we’ll have a solid idea of who that’s going to be, or at least have it narrowed down to two after spring practices.”
