AMHERST — For the second straight season, UMass heads into its game against Charlotte with public uncertainty around the quarterback position.
Last year, the status of both starter Andrew Ford and backup Ross Comis was in doubt after they both left a loss at Florida International with injuries. This year, it is a quarterback competition between Randall West — the starter coming out of fall camp — and Andrew Brito — the runner-up of the summer’s competition — that took over the Minutemen’s week of practice heading into the game with the 49ers.
Someone will lead the UMass (0-2) offense onto the field Saturday at 6 p.m. at Charlotte (1-1), and the hope is that an extra week of competition will help clean up the issues with decision-making and missed passes from the quarterback.
“Everybody in the quarterback room pushes each other and that’s necessary to get the best (out of everyone),” West said. “Competition brings the best out of everybody. … If somebody makes a good throw in practice, I’m going to try to match that. If somebody makes a good read in practice, we’re all going to try to match each other. The higher that goes up and the more people we have doing that, the more successful this football team will be.”
Head coach Walt Bell has preached competition since he took over the program in December, and that mindset has proliferated throughout the locker room. Players who are listed as starters on the weekly depth chart talk about how that can change at any moment and that there is always a need to compete for positions.
Brito said the concept that someone is always ready to take your job is what helps some of the best programs in the country succeed. So naturally, he said UMass must also buy into that idea to help take the Minutemen to the next level.
“Competition is the greatest thing you can have in football,” Brito said. “It’s why those big schools like Alabama are so great, they have four and five stars as their third-strings, so those guys are pushing them every single day to take their spot. That’s what we need to start doing here is every guy, even if you’re the fourth string, needs to push that guy ahead of you so you can take his spot.”
That is the position Brito finds himself after being the backup for the Minutemen’s first two games of the season. West won the starting job because of his accuracy, poise and decision making. He was able to diagnose defenses and make the correct read on the play more often than his counterparts.
And while West wasn’t the big issue with the UMass offense in either of the two losses, he has missed on several throws that would have been explosive plays and he’s thrown some questionable passes as well. His interception on the first drive of the second half last week led to him being pulled from the loss to Southern Illinois and Brito was given his first chance to play meaningful snaps for the Minutemen.
“You face challenges, it’s not always going to be easy, it’s not always going to be given to you,” West said.
“In the game, there’s some looks that you’re going to get that might be messed up and you have to manage those,” West added moments later. “You have to manage those and you have to limit the negative plays that can set back an offense. … During the summertime, it’s nice to get looks and going against your team, but when you go out there on Saturdays and you’re going against somebody with violent intentions, you have to be executing on a high level.”
Brito has showcased much of the raw talent he possesses in his first two appearances, but he’s also made a few questionable decisions. He has thrown an interception in both games and has only completed 50 percent of his 16 passes.
But he did lead the Minutemen’s only second-half scoring drive last week against the Salukis and shown he has a deep understanding of Bell’s offense. He credits much of those successes to how he prepares every day and how he is always ready when the coaches need him to play.
“Each week I’ve just been preparing like I’m the starter,” Brito said. “The coaches have really stressed to me that each week your name can get called at any given time, and in the past two games, you can see that it did. This week, it’s open, but I’m still preparing like I’m the starter.”
What both Brito and West are dealing with is the speed of the game coming at them. Neither one had started a Division I game entering the year and West hadn’t played in a game in almost two years. It was fair to assume that both of them would need some time to adjust again to how quickly everything moves on the field.
Brito said that everything was much slower for him last week than it was in the opener at Rutgers, and he’s hoping that the game will slow down even more if he’s called upon to play against the 49ers.
“There’s always room to improve,” Brito said. “You think that you did something right then you go watch the tape and you can find five different things that you did wrong. It’s just about getting comfortable back there and as the season goes along and I continue to get reps, hopefully I’ll get more comfortable.”
Josh Walfish can be reached at jwalfish@gazettenet.com. Follow him on Twitter @JoshWalfishDHG. Get UMass coverage delivered in your Facebook news feed at www.facebook.com/GazetteUMassCoverage.