Fresno State narrows focus on quarterback competition with a top three, and a surprise
Fresno State will go into fall camp with four quarterbacks competing for the starting job with the focus on fourth-year junior Logan Fife, redshirt sophomore Mikey Keene and redshirt freshman Joshua Wood, and then freshman Jayden Mandal, who graduated early from Buchanan High to participate in spring ball.
“We were very productive at quarterback in the spring and very impressed with all of them,” coach Jeff Tedford said. “We repped six quarterbacks, but realistically you can’t do that going into the fall.
“We’re not going to name a starter right now. We’re going to give the process the summer and fall camp to figure that out. Fife, Keene and Joshua Wood will get a lion’s share of the reps and we’re very impressed and excited about Jayden Mandal and his progress through his opening semester here.”
The Bulldogs have not carried a large number of scholarship quarterbacks on the roster under Tedford. In 2019, they went into the season with only three on the roster along with Jake Haener, who was sitting out the year under NCAA transfer rules in place at the time and not eligible to play.
With an open competition in a relatively compressed time frame to make a decision in fall camp, Tedford and the Bulldogs offensive staff needed to narrow focus to ensure their top quarterbacks had enough reps on the practice field for them to make a thorough evaluation.
Senior Matt Robinson, who got a limited number of reps in the spring, already has entered the NCAA transfer portal. The other scholarship quarterback on the roster is redshirt sophomore Jaylen Henderson.
But the focus for a 2023 season that includes a schedule that sets up favorably for a run at back-to-back Mountain West Conference championships will be on Fife, Keene and Wood.
Fresno State won the title last season, its second in four seasons under Tedford, by becoming the first team in history to finish 10-4 after a 1-4 start. The Bulldogs’ nine-game winning streak ranks as the third-longest active run in the nation behind Georgia (17 games) and Troy (11).
Keene and Fife have the most experience in the position group, with Keene playing in 15 career games at Central Florida before transferring to Fresno State and Fife making four starts for the Bulldogs’ last season when Haener was out with what at first was believed to be a season-ending ankle injury.