Fresno State QB competition heating up. Is son of NFL great the front-runner?

Fresno State is 10 practices into fall camp and there are few definitive answers to a long list of questions coach Matt Entz has to sort through, with a team that lost a lot of production through graduation and the NCAA transfer portal.

But there could be some clarity in critical areas this week, including the emergence of a starting quarterback to take that first snap on Aug. 23 at Kansas.

The Bulldogs have had three competing for that spot in senior E.J. Warner and redshirt sophomores Carson Conklin and Jayden Mandal, each with different strengths and questions headed into the season.

There does not appear to be a great deal of separation between them at this point — the first week-plus of practices were mostly basic offense, against the same. But they are facing an increased degree of difficulty this week with more situational and live football — third-down, red-zone, two-minute — against more defense.

“How much can they handle? When the defense changes, how do we react?” offensive coordinator Josh Davis said. “The game happens fast. I think we have three guys that we can build a game plan around and win a football game. We just have to finish this journey that we’re on of evaluation and opportunities. But we have a big week coming up. We’re going through some live segments. We have the play clock going. That’s the game. It ain’t first and 10 all the time. As we continue to put pressure on them we’ll see who can perform.

“We’re a team that’s going to do a lot of visual pre-snap recognition and checks, so that IQ, to be able to recognize defensive alignment and get us into a good play call (is important).”

Warner, the son of two-time NFL most valuable player Kurt Warner, has by far the most experience of the three Fresno State quarterbacks, starting for two seasons at Temple and one at Rice. But he also ranked in the Top 10 in the nation all three years in most interceptions thrown with 13, 12 and 12. A year ago, when throwing for more than 2,700 yards, Warner had a passing efficiency rating of just 120.67 and did not rank among the Top 100 qualifying quarterbacks in the nation; his career high is 127.26, set in 2023 at Temple.

Conklin last season was at FCS Sacramento State and threw three touchdown passes off the bench in a 46-30 loss to the Bulldogs at Valley Children’s Stadium. He ended the season with more than 2,800 passing yards and 28 touchdown passes, and with a passing efficiency rating of 138.18.

Mandal, a Buchanan High product, played sparingly last season behind Mikey Keene, who transferred to Michigan after the season. Mandal did start the Bulldogs’ bowl game, hitting 3 of 6 passes for 31 yards with one interception in an overtime loss to Northern Illinois.

Fresno State has not had a starting quarterback with a passing efficiency rating of less than 140.00 over a season since 2019; Keene last season had a rating of 141.81.

“We’re charting everything right now,” Entz said. “We chart touchdowns. We chart interceptions. Any metric that is out there that we can, we’re charting right now. I stand behind the offense. I want to hear what communication is like in the huddle. We’ve done some things where it’s been a call-it scenario, where we’re using coach-player communication. I want to know, can they lead and can they demand execution?

“There are a lot of pieces to it. It comes down to who gives us the best chance to have success offensively, who gives us the best chance to consistently move the football.”

The Bulldogs’ coach said on the first day of fall camp that he wanted to have a starter by practice No. 15, and is sticking to that timetable. Practice No. 14 is Saturday, and likely to include live situational scrimmage snaps.

“Ten days out we’re going to start prepping for Kansas, so I want them to have full access to all of the things they need, game-plan wise, so when we show up in Lawrence they’re ready to go,” he said.

All three quarterbacks made plays in practice on Monday, gaining ground within the offense. But it will get tougher, through the week. “The Day 2 install of our audibles – pretty easy,” Davis said. “We did them all summer long. But now, as (defensive coordinator Nick Benedetto) installs more defense, those audibles are quadrupled. I have this front, what does that mean? I have that front, what does that mean? I have a base defense, what does that mean? It’s not easy, but that’s what we’re asking of them.

“The decisions we make, especially on third down, especially in the red zone, instinct and football IQ starts to show up more than just the easy throws that we get on first down at times. That’s kind of what we’re evaluating. After this week we’ll sit down and kind of go over everybody’s opinion from their chair, I’ll talk about my thoughts and we’ll share that with coach Entz and see where he’s at.”

This story was originally published August 5, 2025 at 9:30 AM.