Football Notebook: QB competition underwayFootball Notebook: QB competition underway
Football

Football Notebook: QB competition underway

SAN ANTONIO -- UTSA football held its fourth team practice session of the spring on Monday morning at the UTSA Practice Fields. 
 
UTSA completed a full-pads team practice on Monday morning after opening spring practice last week with three full-spirited workouts. 
 
Other UTSA spring practice dates include Wednesday and Friday; April 1, 3, 6, 8, 10, 13, 17 and 19.
 
The spring practice season will conclude with the ninth annual UTSA Football Fiesta Spring Game, which will be held at 1 p.m. Saturday, April 20, at Dub Farris Athletic Complex (8400 North Loop 1604 W). Admission and parking are free.
 
The Roadrunners will open the 2019 season on Saturday, Aug. 31, against UIW at the Alamodome. 
 
Season tickets are on sale now by calling or texting 210-458-UTSA (8872) or visiting http://goUTSA.com/tickets.

Quarterback competition unfolding
A story line for the spring practice season is the competition underway at the quarterback position. Senior Cordale Grundy, a product of Tulsa, Okla., played in nine games in 2018, with 989 yards passing and 167 rushing, accounting for six total TDs. In addition, sophomore Frank Harris (Shertz, Texas), redshirt freshman Jordan Weeks (Wimerley, Texas), sophomore Lowell Narcisse (St. James, La.), Suddin Sapien (Midland, Texas) and Brandon Garza (Harlingen, Texas) are among the six-way competition for the starting role. 
 
"The quarterback position has been very competitive," Fourth-year UTSA head coach Frank Wilson said. "No one has pulled away just yet. But you see flashes with Lowell Narcisse, Frank Harris, Cordale Grundy. (Suddin) Sapien is coming along, he is a young guy who should be in high school right now, but you like his promise. And Jojo (Jordan Weeks) is doing a good job for us as well."

Weeks, a 6-foot-4, 220-pounder, passed for 241 yards over four games during his redshirt season in 2018. 
 
The 6-foot-4, 230-pound Narcisse joined the Roadrunners after 2018 at Mississippi Gulf Coast College after opening his career at LSU. Sapien, a 6-foot-3, 220-pounder, is a mid-year freshman enrollee who threw for 3,677 yards with 27 TDs, and rushed for 1,881 yards and 35 TDs, over his final two years at Midland High School. 
 
A former electric offensive weapon at Clemens High School, Harris has returned to the practice field after missing the first two seasons while recovering from an injury. As a junior, Harris was named the San Antonio Express-News Offensive Player of the Year. He turned in 2,033 yards and 17 TDs passing, and 2,741 yards and 38 TDs rushing as a junior at Clemens. 
 
"There was an opportunity today where there was a zone read and he pulls it and starts running, then signals for the receiver to go (downfield) and just flicks it over the defense's heads for a 70-yard touchdown," Wilson detailed. "it was just him being creative and fun. We have never seen it in totality because of the unfortunate (injury) situation. We've always seen flashes of it. The ability to sustain it throughout the entire spring season would be the thing that we're trying to accomplish with him. He hasn't disappointed. It's been the things that we thought he was capable of doing. And every now and then he pulls a rabbit out of the hat and does something like he did today."
 
Running-back room blossoming
The competition in the backfield includes the running back position, which includes several players who earned valuable reps in 2018, including sophomore Brenden Brady and junior B.J. Daniels. Daniels paced the team with 322 rushing yards last year, with Brady adding 221 yards on the ground. 
 
"Overall I've liked Brenden Brady in first down scenarios," Wilson said. "Second down. Third down. Protection. Passing game. The ability to run in between the tackles to run on the perimeter. Toughness. He has a high intellect that can consistently go out and not miss a beat when were from the backfield."
 
Wise shines on defensive line
Defensively, junior 6-foot-4, 230-pound Coppell, Texas, native Solomon Wise, who had a pair of tackles for loss in 2018, has shined on the defensive line. 
 
"Solomon Wise is having an outstanding spring from a pass rush standpoint," Wilson said. "You know, come third down, he gets his cleat in the dirt and he comes off as fast as anyone we've had and is able to turn a toe and dip his shoulder and get upfield and really present problems to our tackles that we have to be conscientious of trying to slow him down. You don't want to chip him in a spring setting but he's forcing us to put somebody there as a presence because he gets to the quarterback really fast." 

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