Three quarterbacks battled for the starter spot on the Southeast Missouri State University football team.
Sophomore Scott Lathrop and junior Kyle Synder were the top picks for the starting spot, along with sophomore Blake Jackson.
Coach Tony Samuel officially announced that Snyder will be the starting quarterback on Wednesday, though he said that "all three of them are doing really good things."
"Kyle is talented. He can run and throws the ball well," Samuel said in a press release announcing his decision.
Synder, an Ohio native, was the frontrunner for the quarterback position last fall until he suffered a knee injury just nine days into fall camp. His torn ACL prematurely ended his season, and redshirt freshman Lathrop took over as starting quarterback.
"My knee feels great, and I'm ready to go," Snyder said te release.
Lathrop, who is from Warrenton, Mo., stands 5-foot-10 and 177 pounds while Synder compares at 6-foot-1 and 216 pounds.
Last year, Lathrop completed 91 of 158 passes for 1,025 yards and seven touchdowns. He was named OVC freshman of the year, making him the first Southeast player to win that award since it started back in 2004. He also was made the OVC All-Newcomer team and was one of 20 finalists for the Jerry Rice award, which is an award given to the national freshman of the year.
"I expect to play and so does Kyle, so it's all just what our coaches feel what's best for us," Lathrop said a day before Samuel named Snyder the starter. "You know, whoever it is, I just got to be able to contribute any way I can to help this team win."
Samuel previously said not to count out Blake Jackson for the starter spot. He stands at 6 feet and 191 pounds and played in eight games as a freshman last season and completed 4 of 9 passes for 36 yards.
"Everybody's different," Samuel said. "Everybody's got their own fingerprint."
The team held their only scrimmage open to the public on Aug. 17.
All four quarterbacks, including junior Tyler Peoples, took snaps during the scrimmage, but there was little passing. Jackson said that they didn't want to show too much to the public and therefore there was a lot of running the ball.
"I think I did pretty good," Jackson said about his performance during the scrimmage. "I just did what I could do to help my team."
Samuel said that when the coaching staff viewed the film, they were looking for a quarterback who is the most efficient at both running and throwing the ball.
"You want to make sure that one, that they understand how to run the offense and they've got to be able to make play changes," Samuel said. "They've got to have the athleticism and lead the offense."
Southeast kicks off its season against Southeastern Louisiana at 7 p.m. on Thursday.
Samuel said that they still had some fine tuning to do before their first game, but he feels confident in his team this year, despite the fact that Southeast is predicted to be finish eighth in the OVC this year. Samuel said that their ranking is just a number to him and though the team is young, he believes that will work to their advantage.
"We're heading the right direction," Samuel said. "I like where we are going with this."
