After signing his 2015 recruiting class, Southeast Missouri State football coach Tom Matukewicz said that he felt there was a need for competition at the quarterback position.

Going into spring, senior quarterback Alex Niznak was named the No. 1 quarterback for Southeast's offense. After three weeks of spring practices and scrimmages, transfer junior quarterback Tay Bender is now the team's No. 1 quarterback of the offense.

"I feel like we've got some good competition," Matukewicz said. "I think Bender and Niznak are competing on a daily basis, and I think that's helpful. ... We tell them, 'Now September is a longtime from now. Just focus on being a little bit better tomorrow than today.'"

Matukewicz said that he and the staff decided to name Bender the No. 1 quarterback because of his performance at the team's scrimmage on April 2.

"The film told us that Bender outperformed Niznak that day, and so we made that switch," Matukewicz said. "I told them both that I'm very interested to see how they both handle each situation."

Bender connected with sophomore wide receiver Adrian Davis for the first score of the day on April 2 for a 60-yard touchdown. In Southeast's latest scrimmage, which was on Saturday, Bender connected with several of the team's receivers like senior wide receiver Paul McRoberts, who led the team in receiving yards and receiving touchdowns last year.

"He [Bender] moved the chains, didn't make a lot of mental errors," Matukewicz said about the team's scrimmage on April 2. "Statistically he was very good -- had a couple of touchdown passes and things like that. At the end of the day, it was that he outperformed him [Niznak], so that's why I made that move."

Matukewicz said that as a recruiting method, he and the staff go after dual-threat quarterbacks since he doesn't feel whoever is at the position will have a lot of time in the pocket.

"So we need a guy that can move around a little bit and those guys and Tay have done a good job of extending plays," Matukewicz said. "They may extend it and throw it or they may take off and run it, but both are very effective and Tay is a legitimate athlete. He's a 4.5 [40-yard dash] guy, so we want him to use the gifts that God gave him -- take off running every now and then."

Bender transferred from Iowa Western Community College where he went 22-2 as the team's starting quarterback. In his final season at Iowa Western, Bender accumulated more than 2,000 total yards with 1,912 passing yards and 184 rushing yards. Bender had 25 passing touchdowns with nine interceptions and also four rushing touchdowns in his final season at Iowa Western.

"Tay comes in and was kind of like an Alex situation last fall," Southeast offensive coordinator and quarterback coach Sherard Poteete said. "So he's new, he's new to the guys and he's new to everything such as terminology. It takes guys who transfer in a little time to pick up. Just not really gel with the offense, but gel with the team as a whole."

Matukewicz said that it's a hard transition for any player to transfer to another school, which both of these quarterbacks have done.

"What's hard about it is earning the respect of your teammates, and so I think he's [Bender] done that," Matukewicz said. "The guys I've talked to, they feel very comfortable with him. He's led by example, been humble and tried to outwork people, and so I think that's been great."

Niznak transferred to Southeast in 2014 from Central Michigan and played in four games last season. In those four games, Niznak completed five out of his 12 passing attempts for 32 yards and had no touchdowns with one interception.

Poteete said that the competition is ongoing and that this type of situation separates players and can either make someone a winner or a coward.

"Competition is a healthy thing, so we're just trying to emphasize the competition each day," Poteete said. "And so from a coaching standpoint you want to see how each guy kind of comes out and responds to it. I think as spring ball goes, summer goes on and fall camp goes on, there's going to be competition each day."

Southeast has two more spring practices and will then have its spring game at 1 p.m. on Sunday at Houck Stadium.

Matukewicz said that he is concerned that the team won't be able to have a regular spring game because of all of its injuries. He said that the spring game will now just most likely be an offensive versus defensive scrimmage.

"He's the guy [starting quarterback] that's going to touch the ball every time, so he's got his hand on the trigger," Matukewicz said. "Number one is I want to make sure that guy has great decision making, I want him to lead our football team, and at the end of the day how I judge quarterbacks is when he's supposed to throw it in the flat, and it's covered, now what? A bad one turns it over, a good one throws it out of bounds and a great one finds a way to get a first down either scrambling or throwing. So at the end of the day those are the three things that I'm going to judge those guys on."

Matukewicz said that a starter would not be named until August like he and the staff did by naming former Redhawk Kyle Snyder the starter last fall.