USC Will Play With Two Quarterbacks in Opening Game

ESPN
LOS ANGELES -- Quarterbacks Max Wittek and Cody Kessler both will play for No. 24 Southern California in its season opener next week.

Coach Lane Kiffin said Saturday that he couldn't pick a starting quarterback after a full offseason of evaluation, so both sophomores will get snaps Thursday at Hawaii.

"That really is how well both guys did," Kiffin told reporters after practice. "For us, we look at it as a great thing. We've got two guys that we feel great about. We don't feel like we have to limit our offense with either one of them in there."

USC's coaches won't even decide on a nominal starter until they arrive in Honolulu on Tuesday.

Kiffin thinks Wittek and Kessler are even in their competition to succeed Matt Barkley, the Trojans' four-year starter. Wittek started the final two games last season for USC while Barkley was injured, but Kessler had a strong training camp this month.

Wittek has a stronger arm and more experience, but Kessler proved to be more mobile while showing off his resourcefulness during camp workouts. They both beat out touted freshman Max Browne, who also was in contention for the starting spot until midway through camp.

"They've both done so well, made so many plays," Kiffin said. "It didn't show itself that one guy was above the other guy, so we do it all the time with other positions. We're not going to be stubborn and name a starter just because we're supposed to, or that's what we've done for 100 years, or whatever that is. We've got to do with all of our decisions what's best for our team."

Yet Kiffin has spent training camp saying he hoped a starter would emerge, acknowledging that using two quarterbacks isn't an ideal way to build a team with question marks at several offensive positions. Biletnikoff Award-winning receiver Marqise Lee also hoped Kiffin would pick a starter so he could develop his timing with one passer.

There's an old saying, "If you have two quarterbacks, you have no quarterbacks." This year it's true for the Jets, the Bills, and yeah it's basically the situation that's happening at USC this year. It's a mortal lock that this blows up in USC's face almost immediately. Please name the last time that a team was able to successfully juggle starting two quarterbacks over the course of a full season. Tebow and Chris Leak at Florida? Jamarcus Russell and Matt Flynn at LSU? Eventually one of those guys took over and thrived without the other.

What I'm more interested in though is how long it takes for Wittek or Kessler to come up with some diabolical plan to sabotage the other guy. Like Kessler gets a call in the middle of the night, "Oh hey man, you busy? Why don't you come over to my frat house. We've got strippers." Boom! Sex scandal and Wittek is the starter. That's what I would do. There's only room for one USC quarterback around here to get drafted and severely underachieve in the NFL.