Everything OC Aaron Roderick Said About BYU’s QB Situation For Boise State Game
Oct 7, 2021, 12:56 AM
(Steve Griffin, Deseret News)
PROVO, Utah – Who will be the starting quarterback for No. 10 BYU football against Boise State on Saturday?
The season-opening starter Jaren Hall suffered an injury against Arizona State on September 18 that has kept him out for the past two games. In relief of Hall was Baylor Romney, who played exceptionally well. But he suffered a head injury in the first half of the win over Utah State.
#BYU QB Jaren Hall discussed his injury progress heading into this week's game against Boise State with @KSLunrivaled. #BYUFootball #GoCougs https://t.co/tmJ4gPLvtj
— KSL Sports (@kslsports) October 6, 2021
After Romney went down, true freshman Jacob Conover stepped in. The former four-star recruit looked rattled early on, but he ultimately finished the game and helped guide BYU to a 34-20 victory, improving the Cougars record to 5-0 on the season.
Hall gave KSL Sports an update on his injury progress this week, saying, “It’s the same thing, day by day. But I feel pretty confident that I’ll be ready to go this week and just continue to work with the training staff to kind of resolve the issues that I’m kind of dealing with right now.”
BYU Football QB situation heading into Boise State game
BYU head coach Kalani Sitake said on Monday that all three quarterbacks are in contention to play on Saturday. However, offensive coordinator Aaron Roderick bumped that number of players up from three to four by adding Sol-Jay Maiava-Peters in the mix. Roderick addressed the media on Wednesday night and had a few questions from the local media centered around the QB position.
Here’s a transcript of what Roderick had to say when asked about the BYU QB situation.
Question: Who’s getting the most reps in practice at quarterback?
Aaron Roderick: “Well, as of right now, nobody’s been ruled out. Jacob (Conover), Jaren (Hall), Baylor (Romney), Sol-Jay (Maiava-Peters) are all out there getting reps just like always. We have a pretty good system here of getting everybody reps. But yeah, so far, nobody’s been ruled out. I will say, Jaren is closer than Baylor right now. They haven’t told me that anybody can’t play.
Reporter: You knew that question was coming. So I just thought…
AR: “Yeah, I was ready for it. And that’s where we stand. So we still get one more good practice tomorrow (Thursday, October 8), we’ll get a lot of team reps tomorrow, we’ll probably make a decision after tomorrow’s practice.”
Question: …You’re running towards the end of your line. How hard is it to sort of work on these guys to make sure that they’re getting better but then also be preparing the team for the next game?
AR: “It’s not a big deal. I mean, that’s the job, that’s part of the deal. That’s coaching. Like I said, right now, all of them are available as far as I know right now. You know, we’re really not at the end of our rope right at this moment because it feels like we’re getting healthier, not less healthy.”
BYU football hosts Boise State on Saturday, October 9 at 1:30 p.m. on ABC. You can listen to the game on KSL NewsRadio (102.7 FM, 1160 AM) with pregame coverage beginning at 9 a.m.
Mitch Harper is a BYU Insider for KSLsports.com and host of the Cougar Tracks Podcast (SUBSCRIBE) and Cougar Sports Saturday (Saturday from 12–3 p.m.) on KSL Newsradio. Follow him on Twitter: @Mitch_Harper.