Skip Holtz names Jeff Driskel as Tech’s starting QB

It took several weeks into fall camp for Louisiana Tech coach Skip Holtz to decide on his starting quarterback for the 2014 season.

This year, things are more clearly defined.

Heading into Wednesday’s Conference USA Media Day in Florida, Holtz told The News-Star that Jeff Driskel will be the Bulldogs’ starter.

“Going into it? Yes,” Holtz said without hesitation on Monday when asked if Driskel’s appearance at C-USA Media Day meant he would be the opening day starter.

Holtz’s comments hardly come as a surprise. Earlier this month, C-USA announced Driskel, who transferred from Florida in March for his senior season, and safety Kentrell Brice would represent the Bulldogs at media day. Holtz’s decision to take Driskel served as an unofficial announcement of sorts that Driskel, not Ryan Higgins, was the starter.

Holtz declined to announce a starter after April’s spring game, and it was unclear when, if at all, he’d make a public announcement. Prior to Monday's conversation, Holtz told a Knoxville radio station July 9 that Driskel was the starter.

“After spring practice we went through all the numbers and we met with all the players and all the quarterbacks on where they ranked and where they were,” Holtz said Monday. “Just looking at the numbers from the whole body of work through spring practice, I felt Jeff Driskel gave us the best opportunity as a quarterback. That’s when we looked at him and said he’ll be the starter.”

There is some confusion as to when an official decision occurred, because according to Driskel, there wasn’t a conversation about the starting job.

“We’ve never had that discussion,” Driskel said Tuesday via telephone from Florida.

Driskel was then asked to clarify if Holtz had told him he was starting for the Southern game.

“Nope,” Driskel said.

Either way, Driskel will open fall camp in August as Tech’s top quarterback ahead of Higgins and redshirt freshmen Price Wilson and Alex Woodall.

Holtz made it clear the door isn’t closed yet on Higgins. Tech has first-hand experience in that department when Scotty Young earned the starting job in 2013 before injuries forced Higgins into early playing time as a redshirt freshman.

“That certainly doesn’t mean Ryan is going away,” Holtz said. “Ryan is going to be a really quarterback and I like what he’s doing. I think we have two really good quarterbacks. With a quarterback coming in, I just didn’t want it to be an unknown scenario as we went through the entire summer and fall camp.”

Driskel and Higgins shared first-team reps during the summer and capped it off with productive spring game.

Driskel threw for 269 yards with four touchdowns and three interceptions in the spring game, while Higgins went 18-of-26 for 214 yards and a touchdown.

Holtz saw enough to go ahead and get the decision over with so there wasn’t another situation like 2014.

Cody Sokol transferred late from Iowa last summer, leaving the coaching staff with little to go off when camp started. Sokol and Higgins shared reps until midway through August when Sokol earned the starting gig.

“Where I feel differently with Jeff is he got here March 11 and went through 15 days of spring practice and went through the workouts after spring ball with the team,” Holtz said. “It may not sound like much but being on the field for those 15 days and going through everything and getting an opportunity to evaluate him. What made it really hard last year was I had never seen Cody throw a ball until he reported and we went through our first day of practice.”

Holtz, who had running back Kenneth Dixon represent the offense for media last year, said he decided to take Driskel because he “earned the players’ respect” and “earned this opportunity to come in here and talk a little bit about what he sees about the program.”

“He doesn’t have a biased view and he can talk about the commitment and the work ethic and those types of things as he’s come in and the things that have impressed him about the program,” Holtz said.

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