Just 10 days before the majority of colleges open the football season, some of the most high-profile quarterback competitions still don't have a declared winner.
Ohio State? Urban Meyer has already said the Cardale Jones-J.T. Barrett decision wouldn't be clear until one of them trots out for the Buckeyes' first offensive series against Virginia Tech on Sept. 7.
FSU? Jimbo Fisher hasn't yet handed the keys to the Seminoles offense' to Notre Dame transfer Everett Golson, and he might just hand them to running back Dalvin Cook, anyway. At Alabama, Nick Saban is still muddling through a cast of uninspiring options, and if Oregon coach Mark Helfrich has decided to go with his transfer, Vernon Adams, he hasn't spoken up yet.
Georgia's quarterback situation remains in flux, with Brice RamseyandGreyson Lambert still competing.
Technically, we'll count all this open competition as one thing we didn't learn Wednesday. Here are five things we did learn:
2. Tough sledding. BYU QB Taysom Hill was asked about what might be the most brutal September schedule in college football, and suggested a 4-0 month is realistic. "Looking to the guys we have on our roster, we're very capable of going in and competing and beating all these teams," he told the Salt Lake Tribune's **Jay Drew**. So what are we talking about here? At Nebraska on Sept. 5, Boise State on Sept. 12, at UCLA on Sept. 19 and at Michigan on Sept. 26.
3. Wait, what? USC OL Chad Wheeler, per the Los Angeles Times, is back from a bizarre injury in which he suffered a concussion from a head collision with a medicine ball. Wheeler is looking to return to the Trojans' lineup as the starting left tackle after a knee injury ended his season early last year. As for the medicine ball, Wheeler called it the "oddest injury I've ever been subject to."
4. Steady if not spectacular. On the day Purdue's Austin Appleby was named the Boilermakers' starting quarterback, coach Darrell Hazell explained why with what sounds like the textbook definition of a game manager. "He did a good job, in my opinion, of taking care of the ball throughout fall camp," Hazell said, according to The Indianapolis Star. "That's what we asked him to do. He made enough of those makeable plays that we asked him to do. That's why we're going with Austin." Translation: Appleby messed up the least.
5. Pirates sinking at QB. Just a week after winning the East Carolina starting quarterback job Kurt Benkert is out for the year with a knee injury. Given that the Pirates were already facing turnover at the position after losing Shane Carden, who was an undrafted free-agent signee of the Chicago Bears, expect a greater reliance on a running game from ECU this fall. Next up: juniors Blake KempandCody Keith, who had lost out to Benkert.
6. Browns on QB search. Michigan State QB Connor Cook is not only drawing scouts to MSU practices, his former high school coach is drawing NFL attention as well. The quarterback-starved Cleveland Browns have visited Cook's high school coach to discuss the Spartans' star, a senior who is expected to be one of the top passers available in the 2016 draft.
*Follow Chase Goodbread on Twitter **@ChaseGoodbread*.
