After a fall filled with a competitive quarterback competition, redshirt junior Aaron Howard will make the start on Saturday against Chadron State College.
“I’m ready to dominate Chadron this weekend. I believe we are going to win by a large margin and I just want to do my job and do my job at a high level,” Howard said.
Howard played in ten games last season for Colorado Mesa University. He threw for 968 yards and had 12 touchdowns in those ten games.
“I think [Howard] wanted to change things about his game and this offense fits him more than other offenses. I’ve seen him grow from the time we got here to now. Now, I’m just excited to see him play against somebody else,” Head Coach, Tremaine Jackson, said.
The redshirt junior has been able to step into a leadership role within the quarterback’s room. A role that was shared by the two other quarterbacks last year.
“They played three quarterbacks; the three quarterbacks were captains; there was no true leader,” Jackson said. “There was a lot of disaster in the quarterback room, to be quite honest.”
With a new offensive coordinator in Nick Fulton, Howard and the Maverick offense have a plan to be ready for anything that is thrown their way.
“Our offense allows us to do whatever their defense is giving us. If it’s a quarterback run game, we can add another guy to the field we will. If it’s just handing it off or RPO somebody we will,” Jackson said.
The Mavericks have more than one talented quarterback on their roster.
Redshirt sophomore Hayden Bollinger returns to the team after sharing playing time with Howard last season. CMU has also brought in four new QBs to add to the mix, including Redshirt Freshman Logan Bollinger and freshman Gavin Herberg.
With H. Bollinger injured and having to be sidelined for the start of the season, his younger brother L. Bollinger has really been able to step up to the plate in practices and scrimmages.
“He is standing on his own two feet, he competes for his tail off and continues to compete, so I am really proud of his development,” Jackson said. “You hate that his brother got hurt but we were able to see more of Logan and because of that we know what we have with Logan.”
Another young QB who is used to winning high school state championships was also in the running for the job. Herberg comes into CMU with knowing what it takes to win and is ready to win and succeed at the next level.
“I think when we opened up the competition named it a competition and said, ‘may the best man win’ having the young guy that has won as much as he won made everyone raise their game,” Jackson said.
Howard will be the Mavericks starting QB for now but if something were to happen the others are fully prepared for another competition for the spot.
“Aaron is our quarterback and we are going to stick with him through the good and the bad. If something was to happen to Aaron then there’s always another competition to be had,” Jackson said.
The Mavericks start their season this Saturday, Oct.10 against Chadron State College at noon.
