Lewis faces competition for UL starting quarterback job
Tim BuckleyLet the battle begin.
When UL holds its first of 15 spring practices Tuesday, its search for a new starting quarterback officially will be underway.
Andre Nunez was a senior last season, Billy Napier’s first as head coach of the Ragin’ Cajuns.
Nunez’s backup, junior-to-be Levi Lewis, returns. But the job is not being handed to Lewis, the Scotlandville Magnet High product from Baton Rouge.
He’ll have competition, and plenty of it.
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“Levi, obviously, is the leader in the clubhouse,” Napier said. “He’s got significant experience. He’s been around here.
“So Levi, he’ll run out there with the 1s on the first day of spring practice. And we’ll have lots of guys compete between now and the first game, and then make our decision as we approach that opener in New Orleans.”
UL opens its 2019 season on Aug. 31 against Mississippi State at the Superdome in New Orleans.
Starting this week, the Cajuns will practice on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday for five straight weeks — culminating with their annual spring game on April 13 at Cajun Field.
It’s during that time that Lewis will get a run for his money.
The top contenders behind him who will be vying over the next month and change to take over the No. 1 job: juco-transfer Jaiave Magalei, returnee Quentin Gibson and Texas high school signee Clifton McDowell.
A second high school signee who may contend, New Orleans-area product Chandler Fields, will arrive at UL after graduating from Archbishop Rummel High in Metairie.
Related:UL signs two QBs
The Cajuns actually could go into fall camp with eight QBs on the roster — if, that is, all remain with the program and one or more do not change positions.
Also on the roster, but buried deep on the depth chart, are fourth-year junior-to-be Jake Arceneaux, a scholarship QB from Ascension Episcopal School who appeared in a couple 2017 games; Wesley Blazek, a walk-on from Teurlings Catholic High who handled scout-team duties while redshirting as a freshman last season; and juco-transfer Blake Kalbacher, a walk-on from Golden West College in California by way of Austin, Texas.
Dual-threat McDowell, the freshman from Spring High in Texas, already is on campus and ready for spring drills as an early high school graduate.
Gibson, who like Fields is also from the New Orleans area, is a product of Archbishop Shaw High in Marrero and East Central Community College in Mississippi.
He began his college career at Toledo of the MAC. But the walk-on did not play in a game after transferring to UL prior to last season.
Then there’s Magalei, who may be poised to give Lewis his biggest push — if he’s healthy enough.
But after blowing out a knee late in the 2017 season while playing for Mt. San Antonio College in California, Magalei — from Tacoma, Washington — did not play last year.
More:UL quarterback commit Magalei coming off horrific injury
He’s deep into an 18-month recovery from major surgery, and although he’ll be ready to at least take part in spring practice on a non-contact basis, it may not be until August that he is ready for full participation.
Napier called Magalei a “big athletic guy who has arm talent.”
But, the Cajuns coach added on National Signing Day last month, “He probably won’t be 100 percent clear because of his knee injury until after (spring practice).”
Magalei comes to UL with three seasons of NCAA eligibility that he can use any time in the next four years.
It remains to be seen if he’ll redshirt this year.
“We don’t make our mind up about that now,” Napier said last month. “That’ a bridge that we’ll cross when we get there.”
For now, Napier is keeping his mind open about a lot of things.
More:UL adding two California-juco quarterbacks
Last season, Nunez, Lewis and former starter Jordan Davis went into the spring battling for the No. 1 job.
Davis wound up leaving the program after the spring, leaving Nunez and Lewis to battle it out in the offseason and early in preseason camp.
Nunez wound up winning the job.
But Napier stuck with an unconventional plan all year, putting Lewis in — without fail — on every fourth series throughout a season in which the 6-7 Cajuns won the Sun Belt Conference’s West Division, lost to Appalachian State in the first-ever Sun Belt championship game and lost to Tulane at the Cure Bowl in Orlando.
Lewis wound up going 37-of-59 for 585 yards with seven touchdowns and two touchdowns in his limited duty, enough to make him — with a 62.7 percent completion percentage and a 178.4 efficiency rating — last season’s most-efficient QB in the Sun Belt.
It remains to be seen as well if Napier will stick with one, or regularly use two, QBs in 2019.
For now, at least this spring, it’s an open question, too.
“We’re gonna let ’em all play,” Napier said. “We’re gonna take the same approach we took last year.
“At this time last year, we could have flipped a coin in there and picked a guy. You know, nobody really knew.”
And now nobody — not Lewis, and presumably not Napier either — knows for certain yet again.