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San Diego State needs to decide who their quarterback will be: Adam Dingwell or Quinn Kaehler?

There is a full blown quarterback controversy at San Diego State, and now a decision needs to be made between Adam Dingwell or Quinn Kaehler.

By Jeremy Mauss
Greg Bartram-USA TODAY Sports

The 2013 season has not started kindly for San Diego State as they are 0-2, and this was not suppose to happen. The Aztecs came into the season with confidence coming off of a 9-4 season where they won a share of the league title, the defense returned nine starters and another seven on offense.

The quarterback position was to be thought of as a strength with Adam Dingwell, but so far this year he has completed just 39 percent of his passes for 318 yards, zero touchdowns and five interceptions. Dingwell got a head start at the Aztecs quarterback when he took over midway through the 2012 season once then-starter Ryan Katz suffered a season-ending ankle injury.

Perhaps the coaches should have seen Dingwell possibly struggling in 2013, because in the six games Dingwell started he averaged just 151 yards per game, completed less than 60 percent of his passes and threw eight touchdowns to seven interceptions.

The coaches may have chalked that up to being a first-time starter and 2013 would be different with a spring, summer and fall camp behind him. Dingwell was benched on his first throw of his second drive against Ohio State, and finished the day 0 for 5.

Replacing Dingwell was junior college transfer Quinn Kaehler who performed fairly well against Ohio State by completing 22 of 36 passes for 212 yards with a touchdown and an interception. Compared to Dingwell, that was an amazing stat line for Kaehler.

With that performance the coaches are now back at square one trying to figure out who will start against Oregon State on Sept. 22. The bye week will definitely help the coaches to make a decision on who should start, and head coach Rocky Long said as much in the post game press conference when asked if Kaehler had done enough to earn the starting job.

Long, and rightfully so, says that the quarterback position will dictate his teams success:

"The quarterback is the most important position on any offense. If the quarterback plays well, the offense moves the ball and scores points. If the quarterback doesn't play well, guess what, they don't," Long said. "We thought Adam didn't play very well, so we put Quinn in and he played a little bit better. He completed a few passes, and not to the other team."

A shot there by Long towards Dingwell's performance.

Right now the Aztecs probably should be leaning toward Kaehler being their starting quarterback, but with just one half of playing time that is not enough to judge. San Diego State will be using the extra practices with no game this weekend to figure out who will be the starting quarterback when they host Oregon State.

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