Nevada Football: Quarterback race still up in the air after first scrimmage

The Wolf Pack held their first scrimmage on Saturday during Fan Appreciation Day at Mackey Stadium in front of 600 fans and the scrimmage saw an even split of both good and bad performances by the offense and defense.

Saturday's scrimmage also showed that the starting quarterback job is still up in the air as both junior Tyler Stewart and freshman Hunter Fralick had both good and bad moments as both quarterbacks played with the first and second team offenses. Stewart, who had a slow start to the scrimmage completed 7 of 13 passes while Fralick completed 7 of 12 passes for 61 yards. Both quarterbacks threw a touchdown pass and led a field goal drive while not turning the ball over despite Fralick giving up two sacks in the end zone for safeties.

Wolf Pack head coach Brian Polian said that he hasn't seen any separation between Fralick and Stewart. "Without looking at the tape, I'm not ready to say anybody inched in front of anybody else" Polian also went on to say, "They both made some bad mistakes and they both did some really good things". Both quarterbacks found junior Hassan Henderson for their respective touchdown passes on Saturday. Henderson, who missed the last three games last season due to a neck and spine injury, caught a 21 yard touchdown pass from Fralick and a 12 yard touchdown pass from Stewart.  Polian said of that seeing Henderson back on the field was "one of the highlights of the day".

The running game for the Wolf Pack performed well on Saturday despite injuries and a flu bug that has ravaged the offensive line. The Wolf Pack ran for a total of 186 yards on 50 carries with redshirt freshman Blake Wright leading the way with 49 yards on nine carries while Stewart ran  for 22 yards on four carries. When asked about the offensive line injury and illness issues  Polian said that "We would have a much better idea of where we were right now if we had the offensive line intact, but we don't and hopefully by the middle of next week we will and can have the front five together and start gelling and get a little bit better.

On defense,freshman linebacker Gabe Sewell had 7.5 tackles which was a team high while Ian Seau had a sack for a safety and Noah Dambacher had two sacks. Polian said that the defense played well in spots and liked the pass rush but was concerned about the big runs the defense gave up today.