Kelley will start first game, but finishing is still wide open

Chad Morris opened Monday’s gameweek press conference by announcing Cole Kelley will be the starter at quarterback, but later he kinda left open who will finish.

“I told him it wasn’t a lifetime contract,” Morris said.

Which means, simply, the only thing crystal clear about the quarterback position is that it most certainly isn’t clear WHO will play the most this season.

He pointed out keeping the quarterback position requires getting the team into the end zone. They could practice until Christmas and still not know that until they line up against someone in a different uniform.

In the end, it came down to Kelley being a little more consistent over the last couple of weeks.

“I was really in hopes that there would be a clearcut, ‘Boom, here it is, it was evident from the first scrimmage,’ but we didn’t get that,” Morris said. “We got a really good, healthy competition at that position. That’s a good thing.”

That’s coachspeak for nobody stepped up, grabbed the job by the throat and just flat-out claimed it.

“We just felt like for the decision-making and what we felt like going into this first game that Cole had earned that right to start,” Morris said. “Doesn’t say that he’s the finisher, but he’s the starter.”

Kelley’s size also played a role, in addition his strong arm and the fact he’s big enough to take a pounding behind an offensive line that has one side put together with hope and training tape.

“Cole has got a strong arm. He’s big, he’s not afraid to stand in there,” offensive coordinator Joe Craddock said.

That could be due as much to the injury issues in the offensive line, combined with the inexperience. It’s a massive understatement to say that usually is a bad combination.

“I’m just saying that one of his strengths when you turned on the tape from last year when he did play, he’s standing in there taking some good, big hits, and to keep being able standing in there showing the courage that it takes to do that, that’s one of his biggest attributes is his size and his ability to throw the ball down the field,” Craddock said.

We’re assuming he knows that’s also how quarterbacks — even the big ones — get laid out in the SEC.

On the depth chart for this week, the Hogs list five quarterbacks.

And, near the end of the press conference, Morris also suggested we not forget about freshmen Connor Noland and John Stephen Jones.

A little research shows when he had Deshaun Watson at Clemson when he was a freshman in 2014, Morris kept him out of the starting lineup for a big part of the season.

Now that’s not to say either of these guys are Watson, who ended up being a finalist for the Heisman Trophy in 2016 when he led the Tigers to a national title win over Alabama.

But Morris said both will play.

“Now, when and exactly the moment, I don’t know that and probably won’t know that until that moment,” Morris said. “I want them engaged and ready and prepared as if they were the starter.”

The word from people that have seen more of fall camp than the media have said both look better in the scrimmages, especially Jones. His reputation is as a competitor.

Which Morris likes.

If it shows itself in a game against someone in another jersey and with the new redshirt rule, he can play them against SEC opponents to see how they do in the big time.

But Morris going to find out.