by Daniel Ripes
Senior writer

For the past two seasons it appeared Illinois may have used "eeny-meeny-miny-moe" to choose its starting quarterback each week. Two years ago Illinois head coach Ron Turner started Mark Hoekstra for the first three games before pulling him because of ineffectiveness for the now-baseball minded Tim Lavery. Lavery got three starts of his own before being yanked for redshirt junior Kirk Johnson. Johnson was at the helm for one game before Turner went back to Lavery for another two starts. UI went back to Hoekstra for its final two games. Despite losing both contests to tough opponents in Ohio State and Michigan State, Hoekstra looked much improved from earlier in the season going 37-of-66 for 373 yards. This, along with his performance in the offseason landed him the starting position heading into this season.

Like the previous year, Hoekstra struggled, completing 38 of 104 (36.5 percent) for 398 yards and four interceptions. He started the first four games but was pulled in the fourth quarter of that fourth start against Iowa for true freshman Kurt Kittner. Kittner (72-for-162 for 782 yards), who could be the future for Illinois, started the following four games before he got yanked for Johnson. Johnson started the rest of the way, despite wavering between himself and Kittner for the final three games. He completed 55 passes in 89 attempts for 427 yards and two touchdowns. In the Illini’s final contest against Michigan State, Johnson was pulled once again for Kittner in the fourth quarter.

Where does all this lead?

It leads to more confusion for next year. Then again maybe not, as Turner vows to name a starter during spring practices and thus hope to stick with him for the majority of the season.

"The key to us and the biggest thing we have to do in the offseason is get stability at the quarterback position," Turner said. "I’ve been saying that, but we have to get it ... We’re not so concerned about the quarterbacking area, because we feel great about the guys that we have competing, it’s just a matter of deciding who it’s going to be."

Turner will have more of an inventory at QB heading into next season, as he may have as many as five Qm to choose from. Johnson and Kittner will both be back. Freshman Walter Young, who redshirted this season, will be competing for the starting job. Turner said the 6-foot-5, 205-pound athletic quarterback has improved throughout this season in practice.

"Walter is a big, physical quarterback," Turner said. "(He has) great leadership abilities, very intelligent. He has tremendous instincts to play the game of football. He can really throw it."

The other two who will compete for the starter’s role are redshirt freshman Jeff Ziegler and possibly a player who is still in high school. UI is recruiting hard once again for a quarterback. Christian Morton from East St. Louis may be the leading candidate, in terms of high school players.

Ziegler is an interesting story. Heading out of spring ball this offseason, Ziegler was named the number two quarterback. He faltered though, with a subpar performance during Camp Rantoul culminating in the Orange and Blue scrimmage right before the season started. Last weekend in the loss to Michigan State, Ziegler hinted he might leave Illinois for another school in which he thinks he would have a better shot at starting.

"A big part of playing football especially at this level is the atmosphere. You just love it all, and you don’t want to leave that atmosphere," Ziegler said. "So you want to look at other places that have this atmosphere, Division I-AA would have it, but I really don’t want to say anything that I’m leaving yet, because I don’t even know."

Ziegler mentioned Western Michigan and Grand Valley State as possible new locales. While Ziegler said he was going to use the Thanksgiving break to talk over the decision with his family, Turner said he did not think the 6-5, 220-pound QB is going anywhere.

"I don’t think (he is leaving). I think he wants to have a chance to compete," Turner said. "He’ll have a chance. If he’s here he’ll be in the mix to compete."

As previously mentioned, Morton or any other possible future freshmen could have a shot as the starter, which leaves five possible candidates for the position. In order to evaluate five QBs equally, a lot of practice time is needed. Each will have to prove to Turner they have what it takes to run the offensive system.

"In spring practice we can practice a little bit longer. You get more reps during the course of a spring practice. We’ll make sure that each guy has enough reps and is getting enough work," Turner said. "We have 15 days of spring practice to give these guys a chance to get out there and show that they can run this offense and they can do it consistently. We’re not going to base anything on one practice, or on one good day or one bad day. We’re going to give these guys a good opportunity to go out and show that they have a good grasp of the offense and they can lead this team."