MITCHELL — The Dakota Wesleyan football team rumbled on with Spring Ball practice today – tomorrow brings the spring game at Joe Quintal Field at 6:30 p.m. – and a question that is certainly to be on the minds of many DWU fans – is where does the coaching staff go at the quarterback position.
One thing we do know is that we will have a different opening week starter than we did a season ago – as Kiel Nelson has been moved to wide receiver. We checked in last week with Nelson’s position change, and you can get that full story archived at MitchellNOW.com.
That leaves the redshirt freshman Austin Lee and true freshman Cayden Cunningham battling for the position. Tigers head coach Ross Cimpl talks about the two signal callers
“Cayden was a true freshman last year, but he has more experience than Austin as a redshirt freshman, based on Austin’s injury,” Cimpl said. “I think Cayden’s done a nice job schematically of filling in the gaps … I think Austin has done a nice job kind of knocking the rust off from a scheme standpoint, he’s maybe a little ahead of in seeing the concepts and hearing about them a little longer than Cayden has.”
Lee broke his collarbone during his second appearance of the season against Midland last September and has seen action in just three games in his career. Last season he completed 5 of 11 passes for 129 yards with one touchdown pass and one interception.
Cunningham saw action in four games, and started the last three of the season following Nelson’s season-ending injury. Cunningham wend 1-2 as a starter with a win over Jamestown and losses to Briar Cliff and Morningside.
The Norfolk, Nebraska product completed 56% of his throws with 3 touchdowns and four interceptions.
Fans will be able to see both quarterbacks in action tomorrow at 6:30 p.m. at the DWU Spring Game at Joe Quintal Field.