FAMU QB race heats up

Not every question that coach Joe Taylor might have had about his Florida A&M football team was answered, but he came away from Saturday's scrimmage satisfied with the execution in all three phases.

Quarterbacks Eddie Battle, Austin Trainor and Martin Ukpai each took turns directing the offense, which had quite a challenge moving the ball on the ground as the defense repeatedly made huge stops.

Ukpai (pictured), you may recall, lead the Rattlers to victory in the 2009 Florida Classic.

"I was really excited about some things that I saw," Taylor said. "I think some things that we are doing are really going to help us with the offense. The only thing I was concerned with was after we finished the kicking game, I thought we just had too much noise. I thought we lost some discipline at the end. When you lose your discipline your performance level automatically goes down."

The competition for starting quarterback got off in earnest as all three players worked with the first team. Battle was hurried on his passes, as were Ukpai and Trainor. But Ukpai might have created a bit of separation with his ability to carry the ball as he did on two running plays for about 30 yards.

"All three of them brought something to the table," Taylor said. "We just have to figure out what kind of order to put them in."

However that shakes out, Taylor said he isn't considering alternating quarterbacks because it wouldn't give the offense the consistency that it needs to be effective.

"At some point, once we start to solidify and have gone with the guy in the huddle," he said, "then you'll see the consistency."

Battle said he was pleased with his performance, but acknowledged that Trainor and Ukpai made his day tough.

"These guys are hungry," he said. "I wouldn't take that from them at all, but everybody has different motivators. My motivators are different from their motivators. They came out willing to compete today and they all did well. Those guys left me no room for error."

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