Tennessee is less than 48 hours away from its week four matchup against UTSA but it remains unclear which Road Runner quarterback the Vols will be facing Saturday.
After starting quarterback Frank Harris missed last week’s loss against Army, UTSA coach Jeff Traylor said Harris’ status would be a game time decision following the Road Runners Tuesday practice.
“It’ll either be Frank Harris or it’ll be Eddie Lee Marburger,” Traylor said on Tuesday. “We’ll see.”
In Harris absence last week against Army, Marburger performed well completing 17-of-25 passes for 239 yards, three touchdowns and no interceptions in his first career start.
While Marburger was the only quarterback to play in Harris’ absence last week that doesn’t mean he would be the only quarterback used in Harris’ absence this week.
In his Tuesday press conference, Traylor opened up the possibility of also playing Colorado transfer quarterback Owen McCown— the son of longtime NFL quarterback Josh McCown.
“We had planned on playing Owen Friday (against Army),” Traylor said. “We didn’t know we were only going to get the ball for 50 snaps, so it was hard to do that. But if Frank can go, he’ll be the quarterback. If he can’t, Eddie would probably start and you’ll see Owen some in the game. We hope.”
Harris has been a major part of UTSA’s program success under Traylor. The left-handed quarterback has been the Road Runners starter for the last three years including last season when he threw for 4,059 yards and 32 touchdowns while leading UTSA to an 11-3 season and a Conference USA championship.
Despite UTSA’s disappointing 1-2 start to the season, they have yet to begin conference play in their first season in the American Athletic Conference. The Road Runners will do so in two weeks at Temple after they face Tennessee and have their open date.
Traylor says that the looming open date and start of conference play will have no impact on Harris’ status against the Vols.
“If he can go we’re going to let him go,” Traylor said.
Kickoff between Tennessee and UTSA is at 4 p.m. ET Saturday afternoon. Dave Neal, Derek Mason and Taylor Davis are on the call for SEC Network.
