UTEP football: Mack Leftwich, Garrett Simpson battle to be back-up

[Harry]

Every position is a competition is typically a spring football mantra, but there isn't even a pretense of a battle at the No. 1 quarterback spot.

Jameill Showers is the guy for UTEP and that's not changing.

Where the competition comes is at the No. 2 spot, as Mack Leftwich, who started at the end of last season when Showers was hurt, and Garrett Simpson battle for the back-up.

"It's open behind Jameill," coach Sean Kugler said. "Leftwich has some experience. Garrett's done a nice job in the offseason."

"That's definitely exciting, any time you have a competition," the sophomore Leftwich said. Last year "helped me a ton, the game slowed down a lot, I feel more comfortable,"

In a way this battle was a bit unexpected. After Showers was hurt last year, Blaire Sullivan took the reins to finish up the Rice game, then struggled in a three-interception outing against Texas A&M.

At that point, Kugler made the surprising move of skipping over Simpson and pulling the redshirt of the true freshman Leftwich, who had been running the scout team.

Read more: http://www.elpasotimes.com/sports/ci_25267370/leftwich-simpson-battle-be-back-up