USF Football: Who steps up at quarterback in 2018?

By almost any account, including direct reports from the USF coaching staff, the battle between redshirt junior Brett Kean and redshirt sophomore Chris Oladokun has been a dead heat. A winner likely won’t be announced until the fall.

The fact that the race is still deadlocked probably favors Kean, who many figured would have been jumped on the depth chart by now by the more highly-touted underclassman. Kean was a rare non-Southeast recruit for the Bulls, hailing from St. Edward High School in Ohio. He was a low three-star prospect with a handful of offers, but none from any Power Five schools.

The fact that he’s even in this position is testament enough to how highly the coaching staff views him. As a redshirt freshman in 2016, Kean pulled a shocker and fought off former four-star recruit and UCLA transfer Asiantii Woulard to claim the backup role behind Flowers. He held onto that position in 2017 despite pressure from Oladokun, and has been the first-choice option for garbage time snaps for two seasons now. He’s produced modest numbers in those opportunities, completing 67.6 percent of his passes for 193 yards and two touchdowns to one interception.

Thanks to Flowers’ durability, he only took meaningful snaps once. In 2016 against Temple, he was put in an unenviable situation after Flowers was hurt on a scramble, and inherited a third-and-long near his own end zone down a possession in the last minutes of the game. He threw up a jump ball that was intercepted, and conceded a safety on the Bulls’ next position.

In his other opportunities, though, he’s looked sharp. While he doesn’t have anything near Flowers’ speed or playmaking ability, he’s displayed an accurate arm on short-to-mid-range throws and the athleticism to capably run the zone read. Though Charlie Strong and company insist that the race is deadlocked, Kean’s experience — and the fact that he was the number-two choice ahead of Oladokun in 2017 — speaks well of his chances. It doesn’t hurt that he was the first quarterback to take the field in the spring game either, accompanied by what was largely a first-string unit.

It’s very much up in the air, but we’ll give the slightest of edges to Kean for now.

Chances of being named the starter: 45 percent