BYU football: Cougars trying Collie at quarterback

PROVO — BYU wide receiver Austin Collie said he was "a little shocked" when coaches pulled him aside Wednesday and asked him to take on an additional role: backup quarterback.

On Friday, Collie attended the quarterbacks meeting, and he spent most of practice taking reps with the quarterbacks. BYU coaches have not been impressed of late with the performances of backup quarterbacks Brenden Gaskins and Kurt McEuen, so now they've turned to Collie, who has been sidelined during fall camp with a stress fracture in his leg.

"We intend to use him any way possible to help our team," coach Bronco Mendenhall said of Collie. "His first priority is getting back at full speed at receiver. But we also know that, as was demonstrated in (Wednesday's) scrimmage, there's quite a drop-off if Max Hall were to go down. So that gives a chance also to protect ourselves and possibly leverage — not only if Max is down, but possibly not down — for him to get his hands on the ball in a few other different ways."

Collie said he has not played quarterback since he was 10 years old.

"It's been a while," he said. "I wasn't half-bad. But we did run a lot of option. I was never tested with my arm.

"There's a lot of stuff to think about and a lot of stuff going through my head. But wherever the coaches need me, I'm there. My main concern right now is helping the team at wide receiver. I'm getting as many reps as I can there."

Starting quarterback Max Hall was also surprised by the decision to give Collie some quarterback experience but said he supports it.

"Austin's a good enough athlete to where he could (play quarterback)," Hall said. "You give him a few months and he could learn it. He's got a decent arm. I call it a pea-shooter. But he thinks he has a pretty good arm, and he does.

"He's a good athlete. He's a guy who can make plays. Once he picks up a few simple plays and how to read them, we'll see what happens. He's going to be in the mix, and those other QBs need to step it up. They've got to take it as motivation."

Collie said learning the new position has helped him appreciate what the quarterbacks do.

"I always gave Max a hard time. I told him, 'It's not that hard. Just throw the ball,'" Collie said. "But there's a lot to think about, a lot of adjustments. It's a whole new world. But it's definitely going to help me as a wide receiver to read the defense and know where I'm going as a wideout.

"I don't want to let this get in the way of my wideout skills," Collie added. "That's my main priority. I do need to learn the offense and I do need to learn some things about quarterbacks in case something happens to Max, we could step in there and have something going."

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