COLLEGE STATION — A year ago, then-freshman Johnny Manziel was in a tight fight with a sophomore for Texas A&M's starting quarterback gig. Manziel won — then won the Heisman Trophy — and his chief competitor, Jameill Showers, is now about 700 miles across the state as the projected starter at UTEP.

Manziel's eligibility is suddenly in doubt, however, as the NCAA examines whether he potentially profited from signing autographs. That investigation is ongoing, as is the Aggies' search for a backup quarterback who might wind up a starter long before anyone wearing maroon intended.

“The plan going into camp, no matter what's happened (of late), was to figure out our backup quarterback,” offensive coordinator Clarence McKinney said. “Those guys will all get reps, and hopefully one will step up.”

The three primary competitors to replace Manziel, either now or later, are junior Matt Joeckel, redshirt freshman Matt Davis and freshman Kenny Hill — not necessarily in that order.

Joeckel, while big and accurate, lacks the mobility that made the Aggies scoot last season in Kevin Sumlin's up-tempo offense (of course, just about every other quarterback in the nation lacks Manziel's incredible mobility). Davis is a tremendous athlete but still rough around the edges in the system.

That brings us to Hill, the mystery man in the bunch but who has apparently made a good early impression on his coaches. Hill, who's 6-foot-1 and 215 pounds, led Southlake Carroll to a state title as a junior and was tabbed the Associated Press' player of the year as a senior.

He threw for 2,291 yards and rushed for another 905 for the Dragons in his final season, offering the type of dual threat that fueled the Aggies' SEC-leading offense in 2012. He's also the son of former big-league pitcher Ken Hill and allegedly is equipped with maturity beyond his years as a youth who grew up with a pro athlete as a role model.

Sumlin offered an early evaluation of his backup quarterbacks following Tuesday night's practice — and left the race that has so much potentially riding on it wide open.

“Matt Davis can move around and try and create some things, Matt Joeckel is more of a pocket guy, and Kenny is probably a little bit of both,” said Sumlin, who led A&M to an 11-2 record last season. “The (first two) guys have got a little bit of age on him and have been in the system a year longer than he has. The kid just got here. But he did play in a system at Southlake Carroll that's very similar to ours. We'll see.”

“We'll see” applies to a lot of things around Aggies football right now — especially pertaining to who starts at quarterback.