LAS VEGAS – When Wolf Pack begins fall camp Monday, David Cornwell will be the team’s starting quarterback, but that doesn’t necessarily mean the Alabama transfer is a lock to start the season opener at Northwestern.

Nevada coach Jay Norvell said during this week’s Mountain West Media Summit that Cornwell has the job for now but the battle isn’t ultimately over as Ty Gangi, who started the Wolf Pack’s final four games last season, is still fighting for the position. Both players are juniors.

“David’s the starting quarterback right now and he’ll have to compete and earn that spot throughout training camp and if there’s reason for him not to be (the starting quarterback) we’ll address,” Norvell said of the quarterback depth chart. “Until we see that, we won’t make any changes at that position.”

Norvell, whose first signee after accepting the Wolf Pack job in December was Cornwell, said he’s looking for a number of things from his quarterbacks. He wants them to throw “a catchable ball,” to be accurate on short and intermediate passes, to be extremely intelligent and to hit on deep throws.

“David fits those qualities and demonstrated those strengths the best out of all of our quarterbacks in the spring, and that’s why he was the starting quarterback,” said Norvell, who started Cornwell with the first string in the spring game. “And the way he played in the spring game gave us even more evidence of that.”

Playing in just the first half of that game, Cornwell hit on 22-of-33 passes for 302 yards and two touchdowns. He completed two 55-yard passes, with his long-ball ability giving him the biggest edge in the competition. While he ended spring camp strong, Norvell said he’ll have to perform in fall camp to keep the job.

“We probably put more pressure on our quarterbacks than any position – the amount they have to study, what they have to know, how they have to communicate, so that is a daily evaluation,” Norvell said. “He starts off in that position. It doesn’t meant that it’s grandfathered to him and that he doesn’t have to perform. He has to perform every day. And we want to see Ty Gangi perform. We want to see Griffin Dahn perform. We want to see (Cristian) Solano perform and Kaymen Cureton, a new guy.”

Like he has with many positions, Norvell has re-tooled the personnel at the Wolf Pack’s quarterback position, adding Cornwell, Dahn, a junior-college transfer, and Cureton, a prep recruit, in his first six months on the job.

Cornwell, a 6-foot-5, 228-pounder, hasn’t played a full season since 2012, his junior year of high school. He tore his ACL as a senior and served as a reserve at Alabama from 2014-16. After graduating early, he transferred to Nevada in January and will have two seasons of eligibility with the Wolf Pack.

“When he first came, he kind of asked me, ‘What should I do?’” offensive lineman Austin Corbett said. “I told him, ‘Just don’t talk.’ Come in and don’t think, ‘I’m an Alabama transfer, I can do whatever I want.’ Come in and feel it out. Get to know this program, get to know the people in the program and just go from there. He’s done a great job. I couldn’t be happier with what he’s doing, just to see him grow through spring ball.

"Ty Gangi was doing better in the start of it and then Cornwell started figuring things out. It’s a great battle between Ty and Cornwell. Ty is just a phenomenal athlete and seeing some of the zone-option reads he’s able to do and the scrambling he can, it’s just great to see. Cornwell can throw it a mile. It’s a great duo and it will be a fun fall camp to see what happens.”

The Wolf Pack will need strong quarterback play in 2017 to keep pace in the MW, which returns 11 of the conference’s 12 starting quarterbacks from last season (only San Jose State doesn’t return its starter). Quarterback should be a position of strength for the league this season and with Nevada shifting to the Air Raid offense it will rely heavily on its quarterback to move the ball down the field.

After working with a banged-up receiving corps in spring ball, the quarterbacks will have a more talent group at its disposal this fall. Top returning receiver Wyatt Demps, who missed most of spring with injuries, is back, as is returning starter Andrew Celis. Sophomore Brendan O’Leary-Orange had a breakout spring and transfers Kaleb Fossum, from Washington State, and Justin Brent, from Notre Dame, are two of eight newcomers at the position. After upgrading at receiver, Norvell expects his quarterbacks to look better this fall.

“I think we’ll see an acceleration of their production now,” Norvell said.