COLLEGE STATION, Texas -- For the fifth time in six years, Texas A&M began spring football without a starting quarterback officially named.

Quarterback competitions have been the norm in Aggieland since coach Kevin Sumlin's arrival, with 2013 -- Johnny Manziel's second season on campus -- being the only one that provided an easy answer to what is usually the most important question surrounding the team.

This season, the Aggies return just one quarterback who has taken a collegiate snap: senior Jake Hubenak, who backed up Trevor Knight last season and has three career starts to his credit.

Texas A&M true freshman quarterback Kellen Mond has impressed with his poise this spring. "Nothing fazes him," receiver Christian Kirk said. Phelan M. Ebenhack for ESPN

The rest of the quarterbacks on the roster -- whether on scholarship or walk-ons -- are all freshmen. That means there's a pretty good chance Sumlin will head into a pivotal season betting on a freshman quarterback.

It's a precarious position to be in, particularly in the SEC West.

The players who are considered the favorites to challenge for the job -- redshirt freshman Nick Starkel and true freshman Kellen Mond -- have talent. But even gifted quarterbacks usually endure growing pains when taking their initial collegiate snaps (just ask Georgia quarterback Jacob Eason about life as a true freshman quarterback in the SEC).

Texas A&M shouldn't be starting a freshman quarterback this season. In their ideal world, the Aggies would be starting an upperclassman who was a multiyear starter, and they recruited quarterbacks in such a manner that would have made that a good possibility, if not for the constant turnover at the position in recent years. That turnover left the Aggies in their current state.

It's also an unusual position for a program that has consistently recruited highly regarded quarterback prospects as well as Sumlin has. But this is how the Aggies' infamous quarterback exodus of 2015 -- when Kyle Allen and Kyler Murray left the program in consecutive weeks following that season -- continues to impact the program.

The most immediate fallout was two-fold: The Aggies needed a starter for 2016; they acquired one in the graduate transfer market with Knight (who, all told, worked out well). The next domino to fall was Starkel, a 2016 quarterback recruit who was originally committed to Oklahoma State before reopening his recruitment and eventually choosing suddenly quarterback-needy Texas A&M. The Aggies initially planned not to take a quarterback in the 2016 class after signing Allen, Murray and Hubenak in the 2014 and 2015 cycles, but once Allen and Murray flew the coop, they had to scramble to land one. They made an unsuccessful late push for Jalen Hurts, but managed to land Starkel.

Mond became a key find in the 2017 class after the Aggies and Tate Martell parted ways and Mond -- originally a Baylor commitment -- jumped ship shortly following Art Briles' firing. The Aggies became the beneficiary and snagged Mond, the second-best dual-threat quarterback prospect in the country and the No. 57 overall player in the ESPN 300. The Aggies thought highly enough of Mond -- and the other recruits in the class he had strong bonds with -- to essentially pass on recruiting former Baylor quarterback Jarrett Stidham, the No. 1 junior college prospect in the country who's now at Auburn.

Meanwhile, all the Aggies' quarterbacks are doing their best to make good impressions this spring. So far, Mond impressed at least one teammate with his poise.

"He has a real calm demeanor," junior receiver Christian Kirk said. "Nothing fazes him. ... He puts the ball where it needs to be."

Starkel's most talked about quality within the program is his arm. Coaches and teammates have been impressed by his ability to sling the football.

"He has a really strong arm," Kirk said. "He can put the ball wherever it needs to be on the field. He can throw it across the field, he can throw it to the boundary."

Certainly, Hubenak -- who is the most experienced of the group -- is working to prove he deserves the job, too, using his experience to his advantage.

"Jake's more consistent," safety Armani Watts said. "He's a vocal leader and he shows it. He showed it during [offseason] workouts and it carried on to the field."

Sumlin likely won't name a starter until training camp in August but no matter who he and offensive coordinator Noel Mazzone choose, it will be the fourth consecutive season that the team opens the year with a different full-time starter than the previous year's Game 1 starter. Whoever trots out with the first-team offense in September at the Rose Bowl versus UCLA will be entering uncharted territory, but there is no shortage of options.

"You've got a bunch of guys in there that are competing and are communicating, including the walk-on guys," Sumlin said. "We have plenty of arms out there."