Purdue coach Danny Hope ran out four starting quarterbacks in the 2010 season, the sort of rotation at the position best used by teams looking to end their season in a raging fireball.

Two of those players -- Robert Marve and Rob Henry -- are back for 2011 after injuries riddled their 2010 campaigns. And the dilemma over whether Marve or Henry will take snaps for the Boilermakers evidently is no dilemma at all.

They both will.

"It's very likely that we'll use a two-quarterback system in the fall," Hope said as Big Ten media days opened Thursday. "We had some plans last year to use a two-quarterback situation, particularly with Rob Henry being new to the quarterback position.

"It would give us a chance to get Rob Henry on the field some and at other positons as well. Rob Henry is too good an athlete to be on bench. We have a plan to utilize at least a two-quarterback system some this year. It won't be the bread and butter of our offense but it's certainly something that has great potential. That will be part of the plan, absolutely."

The strong-armed Marve started the first four games in 2010, throwing for 512 yards and three touchdowns before tearing an ACL. The fleet-footed Henry played in 11 games and started seven, battling a finger injury along the way, throwing for 996 yards and rushing for 547 while totaling 12 touchdowns.

The players' respective strengths lend themselves to a platoon of sorts, and anyway two experienced signal-callers is better than none for Hope, who said he dealt with the "none" scenario in his first two seasons at Purdue. Which probably explains the 9-15 record across those campaigns.

"A lot of peple talk about, if you don't have a starter, you don't have a quarterback," Hope said. "I disagree. We have two really good quarterbacks, both guys are great players, great people, they're exceptionally talented and they really want to win.

"This year, I'm really excited about the quarterback position because we have guys that have played and they've done well and they've won. We're in a great situation from the quarterback standpoint for the first time since I've been at Purdue."

bchamilton@tribune.com

Twitter @ChiTribHamilton