Tyler Stewart named Wolf Pack's starting quarterback

The Wolf Pack officially has a starting quarterback.

Tyler Stewart, a junior and the most experienced of the three players vying for Nevada's starting job, has won the job. Stewart will get the start against UC Davis on Sept. 3 at Mackay Stadium.

"I watched over 600 reps yesterday and last night and made my notes, came in this morning, discussed it with the offensive staff and we reached a consensus and informed the quarterbacks and informed the team and now we move forward with Tyler Stewart at quarterback," coach Brian Polian told the RGJ after Thursday's practice.

Polian said the race between Stewart and freshman Hunter Fralick was almost even but the thing that put Stewart over the top was his experience.

Stewart is the only quarterback on Nevada's roster with a college passing attempt, although those all came in 2013 when he was freshman and was forced into playing time after injuries to the Wolf Pack's top two quarterback. In his only start, a 31-9 win over Hawaii on Sept. 21, 2013, Stewart was 14-of-20 for 202 yards and three touchdowns. He's only thrown two passes in games since then.

"Statistically, it was incredibly even," Polian said. "The only difference was one or two interceptions and three or four completion percentage points. Both were both above 60 percent, which is our magic number. We want six out of 10 balls completed. When you have an evenly matched deal, it comes down to the fact that Tyler has played in games and that experience really becomes the deciding factor."

While Polian said earlier this week that he planned on playing both Stewart and Fralick in the season opener, he has reversed that decision. He plans on allowing Stewart to play the entire game.

"I know I had said that, but I'm backtracking now," Polian said. "The more I think about it, the more you want your quarterback to get into a rhythm and get used to each other. We'll just kind of go as it goes but the more I thought about it, the more I think we just need to let the guy go."

Stewart, Fralick and Dante Mayes, a sophomore, all started on an even playing field entering spring camp. In the fall, Stewart and Fralick separated from the pack before Stewart pulled ahead late. Stewart took all of the reps with the first string on Thursday and will do so until the season opener.

Stewart, who wasn't available to the media, took the news well but wasn't giddy, Polian said, and Fralick was disappointed but supportive of his teammate. Polian has been happy with his quarterbacks in camp.

"Overall, I have been pleased," Polian said. "I'll nit-pick like any other coach on things we can do better. Things have improved throughout the course of the camp, and that's a good sign."

Stewart has a strong arm and has improved as a runner. Despite playing in only one game last season, mop up duty in a blowout win over UNLV, he was always in the film room, which pleased coaches.

"Tyler is incredible in his preparation," offensive coordinator Nick Rolovich said during spring camp. "He prepared as good as anybody I've ever been around during the season and got six snaps. He was up twice a week at night watching film on his own and never wavered from it. That's impressive to me. It tells me it's very important to him and he understands what it will take to be great and make this team better."

While the Nevada players didn't pick any favorites during the quarterback, they were complimentary of Stewart, who has been at Nevada since 2012. The Southern California native originally committed to San Jose State before de-committing two weeks before signing day and landing at Nevada.

He backed up Cody Fajardo the last two year and entered 2015 as the favorite to win the starting job.

"I like his drive," receiver Hasaan Henderson said during spring camp. "He has a different type of drive that you don't see in a lot of people. Cody had it, but it's very rare. I've been around a lot of people, but these are the only two that really have that drive to get better. I love that about him. He's very poised. If he messes up, he'll get angry for two seconds, but then he's on to the next play. He's really good at it."

Quiet by nature, Stewart also has become a little more vocal this year and in recent fall camp practices. Polian said in best-case scenario, Stewart takes the job and runs with it and there isn't any quarterback changes throughout the season. Before fall camp began, Polian said he didn't care about stats. More than that, he wanted a quarterback to lead the team and move the offense down the field.

"I've seen good leadership out of both guys to be honest with you," Polian said. "It's not like one was a better leader than the other. I think they both did very well. One of the things we see Tyler doing, he really has a great understanding of protections. He knows how to change a protection at the line of scrimmage and take a possible hit off of himself, which is a valuable commodity when you're a quarterback."