Chris Murray | Reno Gazette-Journal

Chris Murray/RGJ

The Wolf Pack is making a change at quarterback, but it's not Alabama transfer David Cornwell stepping into the starting role but rather true freshman Kaymen Cureton.

John Byrne/Nevada athletics

Nevada coach Jay Norvell said after Monday's practice Cureton will replace Ty Gangi as the Wolf Pack's starting quarterback Saturday against Idaho State.

"It's just the way he's been practicing," Norvell said of the change. "We've got to show some improvement in our passing game. We're not where we want to be. We've got a lot of opportunities and we have a chance to be really, really productive in the passing game. We just feel like it's a good time for KC to play. He's working really hard. He's prepared for this opportunity and we're excited for him. We'll get a good look at him this week, he'll start the game and we're excited to see him play."

In two games as Nevada's starter this season, Gangi completed 35-of-74 passes (47.3 percent) for 476 yards, four touchdowns and two interceptions. The Wolf Pack offense has struggled to extend drives and has lost the time of possession battle 40:51 to 79:09. In its two losses, Nevada has scored 20 and 24 points.

"We need to be more productive in the passing game," Norvell said. "We're not throwing for a very high percentage, which affects our ability to continue to play fast, to keep drives alive and to be good on third down. Sometimes it's good for a guy like Ty to take a step back and kind of see the game and it clears up for him.

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"I said in preseason, I really do like our quarterbacks. I think that position is going to be what we want it to be. It's just not quite there yet. We're still learning. We have a lot of receivers trying to dial their game in and we have to be better on the perimeter for whoever is playing quarterback."

Cureton's debut will come against an FCS team, Idaho State, that is coming off a 51-13 loss last week to Utah State, a school that plays in the same conference as Nevada. Playing an opponent from a lower division could increase Cureton's margin for error in his debut, but Norvell said this move wasn't made because of the Wolf Pack's opponent this week.

"We feel like it's a good time for us to play KC," Norvell said. "He's worked really hard for this. He's come into camp as a freshman preparing himself to play. He's done a great job. We feel like he's prepared himself for this opportunity. We're excited to see him play, and I think his teammates will rally around him and we're looking forward to getting better Saturday night."

Cureton, who will not be made available to the media before Saturday's game, committed to Nevada on signing day in February, picking the Wolf Pack over New Mexico. A three-star prospect, Cureton also reportedly held early offers from Alabama and LSU as an athlete but wanted to play quarterback at the college level.

The 5-foot-11, 205-pound Cureton, who is from Lawndale, Calif., completed 192-of-307 passes during his senior season at Leuzinger High. He passed for 3,150 yards and 32 touchdowns against five interceptions and ran for 496 yards and six scores.

Cureton posted a 34-6-1 record as a starting quarterback in high school and passed for more than 10,000 yards in his career. He played for Los Angeles High as a junior, where his head coach was Eric Scott, who is Nevada's outside receivers coach this season.

Much of Cureton's recruiting focused on him potentially switching positions because of his dynamic athleticism, but Norvell and his staff always believed in Cureton as a quarterback.

"He's really an accomplished passer," Norvell said. "In high school, he really did a great job of throwing the football. Sometimes when guys are athletic they get labeled as athletes, but he's really a quarterback. That's what we loved about him. He uses his athletic ability to throw the ball, so we're really anxious to see him play. He's done a great job in practice. He's really prepared every day, he studies really hard with coach (Matt) Mumme (Nevada's offensive coordinator) and we think he's ready for his opportunity."

Cureton's athleticism potentially opens up more options in the playbook for Nevada, but Norvell said the first key is being able to run the Wolf Pack's base offense.

"All of our quarterbacks are all a little different," Norvell said. "We'll reflect the things he does well as a player. We just want to execute our base offense and get the ball to open receivers and take advantage of guys when they're deep and really exploit the coverage. That's what we work on every day, that's what we practice every day. We want to see our kids executing what we're practicing."

Cureton began fall camp behind Cornwell, Gangi and junior-college transfer Griffin Dahn on the depth chart but has worked his way to the top of that list over the last seven weeks as Norvell practiced all of his quarterbacks with the first string during camp to give them an opportunity. During practice last week, Cureton took all of the reps with the second string before moving up to the first string Monday.

Cureton is the nephew of Major League Baseball Hall of Famer Tony Gwynn and has cousins who played in the NBA and MLB. Cureton will be the first true freshman to play for Nevada at quarterback since Jeff Rowe, who debuted in 2002.

"We need a great week of practice so we can play well on Saturday," Norvell said.