Whenever a new season rolls around for the Austin football team, there are always open competitions for every spot. After the graduation of two-year starting quarterback Tate Hebrink, it was no surprise that the Packers had three players in the mix for that spot throughout the summer and much of training camp.

While Austin head coach Brett Vesel, isn’t quite ready to say who the starter is, Austin seniors Nate Murphy, Hunter Guyette and junior Elijah Johnson all have brought plenty to the table as the team prepares for its season opener at Rochester Mayo at 7 p.m. Friday.

“You can ask anyone who’s played quarterback for us, it’s tough. There’s a lot of decisions that they make on the field that had to be coached into them during practice for the whole week, the whole summer, or the whole season,” Vesel said. “It’s not about just slinging it, a lot of guys can chuck it. But there’s a lot of stuff that you put on a quarterback. We hope to be grooming them as we’re going through and teaching them, but there’s always a competition at the end to see who can get it done.”

Guyette, who played defensive back last season, said it was harder than he thought to line up at quarterback, but he felt that he was able to get a grasp for the position. He also appreciates how the Packers are forced to compete for their spots every fall, even if they were starters in the season before.

“It’s definitely competitive, which is a good thing to have in practice,” Guyette said. “If you don’t have a competitive atmosphere, I don’t know what you’re playing football for. It’s a competitive game.”

Austin senior Nate Murphy was Hebrink’s back-up last season, but he’s also seen time at wide receiver for the Packers. He said once you learn how to play quarterback in Austin, it’s more of a process of trying to perfect things than it is changing things.

“We’ve been doing it since freshman year so it hasn’t been too tough on us,” Murphy said. “It’s mostly the same plays, you just have to get a better understanding of it each year.”

Johnson had worked mostly with JV team in years’ past and it was a little eye-opening for him to spend time working with the varsity this year.

“It’s been a lot more pressure, but all of the plays and the reads are the same,” Johnson said. “It’s a lot more complicated to be thrown into the varsity offense.”

The Packers have a healthy roster and they’re coming off a solid scrimmage over the weekend as they prepare for Mayo. Vesel is hoping whoever lines up at quarterback on Friday, they’ll be able to make winning decisions.

“I think a lot of it comes from what they knew coming in and playing in the position before,” Vesel said of the evaluation process. “We have one guy that hasn’t really played quarterback before and two that have. The guy that hasn’t played quarterback obviously hasn’t had as much experience as the other two guys, but sometimes athleticism and the ability to be coached is huge.”