5A high school football: Bingham's 2-quarterback system works

SOUTH JORDAN — According to Bingham coach Dave Peck, the old football adage "If you have two quarterbacks, you have none" does not apply to his Miners and his two signal callers, Ty Hannay and Stefan Cantwell.

"I don't buy into that," said Peck of the saying. "We have a good senior quarterback in Ty that I am sure we would be just fine playing exclusively, but Stefan is just such a great athlete that we couldn't keep him off the field. We felt it would make us a better team to take advantage of the different skills of the different guys, so we use both at quarterback, and I think it has been a good thing for us."

Hannay is a senior while Cantwell is a junior. Both will likely see time this Friday at Rice-Eccles Stadium when the Miners face Davis for the 5A title at 2:30 p.m. It would be easy for Hannay to feel jealousy or even resentment for Cantwell taking away some of his reps, but Peck said that hasn't been a problem at all.

"They get along well and they really push each other," he said. "There haven't been any problems as far as either of them feeling like they deserve more of the playing time; they just work together to make things run well. They help each other rather than bring the other one down."

While Hannay is a little bit taller and known more as the passing quarterback, Cantwell brings a new level of athleticism to the position. He does more of the running and is used in what Peck called the "Tebow" situations. Those are named after the Florida Heisman-winning lefty Tim Tebow, who played in certain situations and ran the ball 90 percent of the time he was in during his freshman and national championship winning season when he split time with starter Chris Leak. In fact, several of his teammates have given Cantwell the nickname "Tebow."

"I am not sure where it really started," Cantwell said. "Guys have just been calling me that for a long time."

Cantwell has performed much like the powerful left-handed signal caller for the Gators. He has carried the ball 69 times for 468 yards and eight touchdowns. He's also completed 8-of-15 passes for 218 yards and two scores.

Hannay has thrown the ball 189 times, completing 102 of them for 1,503 yards and 20 touchdowns, and he has run the ball 95 times for 235 yards and four TDs.

"I am a little taller and more of the passer," said Hannay, "but Stefan can do a little bit of everything. I think it has worked well to have us both play. The other team never knows what is coming, and just when they start to think they know, we will do something else."