HAMMOND - Southeastern Louisiana football coach Frank Scelfo loves a quarterback competition, and the Lions have a quarterback battle again in fall camp.

Southeastern is coming off a 3-8 season, the program's first losing season since 2018, and has three guys competing for playing time under center.

Eli Sawyer, a redshirt junior, has a leg up on the job after starting six games last year and playing in 10. However, coach Scelfo likes to play two quarterbacks, and transfers Damon Stewart and Tanner Murray are taking important reps at practice. 

“I think you got to have more than one guy ready to go in this day and age,” said Scelfo. “You're going to have injuries, that takes place, and maybe a guy gets bogged down a little bit, and you want another guy to come in, but for him (the starter) to be able to be effective, he's got to be able to practice, and he's going to have to play. So we're going to play two guys like I've always done my whole career, so we'll continue to do that, we're going to find that one focal guy to be the starter and be the guy, and then we’ve got to have somebody else be able to come in for him.”

Offensive lineman Brockhim Wicks was asked what he has seen from Eli Sawyer, who threw for 1,405 yards last year and six touchdowns (along with five interceptions), so far in fall camp.

“Eli (Sawyer) has been more focused this year, more of a captain, keeping guys together, making sure his wide receivers and his running backs are on the same page, just keeping the offense as a whole, he’s been doing a good job so far,” Wicks said.

Hicks also spoke about Damon Stewart's and Tanner Murray's impact this fall.

“We got Damon coming in, getting out there and running the ball a lot, we got Tanner there throwing some good plays, we just got to stick together, man,” Wicks said. “We’re going to figure our quarterback out.”

Southeastern opens the 2024 season on August 29 at Tulane.