In a little over a week WSU football begins its season in Laramie against University of Wyoming, and after the departure of record-setting quarterback Luke Falk, the question of who will lead the Air Raid offense still remains unanswered.

Let’s look at the three candidates who are vying for the Cougars’ coveted starting quarterback job.

Most likely to start is graduate transfer Gardner Minshew II, who joined WSU after graduating from East Carolina University with a bachelor’s degree in communication. Minshew has the most experience under his belt of the four quarterbacks; however, he has only been with the team through fall camp and wasn’t around for spring ball.

Despite only being with the team a short time, Minshew has shown in practice and the Cougars’ two scrimmages that he can run the first-team offense with ease. I believe Head Coach Mike Leach will name him as the starter in the coming days.

Redshirt junior Anthony Gordon is the second-most likely candidate to be named the starter for this season. He started his career at City College of San Francisco where he helped his team to a 12-1 record with 3,864 passing yards and 37 touchdowns.

Gordon impressed in the last scrimmage of fall camp, where he had four touchdowns, but he hasn’t quite matched up with Minshew’s performance throughout fall camp.

Another possibility is freshman Cammon Cooper who in his senior year at Lehi High School in Utah set state single-season records with 331 completions, 4,726 passing yards and 58 touchdown passes.

Cooper also ran in seven touchdowns himself and won the Utah 5A State Championship. He was rated as a three-star prospect coming out of high school by ESPN.com.

Cooper hasn’t seen much time in fall camp and in the second scrimmage he led the offense on drives that were not as successful as Gordon and Minshew.

Whoever Leach does name as the starter shouldn’t get too comfortable though because there is plenty of talent and depth at the quarterback position and Leach hasn’t been shy about pulling quarterbacks in the middle of a game who are under performing.

This story has been updated to reflect that the columnist was analyzing three candidates for the quarterback position and not four.