A quarterback conundrum: Who will get the start for Kennesaw State?

Odom’s mother, Trisha Stafford-Odom, was the women’s basketball coach when Mack was the head coach at North Carolina Central. He knew Amari and his brother Trajen when they were gym rats and later when they attended football camp at Tennessee, where Mack was the running backs coach.

Trajen Odom is now a freshman defensive lineman at Ohio State. Big brother Amari began his career at Wofford, threw for 1,565 yards in eight games, and transferred to Kennesaw State to join Mack.

Last week after getting substantial playing time against Big Ten-power Indiana, Amari Odom is under consideration to get the start Saturday when the Owls host Merrimack College in the home opener at 6 p.m. The game can be seen on ESPN-Plus.

“He was actually on our recruiting board at Tennessee, then he got hurt in high school going into his senior year and it kind of slowed down his recruiting,” Mack said. “So I’ve known about his ability and known about his talents for a very, very long time.”

Mack said the staff will take the rest of the week to determine who gets the starting nod this weekend. Dexter Williams II, a redshirt senior, started the first two games, but Odom, a redshirt sophomore, entered last week’s game in the second quarter and played the rest of the minutes.

“We’re still talking. We’re going back and forth to see exactly how that’s going to pan out,” Mack said. “We’ll go through the course of the week, and we’re trying to see who’s going to run out there first. We anticipate both of them getting an opportunity to play with the ‘ones.’”

The stats for the two players are similar. Williams has completed 13 of 35 passes for 148 yards. Odom has completed 10 of 16 passes for 176 yards with one interception — although Mack contends the receiver caused the pick.

“It was always the intention to play both quarterbacks,” Mack said. “We gave Dex an opportunity to start and play the majority of the game against Wake Forest. We told him, you’re still going to start (the Indiana game) but we also think Amari deserved the right to go out there and compete as well.”

Williams played the first two series against Indiana and left after a pair of three-and-outs. Odom had little luck until his third series, when he took the team on a 12-play drive that resulted in the first of Daniel Kinney’s three field goals.

“He was the starting quarterback at his previous school, and they played at South Carolina, so he’s been on that stage, he’s been in that arena before,” Mack said. “He has a lot of games under his belt. So that didn’t surprise me that the stage wasn’t too much for him.”

Kennesaw State’s opponent this week is an FCS program that beat Saint Anselm 31-6 last week after nearly upsetting Kent State 21-17 in the opener.