Saturday’s games
Millsaps at Berry, 1 p.m.
Kennesaw State at Monmouth, 1 p.m.
Maryville at LaGrange, 1 p.m.
Mercer at Wofford, 1:30 p.m.
Georgetown College at Reinhardt, 1:30 p.m.
West Georgia at Shorter, 1:30 p.m.
Albany State vs. Benedict (at Augusta), 2 p.m.
Miles at Clark Atlanta, 2 p.m.
Fort Valley State at Morehouse, 2 p.m.
Howard at Savannah State, 2 p.m.
Valdosta State at Florida Tech, 7 p.m.
Kerwin Bell doesn’t like playing two quarterbacks.
Roland Rivers doesn’t like coming out of games.
But Valdosta State’s coach will continue to use Rivers and Adam Robles at quarterback until one of them separates himself from the other.
“I’m looking for that guy who can get through the adversity, who can play well when everything is going good, but also be that leader to get us through the tough times,” Bell said. “So right now, we haven’t found that.”
The quarterback time share hasn’t hampered the Blazers (6-1, 4-1 Gulf South Conference), who have won five consecutive games and have slowly climbed the Division II polls.
They rank No. 14 in the American Football Coaches Association poll, 15th in the D2Football.com poll, and more important, debuted at No. 2 in the Super Region Two rankings, which determines the Division II playoffs.
Rivers (M.L. King) has started six of Valdosta State’s seven games, but Bell will send in Robles to provide a spark.
Rivers threw for a career-high 330 yards and five touchdowns in Valdosta State’s 42-41 victory over Mississippi College on Oct. 15, but he struggled to begin the fourth quarter.
Robles entered and led the Blazers to the game-winning touchdown drive with four minutes left.
“Of course, both of us want to be on the field at quarterback the whole game, but it’s worked so far,” Rivers said. “We continue to get better. Right now we’re winning, and I’m just trusting in the decisions that coach Bell makes.”
Two weeks earlier, Robles threw for 401 yards in his only start — a 48-10 victory over Kentucky State on Oct. 1 — but Rivers relieved him and then started the next game, a victory over West Georgia.
The Blazers have averaged 44.8 points a game on their streak.
“The competition every week is making them both better,” Bell said. “Whoever practices the best is going to start, and we’ll go from there. That’s a credit to both of those guys because sometimes with a two-quarterback deal, you’ll have dissension and the team separates a little bit, but that hasn’t been the case here at all.”
Bell, who is in his first season at Valdosta State after nine at Jacksonville, installed a pro-style offense when he arrived.
Robles then transferred from South Florida to join Rivers, a sophomore who threw for 548 yards and six touchdowns in 10 games last year.
Rivers leads the Blazers with 1,243 yards passing and 13 touchdowns and ranks second with 252 yards rushing and three scores.
Robles has thrown for 1,057 yards and nine touchdowns.
“I have to keep bad plays and bad drives behind us. That’s something that I’m working on,” Rivers said. “I still haven’t played a game that I’m happy with from beginning to end. I have a lot of room for improvement, but I’m glad that we’re 6-1 right now.”
