Call him Charlie Sheen… again.

One year after being named the starting quarterback for the season opener, Steele Jantz was given the nod once again to take on the tall task of “winning” as the ISU football team’s signal caller against Tulsa on Sept. 1.

Just hours after a news release revealed the decision, coach Paul Rhoads  fielded questions from media Tuesday, Aug. 21, saying the three factors he was looking for in a starting quarterback — decision making, productivity and throwing accuracy — were emulated by Jantz by last weekend when camp ended.

“Throwing accuracy was more important coming off of last year where we only threw just a little bit over 50 percent,” Rhoads said.

Jantz, a redshirt senior, ousted Jared Barnett and Sam Richardson for the job. Among the three quarterbacks, Jantz completed 53.3 percent of his passes while Barnett completed 50 percent and Richardson redshirted.

None of the players were available for comment on Tuesday, but they previously spoke with the media on Saturday, Aug. 18, after the team’s final scrimmage of camp.

“As far as focus, we’ve kind of shifted more [toward] Tulsa now,” Jantz said. “We’re just fine-tuning things now. We have everything in pretty much, we just want to critique everything and be a little more clean.”

Rhoads said Jantz will not be on a “short leash” with Barnett, who started six games last season, waiting in the wings with the hopes of overtaking the starting spot.

Even though Rhoads said the ideal situation would be to have Jantz start all 13 games — assuming the team qualifies for a bowl, which he did not stipulate as he spoke — the position will be under evaluation from week to week in case the staff feels a change needs to be made.

“[It] lends itself to being in a good position in our program with having both quarterbacks that can be ‘that guy,'” Rhoads said. “If he’s not performing well, we’ve got another guy that’s led us to multiple victories and have the opportunity to put him in.”

Despite orchestrating the biggest upset in school history against second-ranked Oklahoma State last season with the most passing yards in a single game in team history since 2008, Barnett will hold the clipboard for the season opener.

The decision to start Jantz, however, was not seen as discouraging for Barnett.

“The whole team saw it play out on the football field, and I think Jared had an idea that this was probably going to be the decision based on what’s happened,” Rhoads said.

“It serves as motivation to [Barnett]. He knows he’s got to be ready. You saw what happened last year with the opportunity that was provided to him, and he’ll approach his job that way as we move forward.”

Rhoads said Barnett showed maturity when he sat him down — along with Jantz and Richardson — and announced his decision. On Saturday, Barnett said he was wondering about the evaluation process, but did not let the anxiety become overwhelming.

“There’s always that time where you don’t really know what’s going on,” Barnett said. “Staying focused is really the main key. After a while it gets pretty tough, but as a college football team, we have to make sure that we’re mature enough.”

Despite the struggles of last season, Jantz said improved chemistry with the receiving corps — among other things — will also be evident come Sept. 1 when he takes the first snap of the season against visiting Tulsa.

“That’s one of the things you need to do — you need to get that timing down, and we’ve come a long way,” Jantz said. “We still need to fine-tune a little bit, but we’ll get it.”