With position battles heating up two weeks into spring practice, the most stable position may be quarterback.

On one hand is a junior quarterback who had the third most prolific passing season in school history last year. On other is an athletic redshirt freshmen who has only led the scout team.

Starting quarterback Austen Arnaud is about to learn his third offense in his four years, but so far his new coaches like what they see from the junior signal caller.

“The intangible things that Austen brings — from a leadership style, from an enthusiastic style, he’s a very upbeat young man, and having that type of personality and charisma at quarterback is vital I think to an offense’s success,” said head coach Paul Rhoads said.

That leadership and enthusiasm is what helped Arnaud break through onto the Big 12 scene in his first year as a starting quarterback.

In Iowa State’s final game of the season, Arnaud threw for a school record 440 yards in Iowa State’s 38-30 loss to Kansas State. The week before that, Arnaud broke another school record when he completed 36 passes in a loss to Missouri.

Look for these records to be temporary though, because new offensive coordinator Tom Herman’s spread attack-offense could rewrite the ISU record books.

“We are an up-tempo, no huddle, shotgun-oriented offense that’s going to be physical,” Herman said. “We’re going to take what the defense gives us, we’re not going to be stubborn in terms of fitting a square peg in a round hole.

We’re going to use our talent and maximize it to the best of our abilities and try to dictate not only tempo but physicality to the defense.”

Herman turned Rice into an offensive juggernaut in his two seasons there, and he believes that Arnaud has all of the physical traits to succeed in his system.

“The physical talents are there, he’s still processing the offense right now and so obviously that shows because when a quarterback is thinking he’s usually not very good,” Herman said. “When he just relaxes and plays, he’s one of the best I’ve ever been around. When he gets into problems it’s when he starts to think too much.”

Sitting behind Arnaud on the depth chart is redshirt freshman Jerome Tiller.

Although it would be tough for Tiller to unseat Arnaud as the starter, the staff has been impressed with Tiller’s athletic ability.

“Jerome is an extremely bright and football intelligent young man and he shows that everyday on the practice field and everyday in the meeting room,” Rhoads said. “Jerome is not taking a back seat and he’s not saying ‘Okay, it’s your’s, and I’m just going to be an understudy and see what I can do back here.’ He’s fighting and competing every day to be the guy. All the qualities that we look for in that position, he’s got to bring.”

One area where Arnaud might have the advantage over Tiller is in his leadership abilities. Rhoads praised the Ames native’s leadership and push at last week’s press conference, but said he believes Tiller’s leadership skills will come with time.

“There’s leadership skills that got to be apart of the quarterback position. That doesn’t mean that he has to be the same bubbly person that Austen is, he has to be Jerome Tiller, and those leadership skills will be enough,” Rhoads said.

Spring game

Where: Jack Trice Stadium

When: 3 p.m. Saturday, April 18