Apr 16, 2014 10:05 AM EDT By Staff Reporter, UniversityHerald Reporter

USC's starting quarterback from last year, Cody Kessler, will retain his status for spring practices, according to a conversation new head coach Steve Sarkisian had with him and backups Max Browne and Jalen Greene, ESPN reported.

Welcome to college football, where practices are already being held and quarterback competitions are nearly being decided with months of spring and the entire summer left to go.

Sarkisian, however, is aware of all that could happen in the life of a still-developing college athlete from now until August, which is why he only dubbed Kessler the starter for the spring.

"This competition is going to wage on," Sarkisian told ESPN. "Max isn't just going to go away ... When fall camp rolls around, he's going to come and swing at him again and give Cody his best shot and Cody will either respond like he did this spring and continue to get better, or Max will pass him."

As a redshirt freshman last season, Kessler had a pretty respectable year, throwing for nearly 3,000 yards, 20 TDs, and 7 interceptions. He also completed passes at a high rate (65.4 percent), but wasn't any sort of threat as a runner with negative total yards on the ground. Browne was a true freshman last season while Greene was in high school. Age won't be a factor in determining this QB battle, but Kessler's positive year of experience will likely give him the insurmountable edge.

"I went in knowing that I have a year of experience and I know what it takes in big games to win and be successful," Kessler said. "I used that confidence and applied it to practice and treated every practice like a game."

Under the redshirt freshman, USC went 10-4 after a slow start and ended the year ranked 19^th in the polls.

"I think he's extremely decisive from where he was in Week 1 in a new system to where he performed today," Sarkisian said of Kessler. "He knows where he's going with the football. Are there some fundamentals and techniques we're going to continue to work on? Sure. But I think he's got a great deal of confidence. I love his leadership in the locker room with the players. He can throw the deep ball extremely well and he has enough athleticism to buy himself some time to create some plays down the field."

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