Pregame warmups will once again offer the clearest indication of who will start at quarterback for Temple this Saturday when the Owls host Utah State at Lincoln Financial Field.

Kickoff at Lincoln Financial Field is set for 2 p.m.

Third-year head coach Stan Drayton said Monday during his weekly press conference that he had not yet determined who would start under center this weekend.

“We’re going to play the guy that's ready to play and that has the best week of preparation between the two,” Drayton said.

Forrest Brock got dinged up at Navy and was dealing with what was later revealed to be a wrist contusion. When he wasn’t throwing during warmups prior to Saturday’s eventual loss to Coastal Carolina, it became clear that Evan Simon would start. The Rutgers transfer breathed some life into the Owls’ offense in a mixed-review performance Saturday, completing 17 of his 25 passes for 185 yards, two touchdowns and an interception.

The interception, a pass that was batted at the line of scrimmage and landed in the arms of Coastal safety Xamarion Gordon for a 29-yard pick six return, was a turnover that helped the Chanticleers jump out to a 14-0 lead. And in the game’s closing moments on fourth down on the Owls’ last series with a chance to tie the game, Simon threw out of bounds on fourth down.

During his postgame press conference with reporters Saturday, Drayton said it appeared Simon “lost track of the scenario.”

“I'm not so sure if he knew it was fourth down,” Drayton said.

On Monday, Drayton gave his quarterback the benefit of the doubt.

“He knew exactly the situation,” Drayton said of that late fourth-quarter sequence. “Just threw a bad ball. That's what he's claiming, and that's right. That out route was right at the sticks. If it was a better throw, it would have been a contested catch, for sure. It would have been a 50/50 (ball.) But (if) we make that throw and that catch, we get the first down and we keep the [drive] alive. So it's just a bad throw.”

After Temple fell behind by 21-3 midway through the second quarter, Simon engineered two scoring drives that culminated with a 15-yard touchdown pass to John Adams and a 2-yard scoring toss to Dante Wright, with the latter of the two cutting Coastal’s lead to 21-17 with 10:26 left in the third quarter.

Drayton revealed last week that he knew that the injury Brock sustained at Navy would most likely keep him out of the Coastal Carolina game. He also said Monday that Brock, who completed 59.2% of his passes for just one touchdown and four interceptions through the season’s first two weeks, was throwing the ball in practice last week.

After first saying Brock is “day to day” with his injury recovery, Drayton was asked if Brock would return to starting if he’s healthier and not “day to day” by Saturday.

“We'll have to see,” Drayton said. “I don't have that glass ball. It’s a matter of if he's ready, and then how is he practicing, right? If he's not preparing the right way, if he's making bad decisions, then it's not fair to the football team to put a guy on the football field who's not ready to play, whether it be injury or just preparation. So he's going to grab a hold of a game plan. He's going to study Utah State as if he's getting ready to play, and so that piece of it is critical for him in his development. But we'll see. The actions tell us all we need to know, and we're just day one right now, so we have a few more days to prepare and figure that out."

In addition to talking about his quarterbacks, Drayton also spoke about his offensive line and linebacker D.J. Woodbury, provided an update on the availability of defensive end Diwun Black and Zae Baines, and offered a scouting report of the 1-2 Utah State team that will play the Owls Saturday.

You can listen to Drayton’s full Monday press conference here.