Oregon State’s battle for the starting quarterback position carried on deep into fall camp before Jake Luton began to separate himself from Connor Blount and Jack Colletto.

Over the last week, including last Thursday’s scrimmage at Summit High in Bend, Luton solidified the starting gig.

On Monday, first-year coach Jonathan Smith declared the 6-foot-7, 230-pound Luton as the Beavers’ starter for Saturday’s season opener at No. 5 Ohio State.

“What separated Jake really was the last three, four practices,” Smith said. “He did really well in the scrimmages. It’s not always the highlight plays that stand out (but) some of those plays that you just avoid the negatives.”

Luton, a redshirt senior, started the first four game last season before suffering a thoracic spine fracture at Washington State that ended his season.

He completed 83 of 135 passes for 853 yards with four touchdowns and four interceptions.

“I thought those three guys handled it really well,” Smith said. “They’re going to work together as we continue the season but Luton will be out there to start and we feel good about that.”

Smith said he wouldn’t have named a starter on Monday if the staff wasn’t confident in their selection.

“We didn’t have anything locked in,” Smith said. “If we didn’t know by (Monday) we weren’t going to announce it. But with the way it was trending, we felt confident to make the decision.”

Luton will face a tough defense on Saturday when the Beavers face a Buckeyes team that has had to deal with the suspension of coach Urban Meyer, who won’t be coaching on Saturday.

If things don’t go well, will the Beavers have a quick hook?

“We’re completely behind Jake,” Smith said. “And we totally understand he’s not going to play perfect football. There’s going to be some mistakes that are made.”

However, that doesn’t mean they don’t trust the backups.

“I do think we’ve got some confidence that if we do want to make a change, we’ve got a couple guys who have gotten a lot of reps,” Smith said.

—Corvallis Gazzette-Times