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Mark Ivey said he’d be “extremely comfortable going into a game” with Nate Garland and Mark Schoenfeld.

Since only one of them can take snaps for Barron Collier this fall, though, the Cougars are facing a quarterback quandary heading into 2008.

“It’s dead split down the middle,” Ivey said of the competition between Garland, the right-handed rising senior, and Schoenfeld, the junior lefty.

Though the position battle will extend into summer, both players acknowledged the importance of a strong spring impression.

There are big cleats to fill, after all, with graduated Vince Caputo having scrambled his way to 960 yards and a team-high 17 touchdowns in the program’s first year in Ivey’s Appalachian State-style spread.

Garland, the junior varsity starter last fall, and Schoenfeld, the backup who got some mop-up duty, have the advantage of both knowing the system — and where the Cougars need to get better.

“If we want to get further than we did last year — and everybody does — then we have to be more balanced,” the 5-foot-11, 155-pound Garland said. “For the most part we ran. We threw every now and then (on JV) and we were successful with it, and I think we have to do a lot more of that this year. It helps that we’re miles ahead of where we were with the offense last summer.”

The numbers don’t lie.

Eighty percent of the Cougars’ high-powered offense came on the ground last season, and Caputo, for all his success roaming outside the pocket, threw for more than 100 yards just twice in 11 starts. Barron Collier went 6-5 and won the district just the same, but Ivey, who has one of the area’s most explosive weapons in running back Quin Thornton, acknowledged the need for an aerial attack.

“Neither one of them is John Elway, but they both throw effectively enough to where the defense has to respect our passing game,” he said. “You’ll have to play the entire spread. Plus, we know that if we get a little more equal, that’s going to help our running game. If you’ve got to get your linebackers and your secondary involved, that should open some things up.”

The coach said both quarterbacks are adept at the quick-read, quick-release that fuels the Cougars’ option, and while Garland might be the quicker, more elusive of the two, Schoenfeld has size (at 6-1 and 185 pounds, he’s already penciled in as a starting linebacker) and gives defenses a slightly different look from the left side.

“It’s always better when you have someone to compete against,” Schoenfeld said. “When you come in and you know you have a spot, you can get lackadaisical. We’re going out there each and every practice with something to prove.”

Not that it’s hurt their friendship.

Garland and Schoenfeld live a few houses apart and have been teammates since they first suited up for Mighty Mites when they were 10. That bond has helped cultivate what both called a “healthy competition,” in which they can talk through issues and discuss problems and comforts alike.

Like their coach, a frequent topic of conversation has been the offensive line, which may have more to do with the future quarterback’s success than the winner’s throwing arm.

Four of the five starters that paved the way for 265 rushing yards and 28 points per game last year have graduated, and the quest to build chemistry up front has been in lockstep with the quarterback competition all spring.

“My biggest concern is that four of the five have never started a varsity game before,” said Ivey, who does have a Division I candidate in senior right guard Mike Herrera. “We’ve got four events — two O-line camps and two team camps — to get back where we need to be, but right now we’re a long way from being the fun team we were to watch at the end of last year.”

For their part, the quarterbacks have been impressed with the progress.

“They’re younger,” Schoenfeld said, “but they’re the strongest I’ve seen for their age in a while. Getting them in line has been a key factor for us, but they’re getting it down. It’s been a time for everyone to improve. We’re all just trying to get used to being back in pads and focusing on football again.”

Ivey, too.

The coach is feeling far more at home in this his first spring since he was hired from Cypress Lake last summer, and everything, from knowing his players’ names to the shortcuts around the building, has made for a smooth month.

He sees no reason to think that enthusiasm — like his mini-quarterback controversy — won’t carry right on through the summer months.

“The main thing we look at is what kind of effort a kid is giving us,” Ivey said of his evaluation. “Do we know how they perform in a game? Not yet, but I know both are quality young men who take care of business in the classroom as well as the weight room. I know I’ll get everything they’ve got.”