A year ago, Kentucky handed the reins of its Air Raid offense over to first-time starting quarterback Patrick Towles, a Kentucky native and former four-star signee who’d redshirted the season before.

But after Towles and the Cats lost six straight to close last season, and after UK bid farewell to former offensive coordinator Neal Brown and replaced him with West Virginia’s Shannon Dawson, control of the offense is up for grabs once again.

Towles and backup Drew Barker will reportedly work with the first-team offense on an alternating basis for the rest of the spring, according to the Louisville Courier-Journal. And when asked to name his starting quarterback at this juncture of spring practice, Dawson, who now has just three practices under his belt, would not oblige.

“Me, right now,” he told the Lexington Herald-Leader with a chuckle when asked to name the starter. What Dawson meant to say was UK doesn’t have a definitive Week 1 starter right now, and that’s okay with him.

Towles is certainly still a contender to win the job. The rising redshirt junior threw for 2,718 yards with 14 touchdowns against nine interceptions in 2014, and he completed more than 57 percent of his passes on the season. Those numbers aren’t all-conference worthy, but they don’t exactly scream “bench this guy!” either.

Nevertheless, the UK coaching staff has ensured that Barker, another former four-star signee from the commonwealth of Kentucky, will get his opportunities to play with the first team as well.

While Towles was leading the Wildcats to a 5-7 record in 2014, Barker was redshirting his first season on campus. One of the prized recruits from Kentucky’s 2014 class, Barker was seen as the future face of the Cats offense. Then again, so was Towles when he fulfilled his lifelong dream and signed with UK in 2011.

So who will start when Week 1 arrives in September? That’s what Dawson and the rest of the coaching staff are trying to determine. As a new member of the Kentucky staff, Dawson is aiming to be thorough, understanding how critical it is he makes the right decision regarding his starting signal caller.

“That deal is going to work itself out obviously. I mean, Patrick’s sitting there — he’s got a lot of experience, so that counts too. But ultimately whoever executes the best is going to be the guy. They know that,” Dawson told the H-L. “Right now they’re just trying to learn, compete and put the ball in play really, because the communication is really the hurdle we’re trying to get over, just the way we communicate. It’s just different than most people.”

Barker has had his issues away from the field since signing with Kentucky. While redshirting last fall, he and a few teammates found themselves in trouble after firing pellet guns on campus after dark, creating a disturbance. More recently, Barker was involved in a fight in nearby Richmond, Ky., home of Eastern Kentucky University.

But Dawson spoke about Barker getting a fresh start with a new OC in place to lead the offense, and how that might aid him in his pursuit of a starting job.

“I think anytime there’s a change, you’re able to perform on a clean slate,” Dawson said. “I think that anybody who’s not starting probably is excited and looks forward that.”

Kentucky’s quarterback competition was once a three-man battle, but Reese Phillips has been knocked out of that competition after suffering a ruptured achilles tendon. Phillips was Kentucky’s No. 2 quarterback last season while Towles started and Barker redshirted.

Now down to two, both are getting their shot to be the face of the Cats. Towles has the experience on the field, but he’s having to learn the new terminology of Dawson’s brand of the Air Raid, and he’s taking on more responsibilities as a leader of the offense.

Barker is learning alongside the incumbent starter, leveling the playing field somewhat as both players aim to prove their worth.

“The quarterback just communicates more,” Dawson said. “He handles those 10 guys on the field. So everybody looks to him. That’s probably a little bit different than what they’ve been doing. So just put a lot more on the quarterback as far as — in my opinion to get in and out of plays quickly it’s better for him to communicate because then you don’t have people looking over to the sideline. You’ve got one guy looking to the sideline and everybody else looking to him.”

So there’s a lot more being considered in this quarterback competition than just arm talent and playbook comprehension, and there’s no finish line in sight this early in the spring.

What does head coach Mark Stoops have to say on the matter? More or less the same thing.

“Both guys have done some very good things and have a lot of talent,” Stoops told the Herald-Leader, “so it will be good to see how the rest of the spring goes.”