Quarterback Lomax leaves Central

YAKIMA, Wash. — Nick Lomax, the Boise State transfer considered by many as the successor to Mike Reilly as Central Washington’s quarterback, is leaving school according to head coach Blaine Bennett.

“Yes, he is leaving,” Bennett said via telephone Wednesday night. “The biggest reason is that he’s just decided that football is not what he wants to do. He’s kind of lost that passion.”

The son of ex-Portland State and St. Louis-Arizona Cardinals QB Neil Lomax, Nick Lomax left BSU after Prosser’s Kellen Moore won the Broncos’ starting job prior to last season.

Though Bennett had actively recruited high school stars to replace Reilly, who broke most of Jon Kitna’s CWU records, Lomax initially figured prom-inently in the Wildcats’ 2009 plans.

Bennett said that of the five signal callers who will open spring workouts with the rest of the team on Tuesday, that  junior transfer Jordan Rasmussen and redshirt freshman Ryan Robertson presently rank as the top two.

Rasmussen was recruited by Montana State out of Curtis High School, and went from MSU to Fresno City College. Robertson was part of Bennett’s first recruiting class out of Eastlake High in Sammamish.

“We expect to have a very competitive battle for the position,” Bennett said. “We’ll see how all of them do this spring, how they operate under pressure, and go from there.”

Bennett said he and Lomax had extensively discussed Lomax’s departure.

“We’d talked for about a week and a half about it,” he said. “After leaving Boise he came in here thinking he could enjoy football, but he just couldn’t find it. He’s a 22-year-old man who will graduate in a year, and now his focus is on getting a degree and moving on with his life.”