By NATHAN WARTERS

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Virginia Tech stuck to its plan Monday and named a backup quarterback. Both Ju-Ju Clayton and Marcus Davis impressed the coaches this spring, but in the end Clayton was the more polished passer and received the nod.

Davis, who like Clayton is a redshirt freshman, is expected to move back to wide receiver, where he practiced last season before suffering a season-ending shoulder injury.

The Hokies would like to find a way to get the 6-foot-4, 231-pound Davis on the field in some capacity. He had some impressive runs during the team’s Saturday scrimmage, including a 62-yard touchdown dash.

“Coming out of high school, I felt (Davis) could be a very good quarterback and I still feel that way. But a couple of his runs on Saturday also showed that we need to get him on the field somewhere and we’re going to work on that part of it,” Tech coach Frank Beamer said in a written release.

The 6-foot, 215-pound Clayton entered spring with a much better grasp of the playbook, and he had the added benefit of running Tech’s scout team all of last season.

“I feel like I’m settling in,” Clayton said after completing 7 of 9 passes for 70 yards and a touchdown in Saturday’s scrimmage.

Clayton, a Richmond native, said he has been reading coverages better and he’s able to recognize more blitzes now after extensive film study with quarterbacks coach Mike O’Cain.

Davis, who played quarterback at Ocean Lakes (Virginia Beach) High School before changing positions last fall, had to learn almost everything from scratch, from cadences to footwork to the proper way to hand the ball off.

“We still feel that Marcus has the capabilities to be an excellent quarterback,” Beamer said. “At this very moment, we feel that Ju-Ju is ahead of him and we’re encouraging Marcus to work hard on his arm strength this summer and continue to throw and we’ll see where that goes.”

The Hokies wanted to make a decision so Clayton could start getting the bulk of the work with the second team.

“It’s hard to get three quarterbacks ready. It’s almost impossible,” O’Cain said after Saturday’s scrimmage. “You make your best decision and live with it at this point in time.”

If Davis shows up for fall practice and is performing better than Clayton, the Hokies coaches may be compelled to change their minds.

“It’s not written in stone, but at least we want to start making strides,” O’Cain said.