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If you got FIVE QBs do you have any QBs?

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bris1112

Green Buffalo
Mar 5, 2007
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I don't pay for premium content so forgive me for bringing up stale news.

MetroNews reports:
Head Coach Charles Huff says a battle between returnees Cole Pennington and Colin Paracheck along with Tulsa transfer Braylon Braxton and freshman JacQai Long has benefitted the entire team....
Another new name has entered the competition in Stone Earle, a recent addition to the program.
Earle, who left North Texas in June, presents an interesting case in his quest for snaps. He has experience running an Air Raid attack from his days with the Mean Green.

9 days before the opener. Maybe all these guys get some Stony Brook snaps.
 
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For some reason, I am betting on Earle being the starter. Based on what film I've seen; he seems to be the more consistent of the group.
 
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If you have a quarterback controversy, you don't have a quarterback.

Since CH conducts everything in secret, maybe he really does have a clue and we just have no way of knowing, with the media kept out. Or maybe he really is so clueless that we really are trying out five randos for the most important job on the team.
 
The Real SamC said:
If you have a quarterback controversy, you don't have a quarterback.

Since CH conducts everything in secret, maybe he really does have a clue and we just have no way of knowing, with the media kept out. Or maybe he really is so clueless that we really are trying out five randos for the most important job on the team.
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It's more likely mind games and 4D chess to ensure Stony Brook prepares for FIVE qbs.
Just kidding, all 5 are on the same level and we're going to be 3 TD dogs in Blacksburg.
 
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We haven't had a truly solid QB since Cato. Litton may have been/could have been, but.............
 
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TwolfHerdfan said:
We haven't had a truly solid QB since Cato. Litton may have been/could have been, but.............
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RIP herdalicious - we argued Litton's potential, attitude, decision making etc for hours and hours pre/post game tailgates.
I thought Andy Reid would crack the code. He did not.
 
bris1112 said:
I don't pay for premium content so forgive me for bringing up stale news.

MetroNews reports:
Head Coach Charles Huff says a battle between returnees Cole Pennington and Colin Paracheck along with Tulsa transfer Braylon Braxton and freshman JacQai Long has benefitted the entire team....
Another new name has entered the competition in Stone Earle, a recent addition to the program.
Earle, who left North Texas in June, presents an interesting case in his quest for snaps. He has experience running an Air Raid attack from his days with the Mean Green.

9 days before the opener. Maybe all these guys get some Stony Brook snaps.
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Earle has been here all camp.
 
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raleighherdfan said:
If Huff had claimed we had one QB-starter, "fans" would be asking why we don't have more QBs in camp competing for the job and complaining Huff isn't recruiting enough people for the position.
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That would only be true if the starter wasn't good. If we actually had a good starter then what you're saying would not be the case. However since Huff has taken over this program the QB position has been one of the worst managed positions on the roster.
 
TwolfHerdfan said:
For some reason, I am betting on Earle being the starter. Based on what film I've seen; he seems to be the more consistent of the group.
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From the film I've watched I've like Braxton the most. Although I think it's six in one hand and half a dozen in the other at this point. All of the QBs in the race for the #1 spot have all had multiple years to nail down a starting spot on the FBS level and have failed to do so.

If you look at this from an outsider's point of view it's not great. Yes one of these guys could finally have breakout season, but man we've crossing out fingers hard on this one.

First we have Cole Pennington. If fans had their choice he would be the dude. Nothing would be better than having Chad's son out there shredding defenses and leading us to titles the way his dad did. However the staff evidently doesn't believe in him. This will be his third season with the program and the staff must have seen enough evidence that they tried to bring in two other QBs in Spring (Braxton from Tulsa , Griffis form WF) and when Braxton didn't take the job and Griffis hung up his cleats they decided the needed to go out and get yet another QB (Earle from North Texas). That kind of tells you that Griffis was the guy they were depending on. I'd love to see Cole out there, but for whatever reasons the staff does not feel comfortable with him as the starter.

Braylon Braxton is an intriguing QB. He's a heck of an athlete. When you watch him run he doesn't run like a QB. He runs like a RB when he gets in the open field. His vision and agility allow him to make big plays and his arm is decent. Out of all the QBs we have on the roster he has started the most games and put up the best stats. Not great stats, but he's been there and done that. According to some articles it was injuries that kept him from nailing down he starting job. However he didn't show enough in the spring to convince the staff he should be the starter.

Stone Earle is a transfer from North Texas. He started out his career at Abilene Christian where he put up alright numbers, but when down to injury. His backup looked good and eventually Earle hit the portal where he ended up at North Texas. In 2022 he saw action in 4 games as backup before getting names the starter going into 2023. He then made it two games into the 2023 season before getting benched. Decided to go back to AC, pulled back out to stay with NT, then TCU transfer Chandler Morris came into the picture and Earle goes back into the portal and ends up here just before fall camp.

The other QBs that people know of are Colin Parachek who has been with the program a few years after transferring in from Morehead State and JaQai Long who is a 2024 commitment from Hurricane High School. Others on the roster are Chase Massey, Aiden Karsh, and Cortney Davis. All three being freshman that no one has heard of.


Now in saying all of that I am not saying that it's a lock that all of these guys are going to suck, but our hopes depend on guys that have ever been able to convince their coaches that they are the guy for the job. Sadly though this has become the norm under Huff. The alleged #1 recruiter in the nation has yet to bring in a quality QB.
 
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My meaningless guess is that Stone Earle starts with a package for Braxton and we get that for as long as it reasonably works.
 
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greengeezer said:
Unless the line is better than predicted, we might need five quarterbacks. They may be dropping like flies.
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We brought in a lot of guys and according to most I've heard only one of the expected starters is a holdover from last season and that's Logan Osburn.

We have the following new additions.

Elijah Ellis - 6'4" 336 r-SR from Baylor
Bryce Ramsey - 6'1" 324 r-SR from Southern Miss
Cedrick Nicely - 6'5" 322 r-JR from Ole Miss
Eric Meeks - 6'3" 307 r-JR from Penn
Shunmarkus Adams - 6'3" 348 Jr from Navarro College
Jeremy Jones - 6'4" 312 SR from Tulsa

After those we have
Shawn Rouse - 6'3" 265 r-FR from Cabell Midland
Lucas Copenhaver- 6'1" 290 FR
Anwaar Smith - 6'2" 320 FR
Jalen Slappy - 6'4" 302 r-SO
Andrew Hancock - 6'3" 286 r-FR
Treaden Henry - 6'6" 307 FR
Tariq Montgomery - 6'5" 316 r-SO
Isaac Clay - 6'7" 343 r-FR
Christian Richter - 6'6" 309 r-SO


We have a lot of guys that are pretty big dudes. I just hope we can get a group together that can play well. The other side of this is coaching. Our OL was really good until after Notre Dame when the OL coach quit. Since then the OL has been a complete mess.
 
what a mess we have in the QB room. Here we are in year 4 and we are talking about maybe starting a guy who just showed up in Huntington. Just start Cole and see what he can do. If he can't get it done then move on to the next guy
 
TwolfHerdfan said:
We haven't had a truly solid QB since Cato. Litton may have been/could have been, but.............
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I'd respectfully disagree. We have had two excellent QBs since then, but both tried to play hurt, were ineffective and that tarnished their legacy. Birdsong was very good in the win against Purdue, hurt at Ohio and never came close to recovering. Colombi was excellent until his hand was injured at Akron and his passing just wasn't consistent after that. Even Fancher could have been a serviceable qb if not for injuries, I don't know why we have not been able to have a capable backup plan since Froh.

Based on all their tape, I would guess Braxton is the guy...not the college tape, but his tape coming out of HS...he was a stud.
 
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bbcard1 said:
I'd respectfully disagree. We have had two excellent QBs since then, but both tried to play hurt, were ineffective and that tarnished their legacy. Birdsong was very good in the win against Purdue, hurt at Ohio and never came close to recovering. Colombi was excellent until his hand was injured at Akron and his passing just wasn't consistent after that. Even Fancher could have been a serviceable qb if not for injuries, I don't know why we have not been able to have a capable backup plan since Froh.

Based on all their tape, I would guess Braxton is the guy...not the college tape, but his tape coming out of HS...he was a stud.
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Your points are well taken. I just don't underatand why we have so much trouble getting a multi year starter who would be solid like Cato.
 
greengeezer said:
In this new era of college football, do you believe if we developed a solid multiyear starter at quarterback we could keep him? Or would a richer school just buy him?
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Certainly it's changed the last 2 years but if a kid was invested and liked his coaches, I think we could keep a good QB, we'd find the dollars for him to stay. The position is so crucial as we know. You find a good one who can win games, you do everything you can to keep him. jmho
 
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There's the real question, can you even keep a solid 3 year starter anymore? I think you still have to coach like you can.
 
raleighherdfan said:
We've already seen he can't do it barring some miracle this off season.
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well if the OL plays as bad this year as it did last year it will not matter who the QB is. I am convinced that Cole is better than some of you think
 
greengeezer said:
Lot of pressure on Cole to live up to his legendary dad. Everyone wants him to do well, but I often think he would have been better off to have attended a lower level school where his abilities would have allowed him to prosper.
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I agree about Cole, he had his chance and he didn't make the most of the opportunity he had last year. His younger brother Luke, by all accounts who is a better QB than Cole, ended up going to FBS Dayton. Dayton is non scholarship and is really Division 3 level. Since Dayton is D1 in basketball, it has to have all sports be D1. Davidson and Georgetown are other D1 basketball schools that play non scholarship football.

I would be curious if Cole could be starter at a lower division school. Maybe Cole needs to try to play another position if he wants to play college D1 football? I think that Luke figured out that he wasn't D1 material based on Cole's experience.
 
This whole article was coach speak from Huff... Probably as it should be with a week left until we play a real game.

Earle looks like he is going to start
Braxton is going to be the backup (maybe have an occasional gadget play, etc)
Cole is #3
Parachek has never been in consideration
Long is going to redshirt

I am as hard as anybody on Huff for talking a lot and never actually saying anything... But in this instance, can you imagine if he busted out "Well, we're almost done with fall practice. A couple of the guys have looked good, a couple have been awful, we'll just see how it goes.".. He has to talk up all 5 of them, no matter how they've done in camp.
 
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joshwil3 said:
There's the real question, can you even keep a solid 3 year starter anymore? I think you still have to coach like you can.
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The worst thing in the world a G5 can have now is an underclassman all-conference QB. He is gone for sure and then you are scrambling for the next however long.
 
TwolfHerdfan said:
Your points are well taken. I just don't underatand why we have so much trouble getting a multi year starter who would be solid like Cato.
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Unfortunate circumstances and coaching.

First the unfortunate circumstance that I believe was the catalyst event to derail the momentum created in 2013 and 2014. The transfer of Blake Frohnapfel. I full believe had he stayed he would have started in 2015 and we most likely run the table and probably repeat as conference champs. Him leaving derailed the staff's plans for succession and sped up Litton being put out there. Either he benefits from the redshirt year or we get a year to figure out he wasn't mature enough to play. This could have been avoided 4 years earlier when Doc made the mistake of burning Eric's redshirt for pretty much nothing. Both wanted to play with each other and by burning Eric's RS that put them off schedule. Had there been a possibility to play with Eric in 2015, I think Blake stays and the trajectory of the program is so much different.

Next the examples of poor coaching. Litton and Wells both had the talent to be very good QBs, but both were stunted by poor coaching. I can go through the instances where the staff made mistakes, but I won't because I'm not going to type all of it out.

So we could have kept the run going, but the process was messed up. It happens and it is on the staff to recover and they never did. The other thing that hurts in recruiting is having a Cato because every top shelf QB isn't looking our way because they don't want to sit. Litton and Wells were pretty well solidified starters as well with multiple years left on the table.

IMO the issue with Huff is that he never wanted to be here. Doc could recruit, but his staff was inconsistent in the development of talent and using them correctly. Like throwing deep fades to a 5'6" Moo Moo Smith as your X, but I digress. As I said Huff was never planning on being here more than a season or two. He saw a division champ roster with most of it's pieces with multiple seasons left returning and thought he'd cash out. Yes I know he was always leaving and we all were aware of that, but you still treat your current job like it's your permanent job because not doing so can burn you and it burnt him. Once Grant transferred, Huff has been in scramble mode to find a replacement and his first choice (Colombi) was another shot at cashing out early. That didn't work and the hole got deeper. Then he skipped taking a HS QB in 2023 and here we are. He's been depending on portal QBs that have washed out of other programs instead of even attempting to develop on himself. I know football has changed, but you can take a portal guy for the right now and one or two HS QBs for the future. The truth is with the portal the way it is right now there are more quality HS QBs available because of the QB merry-go-round we're seeing.

Marshall is not a program that struggles to get QBs. That is proven. It's all on the coaches for their efforts and philosophies. I also wonder if Huff just sucks at accessing QB talent.
 
joshwil3 said:
There's the real question, can you even keep a solid 3 year starter anymore? I think you still have to coach like you can.
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Probably not. In today's landscape there's not way we keep Rakeem Cato. With the number he put up he would easily get high six to low seven figure NIL offers to go to a P5. That being said I don't think you bail on developing HS QBs. Just do it with the mindset that this is a 3 year or even a two year proposition and keep loading up the QB room.

Also if you do get another Cato or a Leftwich or a Pennington you throw everything you have at them while there here to ensure they stay here.
 
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ohio herd said:
well if the OL plays as bad this year as it did last year it will not matter who the QB is. I am convinced that Cole is better than some of you think
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Maybe, but how much is that because of who he is? Yes the OL was trash last season and he was thrown out in a bad situation, but Cole has been here going on 3 years and he's never been able to take control of the position and distance himself from the competition. That's not to say he never will, but I think a lot of the wishful thinking on Cole is because he's Chad's son. He had something like 6 INTs last year to 0 TDs. That is dreadful and at any other time and any other QB we'd all be wanting to look at someone else.
 
RhinoD said:
This whole article was coach speak from Huff... Probably as it should be with a week left until we play a real game.

Earle looks like he is going to start
Braxton is going to be the backup (maybe have an occasional gadget play, etc)
Cole is #3
Parachek has never been in consideration
Long is going to redshirt

I am as hard as anybody on Huff for talking a lot and never actually saying anything... But in this instance, can you imagine if he busted out "Well, we're almost done with fall practice. A couple of the guys have looked good, a couple have been awful, we'll just see how it goes.".. He has to talk up all 5 of them, no matter how they've done in camp.
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I don't know why Parachek didn't go in the portal and transfer back down. He has never been a serious contender for starting position or even the backup spot. He must really love going to school here.
 
BleedsGreen33 said:
I don't know why Parachek didn't go in the portal and transfer back down. He has never been a serious contender for starting position or even the backup spot. He must really love going to school here.
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Purely speculation... But being the 3rd/4th QB isn't necessarily a bad deal... When I was at Marshall one of my best friends was way down the defensive line depth chart (even as a junior/senior). He still got a free education and more girls than anyone else in our apartment complex. lol
 
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BleedsGreen33 said:
From the film I've watched I've like Braxton the most. Although I think it's six in one hand and half a dozen in the other at this point. All of the QBs in the race for the #1 spot have all had multiple years to nail down a starting spot on the FBS level and have failed to do so.

If you look at this from an outsider's point of view it's not great. Yes one of these guys could finally have breakout season, but man we've crossing out fingers hard on this one.

First we have Cole Pennington. If fans had their choice he would be the dude. Nothing would be better than having Chad's son out there shredding defenses and leading us to titles the way his dad did. However the staff evidently doesn't believe in him. This will be his third season with the program and the staff must have seen enough evidence that they tried to bring in two other QBs in Spring (Braxton from Tulsa , Griffis form WF) and when Braxton didn't take the job and Griffis hung up his cleats they decided the needed to go out and get yet another QB (Earle from North Texas). That kind of tells you that Griffis was the guy they were depending on. I'd love to see Cole out there, but for whatever reasons the staff does not feel comfortable with him as the starter.

Braylon Braxton is an intriguing QB. He's a heck of an athlete. When you watch him run he doesn't run like a QB. He runs like a RB when he gets in the open field. His vision and agility allow him to make big plays and his arm is decent. Out of all the QBs we have on the roster he has started the most games and put up the best stats. Not great stats, but he's been there and done that. According to some articles it was injuries that kept him from nailing down he starting job. However he didn't show enough in the spring to convince the staff he should be the starter.

Stone Earle is a transfer from North Texas. He started out his career at Abilene Christian where he put up alright numbers, but when down to injury. His backup looked good and eventually Earle hit the portal where he ended up at North Texas. In 2022 he saw action in 4 games as backup before getting names the starter going into 2023. He then made it two games into the 2023 season before getting benched. Decided to go back to AC, pulled back out to stay with NT, then TCU transfer Chandler Morris came into the picture and Earle goes back into the portal and ends up here just before fall camp.

The other QBs that people know of are Colin Parachek who has been with the program a few years after transferring in from Morehead State and JaQai Long who is a 2024 commitment from Hurricane High School. Others on the roster are Chase Massey, Aiden Karsh, and Cortney Davis. All three being freshman that no one has heard of.


Now in saying all of that I am not saying that it's a lock that all of these guys are going to suck, but our hopes depend on guys that have ever been able to convince their coaches that they are the guy for the job. Sadly though this has become the norm under Huff. The alleged #1 recruiter in the nation has yet to bring in a quality QB.
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I agree. Being able to extend plays with your legs will be crucial, especially in the hostile environments (VT,OSU). A full healthy season should help as well.

Watched some highlights on Earle from when North Texas played Cal last year and was not sold. To be fair it was one game but there were some really bad INTs. Good arm but he knows where he is going pre-snap and that's tough to shake.

Interested to see what Cole will do after this year if he doesn't get any tick.
 
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RhinoD said:
Purely speculation... But being the 3rd/4th QB isn't necessarily a bad deal... When I was at Marshall one of my best friends was way down the defensive line depth chart (even as a junior/senior). He still got a free education and more girls than anyone else in our apartment complex. lol
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Oh there are definitely benefits.
 
BleedsGreen33 said:
Also if you do get another Cato or a Leftwich or a Pennington you throw everything you have at them while there here to ensure they stay here.
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Which would be a problem. We (Marshall) don't have nearly as much as other schools to throw at a player to keep them here.
 
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"Coach Huff said this week’s practices will determine who his starting quarterback will be Saturday…says he feels all 3 can play at a high level "

So it's Earle / Parachek / Pennington?
 
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