College Football Programs Showing There's No Wrong Way to Break in a Freshman QB
Over the past two seasons, college football fans got spoiled.
They watched as a pair of electric, talented freshman quarterbacks in Texas A&M's Johnny Manziel and Florida State's Jameis Winston led their teams to national prominence and were rewarded with a Heisman Trophy.
So the natural question entering the 2014 season was simple: Who's next?
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Who would emerge as the next great freshman quarterback, capturing the nation's attention?
Four weeks into the season, there's no clear answer. There doesn't appear to be an impact freshman signal-caller on the level of Manziel or Winston, but that doesn't make 2014 any less compelling.
A crop of talented freshman quarterbacks has emerged, with more on the verge of a breakthrough that could make this class even stronger.
If anything, we've learned through four weeks that there's no one way to handle a standout freshman quarterback, but rather several intriguing options. Ohio State's Urban Meyer, Arizona's Rich Rodriguez and Clemson's Dabo Swinney would certainly agree. The prominent coaches took various paths to starting a freshman quarterback, but all are on a positive track as the season's first month wraps up.
Anu Solomon
Rodriguez took the conventional route.
Arizona's coach was looking for his third starting quarterback in as many years at the Wildcats helm, and redshirt freshman Anu Solomon emerged as the starter.
He hasn't looked back since.
Solomon threw for an Arizona freshman-record 425 yards in a season-opening 58-13 rout of UNLV. While he hasn't been perfect (13 touchdowns against three interceptions), the dual-threat Solomon has been pretty darn good.
Last week, while most of you were asleep, the freshman enjoyed his first truly magical moment.
The Wildcats trailed Cal, 31-13, entering the fourth quarter, but Solomon just kept throwing. And throwing. And throwing.
His last completion was his biggest: a 47-yard Hail Mary to Austin Hill on the game's final play for a stunning 49-45 victory. Solomon threw 73 times and completed 47 of them with 520 yards and five touchdowns against two interceptions.
J.T. Barrett
Meanwhile, Urban Meyer didn't have a choice.
J.T. Barrett was expected to see time in the waning moments of Ohio State blowouts, if that, after besting sophomore Cardale Jones for the Buckeyes' backup job. After all, standing in his way was one Braxton Miller, one of the most dynamic dual threats in college football.
But when Miller left an August practice with a shoulder injury (the same shoulder that he'd undergone offseason surgery on), just like that, Barrett was the man with Miller forced into a redshirt season.
No apprenticeship, no adjustment period. Here's a Top Five team, J.T. Don't mess this up.
As you might expect, Barrett has been up and down. The Columbus Dispatch's Tim May says Barrett "continues to learn on the job." In his first start, Ohio State trailed Navy at the half before rallying for a second-half win: Barrett completed 80 percent of his passes and threw for 226 yards in a 34-17 win.
The following week, Bud Foster and Virginia Tech's defense harassed him all night in a 35-21 loss, OSU's first home defeat since 2011.
Barrett completed only nine of 29 passes for 219 yards and a touchdown against three interceptions, but Meyer didn't waver. He praised Barrett's character following the Tech loss, per ASAP Sports:
"You could see he can throw and he runs it well enough, but the real, which is probably as important as anything, is the character and maturity and what kind of human being he is. So he'll rebound. I have all the confidence in the world, so does our offensive staff. That is his strength.
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While this weekend's game against Cincinnati and the Big Ten slate will provide a true gauge of Barrett's readiness, he bounced back with 312 yards passing and six touchdowns against an interception in OSU's 66-0 rout of overmatched Kent State.
Deshaun Watson
That brings us to the guy who could be the best of the entire group: Deshaun Watson.
Watson stepped into a difficult situation at Clemson.
At Gainesville (Ga.) High School, he ran a spread offense very similar to Tigers offensive coordinator Chad Morris' hurry-up, no-huddle scheme, piling up over 17,000 yards of total offense. Watson enrolled early at Clemson and went through spring practice with the Tigers, emerging as the backup following Chad Kelly's dismissal.
But there was the not-so-small matter of Cole Stoudt. The senior had spent the past three seasons backing up Tajh Boyd, who left Clemson as the ACC's all-time touchdown leader and No. 2 passing yards leader behind N.C. State's Philip Rivers.
At some point, Watson would be the man. But would it be September 2014...or September 2015?
Right from the start, the former looked a lot more likely.
The freshman impressed in his college debut at Georgia, finishing his first drive with a beautiful 30-yard touchdown toss to Charone Peake.
Fans' calls for Watson only grew louder following a rout of South Carolina State, in which Watson completed eight of nine passes for 154 yards and three touchdowns. Still, Swinney insisted there was no quarterback controversy and pleaded with fans to support Stoudt.
That sentiment lasted about as long as it took for Stoudt to bounce a pass at the feet of wide-open tight end Jordan Leggett in the Florida State red zone Saturday night.
Stoudt lasted one more drive, but when Watson entered the game late in the first quarter, he never looked back.
His first drive covered 75 yards and ended in a Clemson field goal, and Stoudt probably realized he needed to get comfortable on the sidelines.
This was now Watson's team.
Against one of the nation's nastiest defenses, Watson was impressive, completing 19 of 28 passes for 266 yards and adding a rushing touchdown while pushing the No. 1 Seminoles to the absolute brink.
Florida State escaped with a 23-17 overtime victory, but take away a Ryan Norton shotgun snap 10 feet over his head in the red zone, a pair of Ammon Lakip missed field goals or C.J. Davidson's deadly red-zone fumble with one minute, 36 seconds left in the game, and Watson would've strolled out of Tallahassee with a stunning upset.
Swinney said on the ACC teleconference this week, per ASAP Sports, that Watson "doesn't have a lifetime contract" and that Stoudt "is still going to have an opportunity to play."
Make no mistake, though. This is Watson's time, and everyone knows it. When Swinney and Morris knew, they knew, as Swinney said:
"The first two games Cole played really well and so did Deshaun. We went into the game with the same mindset. They practiced well. When Deshaun came in, we missed a touchdown opportunity with Cole, a play he's got to make for us. When Deshaun came in, he sparked us, continued to play well. We made the decision, Hey, let's see where this young man can take us.
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Clemson might be the best 1-2 team in the nation, given that it trailed Georgia 24-21 in the fourth quarter before tiring in a 45-21 defeat.
Of the three programs we examined, Swinney was by far the most cautious with his freshman quarterback but could find himself in the best situation. Each of the Tigers' final nine games is winnable, starting with this week's home game against North Carolina. It's the perfect opportunity for the talented Watson to cement his role as the starting quarterback for the next three seasons.
We'll find out plenty more about Solomon next week against No. 2 Oregon, and the Big Ten slate will surely test Barrett, giving him a chance to learn now, even if a healthy Miller returns next season.
That's the fascinating thing about this season's freshman quarterbacks. Different approaches. Different opportunities to grow.
They might not make it to the Heisman Trophy ceremony in December, but watching these guys develop should be fun no matter how you approach it.
.jpg?w=480 "Ohio State Team Doctor")
