Southern Miss to use ‘a lot’ of quarterbacks Saturday
Competitions on Tuesdays has probably carried more weight throughout the season than even Southern Miss coach Will Hall would like.
It’s a day of practice where questions are answered and depth chart spots are ordered. It’s a day that has produced anxious decisions over who will lead the Golden Eagles at quarterback.
Southern Miss has once again struggled to find positive production and big-play ability from the position throughout the year.
It hasn’t been overtly detrimental for a team that sits just one win away from bowl eligibility, but the problems it can cause were highlighted in the recent, all-phases come-apart against Georgia State.
The trouncing brought near-forgotten West Virginia transfer Trey Lowe back to the forefront following the third time this season freshman Zach Wilcke has been benched. It once again raises the same tired question from the USM faithful: who will play quarterback this week?
“We’ve not played very well at quarterback all year,” Hall said during his Monday coaches call. “We’re one of the few teams in this league that doesn’t have an established quarterback. We’re working to improve that area. It’s obviously a position that we have to work around to win. But we have to continue to coach those kids and find ways to win doing the things that they can do well.”
“Work around,” indeed. Wilcke has the third-lowest completion percentage among Sun Belt quarterbacks with 100 pass attempts and is averaging an interception once every 19.5 attempts.
And yet Wilcke, a man who was in high school a year ago, remains the best option on the team.
Southern Miss has played nearly every game with an experience deficiency at quarterback. That’s because it’s almost totally alone in its own league at using a young, out-of-high-school starter.
Of the 14 teams in the Sun Belt, a whopping 11 have started a transfer at quarterback. That includes a former USM player, Chandler Fields, at ULM.
The only other two schools with a homegrown talent starting for them are Old Dominion and Coastal Carolina. The Monarchs are dead last in the league in scoring with Hayden Wolff.
The Chanticleers, of course, have Grayson McCall, one of the top quarterbacks in the country in his third year as the starter. He’s the outlier in a sea of programs that have turned toward experienced passers to accelerate their offense’s development.
Georgia Southern’s first-year coach Clay Helton brought in Kyle Vantrease from Buffalo to help hasten the transition from the triple option to Helton’s pass-first attack. In year one, the Eagles are the SBC’s leader in passing and scoring.
South Alabama has rocketed to title contention with Toledo transfer Carter Bradley while Troy sits on top of the West thanks to some timely performances from three-time transfer Jarret Doege.
James Madison’s FCS-to-FBS transition has been made easier through the electric play of former Temple and Colorado State quarterback Todd Centeio.
Georgia State’s Darren Grainger, who started his career at Furman, lit up USM to the tune of 133 passing yards and 143 rushing yards on Saturday and is the catalyst for the conference’s top rushing offense.
The changing landscape begs the question: how much value is there left in playing and developing a young quarterback out of high school?
Hall is attempting to strike a balance. It is well-documented his staff recruited former LSU quarterback Myles Brennan last offseason and came up short. He is likely to hit the portal again in the coming months in search of a quarterback.
But he also swayed Ty Keyes to follow him to USM out of high school and landed the top-ranked passer in Mississippi in Wilcke.
Hall is quick to point out that the portal is not always the answer.
“We signed two really good young quarterbacks since we’ve been here,” Hall said. “We have gone after some high-end quarterbacks that we didn’t get... (the transfer portal) is not a magic wand. You don’t just go into the portal and get a quarterback. Most of the quarterbacks in the portal are not very good, that’s why they’re in the portal. They weren’t very good where they were at.”
Many of USM’s conference foes have succeeded with imported arms, but to Hall’s credit, many haven’t. Marshall has struggled to find offensive rhythm with Henry Colombi and App State is playing well-under its championship standards with second-year starter Chase Brice.
The portal has quickly changed what football has looked like in the SBC. Expect it to eventually change the way USM runs its offense as it searches for stability.
Especially after Tuesday’s post-practice announcement from Hall: “We’re going to play a lot of (quarterbacks). It’ll be fun to watch.”
This story was originally published November 8, 2022 at 11:29 AM.
