Blue Chip Chat
( Seventh in a series on top high school football players in the area.)
Pine- Richland QB Cole Spencer on getting better, being mic’d up.
THE SCOOP
Spencer went from an undersized, inexperienced quarterback two years ago to one of the best QBs in the WPIAL this season. Spencer had a tremendous junior season, throwing for 2,994 yards and 36 touchdowns, while also rushing for 297 yards. In two seasons, he has more than 5,500 yards offense. He has thrown for 4,453 yards and 51 touchdowns and rushed for 1,177. Spencer also is a standout wrestler, winning a WPIAL title last season. He has more than 100 career victories.
COLLEGE TALK
Spencer has made a verbal commitment to wrestle at Penn of the Ivy League. Spencer made his decision in November of his junior year. Despite his success in football at Pine- Richland, he wasn’t recruited much at all for football because of his size. But he is a terrific quarterback QB on the high school level.
OUR QUESTIONS, HIS ANSWERS
One former Pine- Richland quarterback ( Ben DiNucci) made the Dallas Cowboys roster. Another ( Phil Jurkovec) is likely to be the starter at Boston College. How does coach Eric Kasperowicz produce these QBs? I think our quarterbacks coach [ Todd Jochem] has a lot to do with it. Coach Jochem does a good job going into the feeder programs, looking for kids. They think about who’s going to be the next guy up. In seventh grade, they’re pretty much running the same offense as us, but just watered down. I’m still running plays I ran in seventh grade — and they’re still working.
You win the WPIAL two years ago and lose in the championship last year. Where does this team stand in relation to those teams? I think we have high credentials. Obviously, we don’t have a state title yet, but hopefully we get that done this year. We’ve been told since our freshman year, ‘ Hey, you guys are the next ones to do what they did in Phil’s senior year.’ We’ve been told we have the weapons to do what they did. Do you think you’re a lot better than two years ago? Oh, my gosh. I go back and look at some games from my sophomore year
and think, ‘ What the heck were we doing?’ I was really bad. In what ways are you better?
I’m definitely way stronger and definitely more accurate. But most of it is just in my head. I make way smarter decisions and I’m way more consistent.
Is there any part of you that wishes you could try football in
college? Definitely. Going through all the COVID- 190 stuff, I said to myself that I kind of want to play football. But I would have to have a killer season. None of these college guys want to trust a 5- 10, 175- pound quarterback to run their program. The only way I would play football is in the Ivy League. I can’t give up what I have to play football at a smaller college.
Any suggestions for the media to better cover high school football this year? Yeah, you should do a ‘ mic’d up’ with a high school player. With you? Yeah, I wanna be ‘ mic’d up.’ That would be sweet. Would it take a lot of editing for language? Yeah, probably ( laugh). But I could help you with the editing. You should get coach [ Kasperowicz] for it.
AND FINALLY …
Has anyone ever told you that you look like the quarterback Sunshine in “Remember The Titans?” Yeah, everyone tells me that. But shame on me. I haven’t ever seen that movie.
Would you agree that you look like him? Yeah, I do ( laugh). My hair was sort of the same. But I got my hair cut, so I’m not rocking the ‘ flow’ like I was last year.