FRESH APPROACH
More well-prepared, early-enrolling true freshmen are starting at QB
The two true freshman quarterbacks in last January’s championship game replaced sophomore quarterbacks who one year earlier had started as true freshmen. The changes were made at varying points during the season: Georgia’s Jake Fromm stepped in for injured Jacob Eason in September while Alabama’s swap of Tua Tagovailoa in place of Jalen Hurts didn’t occur until halftime of the Crimson Tide’s overtime win against the Bulldogs.
For more than 30 years, one of college football’s most popular barroom quizzes asked: How many true freshman quarterback have won a national championship? The answer was one: Jamelle Holieway led Oklahoma to the title in 1985. The number was guaranteed to double by the
third quarter in January.
It was a striking example of a growing trend within college football. The idea of relying on a true freshman was once a non-starter, especially for those teams angling for the national championship.
From 2000 to 2012, for example, just one team took home the national title without either a junior or senior as the primary starter at the position; Alabama claimed the title in 2011 behind then-sophomore AJ McCarron.
The only true freshman to contribute on one of those title-winning teams was Florida quarterback Tim Tebow, who had a key secondary role for the Gators in 2006.
“More often than not, if you were starting a true freshman (quarterback) in college football, something has gone wrong,” Penn State coach James Franklin said.
Now, however, programs across the Football Bowl Subdivision have become more willing than ever to turn the offense over to a true freshman and, with the Crimson Tide, Clemson and others as the most recent examples, are still able to compete for and win conference and national titles.
At various points in the past three seasons, each of the top three teams in this week’s Amway Coaches Poll have leaned on a true freshman: Tagovailoa and Hurts at No. 1 Alabama; current true freshman Trevor Lawrence at No. 2 Clemson; and Fromm and Eason, who has since transferred to Washington, at No. 3 Georgia.
“I don’t think there’s any question about the fact that the narrative has changed relative to young players playing,” Alabama coach Nick Saban said. “Now, especially at skill positions, guys make an impact.”
In total, nine teams in the current poll rely on a quarterback who once started as a true freshman. Even some of college football’s strongest brands are getting into the act: Within the past three seasons, programs such as Texas, Southern California, Nebraska, Texas A&M and Oregon have been willing to roll the dice behind a newcomer.
In most cases, Franklin said, “There should be someone as a redshirt freshman, redshirt sophomore, redshirt junior, redshirt senior, someone there that is more ready to go. But then there’s the kid that’s the total freakazoid.”
That quarterbacks are arriving on campuses more prepared than ever for the physical task of running a college offense is due to factors such as private quarterback coaches, the increasingly complex schemes on the high school level, the ability to get time at the position nearly year-round and the option many quarterback recruits have to enroll in the spring of their freshman year.
“If you get a quarterback who has been through all that stuff, you’re definitely getting a more polished product than we got 15 or 20 years ago,” Wake Forest coach Dave Clawson said.
“I think playing quarterback now is harder than it’s ever been. But more quarterbacks are being exposed to that in high school than they were.”
Private quarterback coaches are essentially a given for any prospect with eyes on a scholarship; many attendees of the Elite 11 competition, for example, have been working with a private coach since elementary school.
Likewise with 7-on-7 events, which are kryptonite for defenses yet tailormade for a quarterback’s development: The events allow for out-of-season snaps to work on timing, footwork and anticipation.
For the top-level recruits destined for some of college football’s top programs, year-round training has erased much of the initial learning curve — quarterbacks now are “much closer to finished products than 10 years ago or more,” said Stanford coach David Shaw, allowing his staff to work more on “fine-tuning than teaching them from scratch.”
The option to enroll early has been a game-changer, allowing new recruits to learn the offense, develop timing with their teammates and, according to Texas coach Tom Herman, become acclimated to college life during the relatively laid-back atmosphere of spring camp.
“I couldn’t imagine a true freshman quarterback coming in during the fall anymore,” Herman said.
An even greater factor, however, is the marriage of college-ready recruits with quarterback-friendly offenses. As fewer teams run what can be termed a “pro-style” system, one more rooted in traditional spacing and tempo, incoming quarterbacks are often stepping into schemes not outwardly different from what they experienced on the high school level. The playbook is more complex, certainly, but still based on famil- iar concepts, particularly for those stepping into a spread-based offense.
“I think the way the game has changed,” Saban said. “The spread style of playing is maybe not as complicated for a quarterback sometimes as the old NFL drop-back, read coverages, pick up blitzes.”
It’s not that these true freshmen are finished products; while Tagovailoa played like an upperclassman in Alabama’s win against Georgia, most temper highlight-reel plays with the predictable true freshman moment. If not surrounded by a strong supporting cast, it’s inevitable that a true freshman will struggle at times in the transition to a higher level of competition. See Southern California’s JT Daniels, for one, who has thrown three interceptions across the first two road starts this season.
“More prepared? Yes,” Herman said of freshman quarterbacks. “Still not prepared? Yes.”
But the decision to hand a team over to a freshman is no longer reserved for also-rans, cellar dwellers and teams flailing amid an offseason coaching change. As quarterbacks arrive ahead of the curve, age and inexperience are becoming lesser factors for some of college football’s top programs and coaches — if they’re willing to adapt to the trend.
“Their football knowledge and capacity is like a big bucket. And if the bucket is full and you put one more drop in it, another drop from somewhere else is going to leak out,” Herman said. “So you want to get it as full as possible without putting in too much stuff so they forget the basics. Because that has certainly happened before.”