Monmouth U Football Hopes To Name Starting Quarterback This Spring

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WEST LONG BRANCH – Last season, senior quarterback Brandon Hill averaged 239.6 yards per game throwing for 2396 yards and 19 touchdowns while leading the Hawks to a 6-5 record in their inaugural season as a member of the Big South Conference.
Hill and fifth-year backup quarterback Greg Depugh have since graduated, leaving Monmouth with only one quarterback on the roster who has ever attempted a pass in college. Third string quarterback Devin Ray completed 1-of-1 passes thrown for minus-three yards in mop up duty against Columbia on Oct.11. Thursday, Ray was ruled out of spring practice as the former Rutgers walk-on is scheduled to have surgery on Friday to repair a stress fracture in his left foot.
That leaves the Hawks with three quarterbacks on the roster– none of whom have ever taken a collegiate snap – fighting for the starting job.
Cody Williams, a redshirt dual-threat freshman from Springfield Central High School in Springfield, Massachusetts appears to be the front-runner and it looks as though it’s his job to lose, although nothing has been settled as of yet.
The 6-foot-4, 180-pounder threw for more than 5,000 career yards and in his senior year he completed nearly 70 percent of his passes for 2,214 yards and 28 touchdowns. He was named to the 2013 Massachusetts High School Coaches first-team All-State football team earning the Western Mass. high school football Player of the Year award.
In his three seasons as starting quarterback, Williams led Central to a 32-5 overall record, including a perfect 21-0 record in AA Conference regular season play. He led the Golden Eagles to three consecutive AA Conference titles, reached three consecutive Western Mass. finals, and came away with two Western Mass. championships.
Senior signal caller Ben Onett is coming off a season-ending Achilles injury and redshirt freshman Christian Runza from Old Tappan High School is the third player still in the mix as these three young quarterbacks battle it out for the star ting job this spring.
“It’s still very much up in the air, it’s a very competitive situation, a fluid situation right now,” Monmouth head coach Kevin Callahan said regarding the quarterback competition. “It looks like Devin Ray’s going be out for a while and miss the rest of spring ball. So that’s unfortunate because he had been doing a good job and there’s been some good competition there out of the group. The other guys have to pick up the slack a little bit.”
With eleven spring practices remaining before the Blue/White Spring game on April 26 the hope is that a clear-cut starter will emerge from this group and be in place heading into training camp in August.
“As you can see today, Cody has the ability to run around and
is very fluid,” Callahan said. “But he like the other guys is still figuring out how to put it all together; running the show, getting guys in the right formations and making the right calls on the line of scrimmage. There’s a lot that goes into that position and we ask a lot of them. He’s making progress but we’re putting a lot on his plate right now. Certainly, our preference would be to have a starter at the end of spring ball. It’s just going to be a matter of; we have to evaluate what we see from the guys.”
Whoever does win the star ting job will have the luxury of standing behind a veteran group of offensive lineman with the Hawks returning all five starters from a year ago. That should go a long way in accelerating the development of the future quarterback.
They’ll also benefit from the return of second-team All-Big South running back Lavon Chaney, who racked up 873 yards and eight touchdowns on the ground as well being a legitimate receiving threat out of the backfield with 49 receptions for 359 yards and two touchdowns.
Another plus the Hawks are excited about is the addition of Indiana University transfer Myles Graham. They anticipate using both Chaney and Graham in the backfield with their own version of “Thunder and Lightning”.
Graham is a strapping 6-foot-0, 220-pounder out of Chaminade-Madonna High School in Hollywood, Florida where he was selected second-team All-Broward County as a junior after rushing for 852 yards while averaging 11.4 yards/carry with 14 touchdowns before missing his senior year with an injury. Last season
as a freshman at Indiana he played in eight games rushing for 81 yards on 14 carries with a touchdown.
Wide receiver is another position on the team where the starting jobs are still up for grabs. Juniors Matt Choi and Darren Ambush have the most experience from a group of returners with redshirt freshman Reggie White Jr. Lackawanna C.C. transfers DeAndre Black and Farrod Clark looking good in practice.
Fifth-year senior Hakeem Valles is back at tight end after hauling in 18 passes for 255 yards and three touchdowns last season. Expect the 6-foot-5 Valles to play an even larger role this season with his big body being a conspicuous target for the young quarterbacks.
“We’re going to be more athletic at the quarterback position than we were a year ago regardless who the starter is,” Callahan said. “We’re going to try to take advantage of that. So we’re going to emphasize more things in our package that will allow the quarterback to potentially keep the ball in the zone read and things like that. We’ve put in some new things schematically so we’ve got a ways to go as far as execution, but I like the level of energy they’ve shown.”
The first day in full pads is Saturday so that’s when the real evaluation process will begin. This is when the opportunities arise for that special player to take control of a still vacant position. Williams brings with him all the physical tools needed to make an immediate impact and comes from a long tradition of winning. All this kid has done his entire football career is win; the ball is in his hands.
— By Mike Ready