A Little Baseless Speculation on the QB Battle

Billy Cosh.

Football season is still months away, but with the Dukes ready to play their annual spring game, we think it’s time to pretend like we have any insight into the mind of Mickey Matthews and predict who’ll earn the QB 1 job. Last season, the offense struggled and the Dukes failed to make the playoffs for the second year in a row. Now Mickey Matthews has assumed play calling duties and has a number of options at QB. All 4 contenders are enrolled, on campus, and practicing with the team. Rumor has it that Mickey’s going to choose a starter by the end of spring. That’s probably a good move for the program as it will add some stability and take away some of the uncertainty that surrounded the Dukes the past 2 summers. It’s probably a bad thing for us though, because we’re hoping to squeeze a few more posts out of this topic. Without further ado, let’s take a look at the candidates.

Justin Thorpe

Thorpe will be a redshirt junior entering the season and has more college experience than the rest of the QB’s combined. Unfortunately, none of the other guys have seen a down of action and Thorpe only has 12 games under his belt. And he wasn’t the starter in all 12. He’s an extremely athletic QB, who many fans have been overly critical of in the past. Everyone seems to discount his play as a freshman, when he was voted CAA Offensive Rookie of the Year. Last year he lost the staring job to Drew Dudzik, but was supposed to be used a change of pace QB. He got hurt in the first game and was out the rest of the season. He’s talented enough to play, and excel at multiple positions.

Billy Cosh

Cosh is a transfer from Kansas State who redshirted for the Wildcats last year before transfering to JMU. He’s a bit of a departure from the JMU QB norm in that he’s a pure passer. He put up some truly eye-popping numbers in high school, while becoming the all-time leading passer in Maryland state history. He supposedly was given assurances by the JMU coaching staff that they’d open up the offense to match his skills if he wins the job. He threw for 56 TDs and nearly 4,000 yards his senior year in high school, so it sounds like they’d be crazy not to.

Jace Edwards

Edwards redshirted as a freshman this year so he’s got the advantage of having been with the team for a year. Of course, if Mickey changes things up drastically as playcaller, or the staff changes the system entirely, that advantage is decreased. Much like how many fans have fallen for Cosh this offseason, lots of fans became infatuated with Edwards during last season. And much like it was with Cosh, it was pretty much all based on hype without seeing him play. In high school, Edwards played in a more agressive passing scheme that your typical Dukes QB, but also showed the ability to run. He rushed for over 900 yards and 14 TDs as a high school senior, while also throwing for 1,377 and 12 TDs. Rivals has him listed as a “pro-style quarterback”, but those sound like dual threat numbers to me.

Andre Coble

Coble comes to JMU after spending a year at Fork Union. He’s sort of the forgotten man in this race and has already been taking reps at Wide Receiver. Prior to going to Fork Union, he was committed to play for Temple. Taking a look at his profile and this highlight video and it’s hard to understand why. Like is often the case with recruits coming out of high school, he might drawn interest as much as an athlete, as he did as QB. That would make him quite similar to a number of talented and productive Dukes who played QB in high school. Dae’Quan Scott might be an appropriate comparison.

Irresponsibly Speculative Prediction

I have never seen 3 of these guys even play a down of football, but that doesn’t mean I’m not going to call my shot. I think Billy Cosh wins the job. I’ve long bought into the theory that Coach Matthews has been fascinated with finding a 4 year starter at QB. Cosh could definitely be that guy. After struggling offensively the past 2 seasons, I think the Dukes are ready to change things up and open up the attack. That would play into Cosh’s favor. Thorpe has the most experience, but I don’t think he’s going to win the job. I think he’ll play a lot, including getting some reps at QB, but will be more of a “slash” type weapon. Edwards will likely be the back-up, as he appears to have a decent enough arm to run a more passing friendly system. If Coble is already practicing at WR, I think the coaches probably know he’s not going to win the QB job. With Quentin Hunter out with an achilles injury, there is good chance an athlete as talented a Coble could step in and really help the team at WR. Good options all around, but that’s my completely uninformed opinion of how it will play out.