Grant Gunnell was named one of Arizona’s season captains this week, which is newsworthy inasmuch as no sophomore QB in 120 years of Arizona football had been so honored.
It prompts this question: Is Gunnell the long-awaited QB — the transformational player Arizona has sought for 120 years, its first all-conference first-team quarterback since Bruce Hill in 1975?
Who knows? Gunnell has started three games. The Wildcats lost two by scores of 34-6 and 35-7.
There is no authoritative indication that Gunnell will be the game-changing QB the Wildcats have sought for more than a century. Have you forgotten the rise and fall of Khalil Tate? And remember this: Nick Foles was an Arizona senior captain in 2011 when the Wildcats went on a 1-8 streak, costing Mike Stoops his job. And Foles is the standard by which Wildcat QBs before and after him are judged.
In Gunnell’s behalf, the race to be the Pac-12’s first-team quarterback is more wide open than ever. I mean, do you even remember who the first-team QB was in 2019? It was Utah’s lightly celebrated Tyler Huntley.
Really.
Oregon’s four-year QB starter Justin Herbert, now a leading contender to be the NFL Rookie of the Year, wasn’t even the runner-up to Huntley. That was Washington State’s Anthony Gordon. No way, you say? You can look it up.
Such is the status of quarterbacking in the Pac-12, one of the least predictable variables both at Arizona and throughout the league.
The Pac-12 will start eight quarterbacks this year who have never been the full-time QB at their school. It seems uncommonly high, but it’s not.
In 2016, nine Pac-12 quarterbacks won their jobs for the first time. In 2009, eight QBs were first-year regulars. Over the last 20 years, dating to 2000, there have been 114 new No. 1 quarterbacks at Pac-12 schools, about 5.7 break-in QBs per season.
Basically, half of the field.
So good luck to Grant Gunnell, who looks to be Arizona’s QB-of-record this season, a school at which Nic Costa, Kris Heavner, Richard Kovalchek, Matt Scott, Anu Solomon, Brandon Dawkins and even Tate rose to No. 1 and subsequently lost their No. 1 QB status over the last 20 years.
Grant Gunnell throws a pass to teammate Brian Casteel during practice. The UA is hoping Gunnell will succeed where others failed.
That does not compare to Utah, which changed QB-of-record starters 12 times in the same period, the same number as Stanford. Puzzling: Utah and Stanford have been consistent Top 25 programs.
Are QBs that replaceable? Yes.
The Pac-12’s Class of 2016, a group of 17 signees, are Exhibit A of the uneven journey of a college quarterback.
Cal’s ’16 QB signees left Berkeley long ago; Victor Viramontes is now a linebacker at UNLV. Max Gilliam transferred to Saddleback JC, then UNLV and has not played. Arizona State’s Jack Smith switched to wide receiver and is now a QB at Central Washington. His ASU classmate, Dillon Sterling-Cole, transferred to Midwestern State.
Washington’s 2016 signee Daniel Bridge-Gadd, Arizona’s 2015 Gatorade Player of the Year, transferred to NAU, failed to win playing time, and is now a stand-up comedian. Really.
Utah coach Kyle Whittingham has played musical chairs with his QBs, with one exception: Travis Wilson, a useful but not big-name QB, was the Utes’ starter-of-record from 2012-15. It almost makes you forget that Whittingham started four quarterbacks in four years before Wilson. Or have you forgotten Brian Johnson, Terrance Cain, Jordan Wynn and Jon Hays?
Me, too.
On Monday, Whittingham declined to identify Utah’s new starting quarterback, one who will debut Saturday against Arizona. When asked about Cam Rising, one of three who strongly competed for Utah’s starting job, Whittingham was coy.
“He’s fast, he has a strong arm and is a quick decision-maker,” said Whittingham, who then outlined the reason Rising sat on the bench at Texas for two years before transferring to Utah. “When he got here, he was a little of a loose cannon, not taking care of the ball, not making good decisions.”
There have been a brigade of loose-cannon QBs in Pac-12 football the last 20 years.
Whittingham compared — well, sort of — Gunnell to Herbert, who has gone on to be a starter in his NFL rookie season.
“Gunnell was just a young guy last year,” said Whittingham. “He’s a very capable runner, kind of like what you saw out of Herbert when he was a freshman at Oregon, although I’m not saying (Gunnell) is going to be the next Herbert.”
As good as Herbert was at Oregon, he was never the first-team All-Pac-12 quarterback. As a junior, he was beaten out by WSU’s Gardner Minshew, a transfer from East Carolina.
There have been 12 Herbert-type QBs in the Pac-12 since 2000 — a dozen four-year starters — and not all of them were winners.
Longevity or future success in the NFL doesn’t ensure QB success in this league or any, as Arizona found out under Foles.
Cody Hawkins started four years at Colorado, 2007-10, and the Buffaloes went just 17-30. His father, head coach Dan Hawkins, was fired after Year 4. Sefo Liufau started for the Buffs from 2013-16 and CU struggled, going 11-39. He was followed by recently departed four-year starter Steven Montez, who went 25-25 in his four years as CU’s starting QB, never quite getting over that mysterious hump.
Alas, this year the Buffaloes are starting Sam Noyer from the jinxed Class of 2016 at quarterback. As recently as last season, Noyer was a defensive back.
Remember this as the Captain Gunnell era begins at Arizona: ASU had one four-year QB starter this century, Rudy Carpenter. As a senior, Carpenter’s Sun Devils went 5-7 and lost the Territorial Cup to Arizona, which hadn’t had a winning season for 11 years.
When it comes to quarterbacking in this league, anything goes.
