Mid-American Conference boasts top-flight QB talent
Pennington, Leftwich and now Ben Roethlisberger, and don't forget feak WR Randy Moss
Twenty-two NFL scouts were in Akron's Rubber Bowl last Friday, scribbling notes as the Zips rallied to beat Marshall. A couple more personnel types visited Miami (Ohio) this week.
It's not just quarterbacks who've drawn them there, but the immediate NFL impact of one former Miami star — Pittsburgh Steelers prodigy Ben Roethlisberger — has reminded them: There's quarterback talent to be mined in the midlevel Mid-American Conference.
No fewer than five Mid-American QBs are among major college football's top 13 players in total offense, and that doesn't include Akron's Charlie Frye, the best NFL prospect of them all. The 6-4 senior, who had three touchdown passes in the final 18 minutes of the 31-28 win vs. Marshall, has enough arm, accuracy, mobility and overall athleticism to be regarded as a potential first-round pick in 2005.
Bowling Green's Omar Jacobs, a third-year sophomore, has a nation-high 27 TD passes and is fourth in efficiency. That's a spot ahead of Cal's Aaron Rodgers.
Toledo's Bruce Gradkowski, a fourth-year junior whose high school totals surpassed those of Johnny Lujack, George Blanda, Joe Namath, Terry Hanratty, Joe Montana and Dan Marino in the same Pittsburgh-area league, has a 72% completion rate and 20 TD passes. Gradkowski entered Tuesday's win against Northern Illinois as the nation's No. 8-rated passer, just ahead of Oklahoma's Jason White.
Eastern Michigan's Matt Bohnet ranks third in total offense. Kent State's Joshua Cribbs ranks 11th. Miami's Josh Betts ranks 13th.
"You can only have so many guys in this league be successful without eventually people saying, 'Well, there's got to be something there,' " says Miami coach Terry Hoeppner.
"They talk about level of competition. It's not a huge leap (from the MAC to such power conferences as the neighboring Big Ten). ... Our offenses tend to be more wide open. It's not a conservative, run-oriented conference, so I think the quarterbacks, regardless of who we're playing, have had some pretty good training and have seen a lot, as evidenced by the success (Chad) Pennington, (Byron) Leftwich and now Ben have had."
Ex-Marshall QBs Pennington and Leftwich, though both currently injured, run NFL offenses in New York (the Jets) and Jacksonville, respectively. Roethlisberger, the rookie centerpiece of Pittsburgh's rise to the top of the AFC, gives the MAC a third pro starter.
"I think maybe some of the standard ideas about quarterbacks and where they came from and what they did," Hoeppner says, "(scouts are) taking a hard look at."
Pennington, Leftwich and now Ben Roethlisberger, and don't forget feak WR Randy Moss
Twenty-two NFL scouts were in Akron's Rubber Bowl last Friday, scribbling notes as the Zips rallied to beat Marshall. A couple more personnel types visited Miami (Ohio) this week.
It's not just quarterbacks who've drawn them there, but the immediate NFL impact of one former Miami star — Pittsburgh Steelers prodigy Ben Roethlisberger — has reminded them: There's quarterback talent to be mined in the midlevel Mid-American Conference.
No fewer than five Mid-American QBs are among major college football's top 13 players in total offense, and that doesn't include Akron's Charlie Frye, the best NFL prospect of them all. The 6-4 senior, who had three touchdown passes in the final 18 minutes of the 31-28 win vs. Marshall, has enough arm, accuracy, mobility and overall athleticism to be regarded as a potential first-round pick in 2005.
Bowling Green's Omar Jacobs, a third-year sophomore, has a nation-high 27 TD passes and is fourth in efficiency. That's a spot ahead of Cal's Aaron Rodgers.
Toledo's Bruce Gradkowski, a fourth-year junior whose high school totals surpassed those of Johnny Lujack, George Blanda, Joe Namath, Terry Hanratty, Joe Montana and Dan Marino in the same Pittsburgh-area league, has a 72% completion rate and 20 TD passes. Gradkowski entered Tuesday's win against Northern Illinois as the nation's No. 8-rated passer, just ahead of Oklahoma's Jason White.
Eastern Michigan's Matt Bohnet ranks third in total offense. Kent State's Joshua Cribbs ranks 11th. Miami's Josh Betts ranks 13th.
"You can only have so many guys in this league be successful without eventually people saying, 'Well, there's got to be something there,' " says Miami coach Terry Hoeppner.
"They talk about level of competition. It's not a huge leap (from the MAC to such power conferences as the neighboring Big Ten). ... Our offenses tend to be more wide open. It's not a conservative, run-oriented conference, so I think the quarterbacks, regardless of who we're playing, have had some pretty good training and have seen a lot, as evidenced by the success (Chad) Pennington, (Byron) Leftwich and now Ben have had."
Ex-Marshall QBs Pennington and Leftwich, though both currently injured, run NFL offenses in New York (the Jets) and Jacksonville, respectively. Roethlisberger, the rookie centerpiece of Pittsburgh's rise to the top of the AFC, gives the MAC a third pro starter.
"I think maybe some of the standard ideas about quarterbacks and where they came from and what they did," Hoeppner says, "(scouts are) taking a hard look at."
