Grambling came out with the offense looking good last week. Taking down Alcorn St. 31-10. Their QB threw for 303 yards, 4 TDs and was named the SWAC offensive player of the week. Meanwhile, their freshman tailback won SWAC Newcomer of the Week for running for 143 yards on 30 carries.
The head coach Ron Broadway, has since downplayed the victory and said the team needs to do better.
Since it will be freshman starting for Pitt — redshirt or true — there was an article about how well freshman QBs have done for Pitt. Matt Lytle was listed, but he sure wasn’t discussed in terms of success in the main article.
This story seems to believe that Smith will be the starter on Saturday.
Freshman Pat Bostick will compete with Smith this week in practice, according to the coaches, but unless Bostick is clearly better, it looks like Smith will get the start. And Bostick will play some as the backup.
“It’ll be a little bit of a challenge, but Kevan got a lot of work in the spring and summer and had a good summer camp last year,†Cavanaugh said. “Bostick is getting caught up after missing some time during summer camp, but he’s been back for a while and is doing much better.
“So, it’s a challenge for all of us, but we’ve got some people around those quarterbacks. And I’ve told them that this is not something that they have to go out and do by themselves. So, we’ve got enough talent around them that they should function very well.â€
Wannstedt said that the two would split time with the first team in practice, but several players believed that Smith had the edge.
“We’re behind Kevan Smith 100 percent,†senior cornerback Kennard Cox said, “just like we were behind Bill. … Right now, he should be the starter. It’s his time. Bill went down, and it’s a bad time for us. But we have to keep pushing on and keep moving forward. So, we’re behind Kevan or Pat, whoever gets behind center Saturday.â€
I expect Smith to start, but Bostick will get at least 25% of the snaps. You know, for such a bad 1-AA game we’ve been mocking since the schedule was announced, this game has suddenly become a lot more interesting and intriguing. Not exactly for the best reasons, but I know I’ll be curious.
I think Smith has what it takes to be a good replacement if he can get the snap issue resolved.
I’ve seen him play at a spring practice scrimmage, at the spring game, and in the game last week– each time he’s fumbled at least one snap. It may seem ridiculous that that kind of thing would be a factor in picking a QB, but it just seems like he can’t get it down.
I’m looking forward to seeing how each of them performs. Let’s hope the O-line can give them a little time so we can get a decent picture.
