Four quarterbacks. Zero starts.

In one of the most bizarre, and perhaps unprecedented, moments in modern college football history two teams head into battle on Saturday without a starting quarterback announced.

Both Syracuse and Penn State are choosing between two unproven quarterbacks. Both are trying to prepare for two signal callers without much film.

But the big difference comes in the quarterbacks’ distinctions.

SU head coach Scott Shafer is preparing his team for a scheme. Empty backfields. Multiple tight end sets. Whether PSU’s quarterback is 19-year-old JUCO transfer Tyler Ferguson or 18-year-old five-star freshman Christian Hackenberg, they’ll be running the same Bill O’Brien offense.

For O’Brien, though, SU quarterbacks Drew Allen and Terrel Hunt present different skill sets and different problems. Allen is a senior with a big arm and three years’ worth of Big 12 football knowledge. Hunt is a sophomore dual-threat option who ran the offense in the spring.

“It’s really one of the things that’s a little nerve-wracking, going into the first game,” O’Brien said. “You really don’t know what to expect. You have to make sure you cover all your bases as best you can, but you also can’t stay into the office until 4:30 in the morning trying to block ghosts and things you really can’t be sure exist.”

Shafer said he hasn’t thought much about how his masking of SU’s starter could be more pertinent than O’Brien’s, but admitted the inexperience of all four quarterbacks makes it difficult for both teams to scout. When the Orange opens its season against Penn State on Saturday at 3:30 p.m. at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, N.J., it will do so without having seen a ton of film on Ferguson and Hackenberg.

Ferguson starred as a freshman at College of the Sequoias in Visalia, Calif., last season while Hackenberg spent a year at Fork Union Military Academy, in Virginia. Most of what Shafer has found he said was from YouTube, Scout.com and Rivals.com.
And the tape showed both quarterbacks are capable of running an offense, and also moving the chains with their feet.

“We won’t be in a situation where we have two drastically different situations on the football field,” Shafer said. “I think they’re similar to one another so I don’t think it poses as big of a concern with regard to those two.”

The biggest concern may be O’Brien’s use of his tight ends. As an assistant coach with the New England Patriots, he took the AFC by storm flaunting his “12 personnel” two-tight end sets with Rob Gronkowski and Aaron Hernandez.

Now he’s using Kyle Carter and Jesse James similarly. Shafer said he’s expecting to match up with as many as three Nittany Lion tight ends at once.

“We have to be prepared for that and anything else,” Shafer said. “They do a good job with their empty package, so we have to have good answers and they will try to get some mismatches on us.”

And with an inexperienced quarterback under center, SU linebacker Marquis Spruill expects either Ferguson or Hackenberg will be working with a limited playbook.

Those tight ends will likely be their first or second options on most passing plays.

“Whoever they put in there we’re going to go after,” Spruill said. “We want to make sure he doesn’t have the ball that long to get it there.”

But while the Penn State quarterback selection doesn’t affect the SU defense’s approach, the same can’t be said for Syracuse’s choice.

Allen can throw the ball 70 yards, Shafer said, while Hunt is athletic enough to have played high school basketball for powerhouse Christ the King Regional High School in New York.

“Whether it’s Hunt or Allen, from what we know they are two different quarterbacks,” O’Brien said. “So you’ve got to be ready for two different styles of quarterbacks. I’m not going to get into how I see the difference in their styles, but we have to do a good job on defense of recognizing who’s in the game and making sure that we’re ready for that.”

While Shafer and the rest of the coaching staff have been mum about which one the Orange will start, sophomore H-back Ashton Broyld said Allen is taking most of the first-team reps with him and Shafer said he’s seen Allen’s teammates grow to look at him as a leader.

If that is true, it’s possible SU may be able to stretch out the Penn State secondary enough to keep the running lanes open for Jerome Smith and Prince-Tyson Gulley.

The only thing that is certain is football will be played Saturday afternoon. Two of the four quarterbacks will start, but the two others could finish.

Said Allen: “Whoever coach goes with, or no matter what happens in the game, we’re all going to be ready.”

Published on August 29, 2013 at 1:57 am

Contact Stephen: [email protected] | @Stephen_Bailey1