The Replacements

There will be plenty of WPIAL athletes from the Class Of 2018 that will graduate this year as they will either get a job or go to college and perhaps continue their athletic or academic career. With WPIAL senior athletes graduating that means that current juniors and underclassmen need to step up and play at the varsity level or play better while they are on varisty. There are a good amount of WPIAL teams that will lose their quarterbacks next season which means someone has to fill their shoes.

Pine-Richland juniors Ben McGregor and Merrick Miller will both compete against each other to see who will be the starting quarterback next season. McGregor and Miller barely played quarterback on varsity this year but when they did McGregor was 17/21 for 137 yards and Miller was 1/1 for 9 yards. Whoever gets the starting position for the Rams next year will have to fill in the shoes for Phil Jurkovec as he was known as one of the best quarterbacks in the state. Jurkovec is going to play college football at Notre Dame. If McGregor or Miller can play good during the regular season by passing the football good and not turn the ball over the Rams can easily see themselves back at the 6A WPIAL football championship game at Heinz Field next year.

The Gateway Gators are in the same situation as Pine-Richland as they are looking for their next starting quarterback for next year as well. Current junior Brendan Majocha and current sophomore Ethan Birckbichler will be battling against each other this summer to see who will get the starting quarterback position as one of them will have to fill in the shoes of Brady Walker who played like a straight up monster this year as he lead the WPIAL in passing yards, passing touchdowns, passing completions and passing attempts. What made Walker so good was that he had a better connection and better chemistry with his junior wide receivers Courtney Jackson and Jeremiah Josephs and it was a blessing that Walker had freshman running back Derrick Davis Jr. behind him as he was good this year and is already getting offers from very popular D1 schools. Whoever gets the starting QB position at Gateway next year knows that they have wide receivers and a running back who has the experience of winning and making big plays in big games.

Another school that is looking for a new quarterback next year is Chartiers Valley as senior Reed Bruggeman is graduating and the Colts have two options. Sophomore Griffin Beattie and freshman Socrates Boulis will compete against each other this summer to see who will get the starting QB position. Beattie and Boulis did not play quarterback at the varsity level this year as Reed was the only player on the Colts this year to play QB. Socrates and Griffin basically played the same amount of time when they were both playing at the junior varsity level this year. Both QBs are really fast at running with the football, both throw the football at the same distance and both are basically the same height and look like the weigh the same as well. Colts Head coach Dan Knause might have to see who his QB will be this season by seeing which of those two do better at practice and training camp and he will take a look at them real closely when they scrimmage against whichever team they have to scrimmage against.

What's different for the Colts rather than the Gators and the Rams is that the Gators and Rams already have starters for next year that are experienced at every other position except for the QB position. And besides the Rams and Gators have won WPIAL championships and a lot of football games just in general in the last 5 or so years. The Colts however have not been looking good in recent years as they were 2-8 this year even though Reed threw for 1,690 yards and threw 19 touchdowns. The Colts also need to find their starters for almost all the other positions including the QB position.

Other schools will have to find their new starting quarterback this summer too as their current quarterback are leaving. Othe quarterbacks this year that are graduating are Drew Saxton, who had a wonderful three years at South Fayette, Ryhan Culberson of Fort Cherry, Jake Cortes of Peters Township, Jack Hansberry of Upper Saint Clair, Troy Fisher from Central Catholic, Ricky Guss of Quaker Valley and James Stocker of Mount Lebanon. There are even other starting quarterbacks that are graduating this year that I did not mention.

It is possible that backup quarterbacks shine the first year they start as some have in the past.

Before Phil Jurkovec started for the Rams their starting quarterback was Ben DiNucci who led the WPIAL in the 2014 season in passing yards which was his senior year and he led the Rams to a WPIAL championship that year. Then after DiNucci graduated Phil Jurkovec took over as he was ready to play as he watched DiNucci play from the year before and took advice from him to make him a good quarterback.

Drew Saxton was in the same situation as Phil was in. Before Saxton started for the South Fayette Lions their starting quarterback was Brett Brumbaugh who led the Lions to two state championships in 2013 and 2014. Brett then went to Duquesne to play football. Some people found it surprising because they thought he could have done better and go to a NCAA FBS school instead of a FCS school. Saxton learned quickly how to become a good QB as he continued winning games for the Lions even though they did not win any WPIAL championships or state championships while Saxton started for three years.

Some backup quarterbacks might need a year to figure things out before they become great. In 2015 West Allegheny quarterback Andrew Koester graduated as he led the Indians to 2 WPIAL football championships in his sophomore and junior years which were 2012 and 2013. Then after Koester graduated Nick Ross who was a junior had to take over and even though he got West A to the 2015 WPIAL 3A football playoffs that year they lost in the second round to Thomas Jefferson 14-0 as Ross only threw 663 yards that season. The next year in 2016 however Nick Ross decided to make his senior year a great year as he threw for 2,389 yards that year and led West A to a 5A football WPIAL championship win over McKeesport and led the Indians to the semifinals in the state playoffs but lost to Harrisburg 42-10. If West A would have won that game they would have gone to the 5A PIAA state championship game that year.

We will see how some schools will do next year as a lot of them will have a new quarterback under center.