The Kansas football program took fans by surprise earlier this week by naming Isaiah Marshall the starting quarterback. Although Cole Ballard was the presumed favorite throughout fall camp, Marshall performed well enough in KU’s practices to force Lance Leipold’s hand and pick the less experienced candidate.
Marshall’s dynamic legs and dual-threat ability could potentially make him one of the most exciting signal-callers in the Big 12. However, he’s only thrown three passes at the Division I level, creating plenty of unknowns for the Jayhawks’ offense.
The Michigan native may have been named the starter for Week 1 and beyond. That doesn’t mean fans should expect him to get the nod in all 12 of KU’s regular-season games without a second thought. This job could be more temporary than it seems.
Regardless of whether he won the starting role under center, Ballard’s coaches and teammates have expressed plenty of praise for him all offseason. There is a reason why he was named one of the group’s five official team captains.
Before Coach Leipold officially named a starter, he said fans would probably get a glimpse at both quarterbacks throughout the season. At the very least, Ballard could get a couple quarters of action when KU goes up big against Long Island.
The glass-half-full outlook is that Marshall beat out a player with more experience in the offensive scheme who was listed as the QB2 behind Jalon Daniels all of last year. The glass-half-empty outlook tells us that Ballard is a former preferred walk-on who didn’t look particularly impressive when he received game action.
Neither player could have separated themselves much from the other if it took the coaching staff until a week before the opener to name a starter.
We probably won’t learn much from the Jayhawks’ Week 1 matchup against a lowly FCS opponent, but the second game of the campaign against Missouri should be a good benchmark for evaluating Marshall. If he isn’t getting it done through the first few weeks of the season, don’t be surprised if Andy Kotelnicki turns the ball over to Ballard at some point during the year.
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