Next Saturday, August Thirday, at the opening Day at the Rent Football Hoskey As all the host of the Blue Devils of Central Connecticut will be there for all the action. Game Day on our flagship begins at eleven am from the Cloder Farms Doghouse just outside the stadium. Network pregame twelve thirty kickoff shortly after two. Be on the Yukon Sports Network the Varsity Network App. If you're outside the area and you want to hear what's going on, get
the Varsity Network app. Put it on your phone. It's really easy to find. It's great you can you can hear us from anywhere in the country. So that's that's big, the varsited network dot Com. So back with Jim Mora and we're kind of going through the roster a little bit here. We talked about some of the specialty guys, the skill guys, Shamar Porter, Skyler Bell, Joe Finano comes back as a QB. You got a deep quarterback depth chart.
I've seen a bunch of them now. I watched the scrimmage on Saturday and here today practice And how do you rate quarterbacks when you got that many? Do you have something in mind, say, well, Ferinano through twenty touchdowns only four interceptions, he's got to be top of the list right now. How do you go about making that decision.
Where you're looking for certain qualities, you know, great decision makers, guys are going to protect the football. Guys that have leadership qualities obviously, accuracy and timing in the passing game, and understanding of the offense. Experience. And one of the reasons that you know Joe has had some success for US is that, you know, he's played the most snaps of any of those guys. He's he's a seasoned guy. He's how many of you ever thought you'd be hearing
about a seventh year player, you know, nobody. Yeah, I mean he's in his seventh year. He's only twenty. I think he's only twenty four though, but he's in his seventh year.
So yeah, so college at seventeen, I believe. So.
I mean, someone told me he's twenty four. He's engaged, said, I mean, he's a mature kid, all right, But you know, we we do. Is to your point though, the quarterback room, there's there's depth there. You know. Nick Evers started six games for US last year and he's still here. Tucker McDonald, just from up the road, has had a tremendous offseason. He got hurt a little bit last year, but he's been pushing both of those guys. And then we have
a freshman named Quisan Ferrar who's like dynamic. Like you typically don't make quarterbacks live in a scrimmage. You put a red jersey on him and no one's allowed to hit him. And Saturday at the Rent, I just made him take off his red jersey and said you're live, and had him live and practice yesterday. And I don't think anyone's touched him yet. I mean, he's this dynamic runner. He's got great poise about him. He's got a really nice arm. All he needs is some experience. So it's
a nice room to have. I feel like, if you know, in the three years have been here, we haven't made it through a year with the same starting quarterback because of injury. Now let's you know, hopefully that changes, but if it doesn't, at least we know we've got some guys that can go in there and play with confidence.
Cassan Farra, the freshman you mentioned. His throwing skills are kind of cool. I think he can throw the ball from a lot of different angles, you can fit the ball in. He throws well on the move. That's a great skill in today's game, is it not?
Yeah, because the game there's so much movement in the game now and probably sixty percent of your pass plays, you know, are taking place outside the pocket now, you know, either by design or the play breaks down and the guy has to scramble and make a play. And he's got you know, these different arm slots that he can throw from Joe, Well, they all can, but Cason, he's got a knack for being able to throw it low with a lot of a loss in accuracy, especially for
a kid his age. I mean, he's a really good looking player, and he's a he's a great kid. He's smart, he's got composure, sees the field. Well, I probably just shut up because now some other team will come and try and poach him.
Yeah, I don't want to put him up on a pedestal.
No, he's not even a play I mean he's gonna he's not. He's a fourth string. He's fourth we're talking about it. But it's kind of cool when you can sit here and talk about your fourth string quarterback right, I mean that maybe that shows a little growth.
I don't know. I said this to somebody in the building here. I think Ben darnellis said, you know, he reminded me of Lamar Jackson.
Oh my god, that's just the wo whoa, whoa, whoa.
Okay, I'm exact. I hear you say.
There's a style there. No, there's some similarities in his style. There's similarities in the style of Jade Daniels too, you know, and in stature and so he's not quite as tall as Jaden yet, but he's still growing. But he's a young guy. But I would say, right now we're spending too much time talking about a guy who's going to be holding the cokeboard most of the time.
We got rid of that guy.
He's now in the in the future, assuming that we're doesn't get out about him, which we're screwing that up right now, maybe he'll be our quarterback.
You can play all right, but none, none of the things we say about quarterbacks matter if the offensive line doesn't protect him. True, and they did a good job last year. So now you got two guys that could end up playing the NFL Chase Valsen. Two guys that were around last year and did a lot of good things. They're not there. Tell me about the offensive line. I watched closely today because I know those big guys, if they protect the QB, that could be a lot of fun.
Yeah, and you know, for three years now we've been one of the best protection teams in the country statistically, and those statistics can be flawed, you know. One of the things that we've done is run the ball well, like you said, and so that helps you in terms of the statistics of your sack ratio. But we've got good players there, you know, and they've been in our system for a while. You look at Ben Morowski, who's our starting left tackle, who started last year as a
starting guard and then he got hurt. So he's a guy we have a lot a lot of high hopes for. And the right tackle, Carston, has been around for a long time, a couple of big guys. We brought in a right guard from Notre Dame ty Chan. Our left guard is Kyle Jurgens who played a lot last year. Our center West hoe A is a returner. So those five are solid assuming they stay healthy, which you know has not been something we've been able to make happen
in the three years we've been here. You know, it's a tough, physical sport, but they've been in our system for the most part other than Tie. But he's a smart guy. He's a really good player. They're very well coached by Christian Pace and coach Samus was our offensive line coach in the past. They understand what we're trying to do. And then it helps to have a quarterback that can make good decisions and get rid of the ball on time or throw it away and not take
a sack or take a negative play. And I think that's one of the things about Joe is his composure and his poison in the pocket, his ability to keep his eyes down the field when a play breaks down, not trying to force the ball in there, but you know, get rid of it, either dirt it or throw it out of bounds and live for the next down. So all those things out and then you've got to have good backs and tight ends that can protect too, because
you know, people don't think running backs. You know, about fifty percent of their job is past protection, you know, and it's not easy to sort things out. And we've got guys that are willing to stick their nose in there and protect their quarterback.
Yeah. Bill Belichick once famously said to Tom Brady, and then nothing happens on offense until you get rid of the ball, right, So get rid of it, and he did a pretty well