Similar to the story at the wide receiver position, we lost a Yale legend in Kurt Rawlings, but have enough firepower returning at the quarterback position to make opposing secondaries pay the price if they decide to stack the box against Dudek. Griffin O’Connor enters preseason as the clear favorite to lead the offense. After Rawlings was injured in 2018, O’Connor set the league on fire with 1,229 yards passing and 8 touchdowns en route to becoming the 2018 Ivy League Rookie of the Year. He was thrown into tough situations in 2019 when Rawlings went down with minor injuries and was never able to get into the same rhythm as we had seen from him in games such as the Princeton contest in 2018. O’Connor is more of a traditional pocket-passer than Rawlings possessing more pure throwing power, yet needs to work on his accuracy, decision making and pocket presence to make the leap into becoming an All-Ivy caliber player. If O’Connor is indeed named the starter, much of his success will rely on the offensive line giving him a clean pocket. If Reno opts for a dual-threat quarterback to start, Nolan Grooms would be the natural selection. Grooms had an efficient 2019 campaign completing all 5 of his passes for 44 yards and averaged 5.8 yards per carry on 6 rushes. Jimmy Check saw substantial action in 2018 before the emergence of O’Connor and could challenge for the starting role if he’s made significant strides in his mechanics and fundamentals over the last two years. Reno is never afraid to throw Freshmen into the mix and Austin Tutas or Devin Suggs could see action in 2021. Tutas was a 3 star recruit out of high school, while Suggs has the prototypical development frame at 6’4”.
Projected Starter:
Griffin O’Connor
Challengers:
Nolan Grooms, Austin Tutas and Jimmy Check
QB Roster:
Austin Tutas-Freshman
Grant Jordan-Freshman
Devin Suggs-Freshman
Nolan Grooms-Sophomore
Griffin O’Connor-Junior
Jimmy Check-Senior