Who would emerge as Marshall’s starting quarterback: Eddie Sullivan or A.J. Graham?
That was one of the major questions Marshall fans had heading into the spring, and several months later, they’re still looking for an answer. It’s the frustration of a battle left unsolved stemming from the fact that neither was able to maintain any lead on the other.
And both of the sophomore quarterbacks admit that the progress they made in the spring was very minimal.
“Personally do I think I came out one or two,” said Sullivan. “No. I don’t think I came out anything. I came out just like I came into camp.”
“We’re going into fall camp [with it] still just me and him right now,” Graham added. “We’re going to have a couple more guys coming in and we’re just going to try and fill them in, but right now we just leave it in the coach’s hands.”
Now, the coaches will have to make that tough decision when fall camp comes around. One would think that two quarterbacks competing against each other could be a bad combination because both want to earn the starting spot, but Graham and Sullivan have described their relationship as unique, and they want to see the team succeed. They also know in order for that to happen, one of them needs to emerge as the true starter.
“I think that me and A.J. have basically grown together,” described Sullivan. “We’ve really taken a grasp of the offense and we both learned so much in the offense and obviously no one came out one or two and nobody is going to come out one or two until fall camp.
“I can’t say it’s good or bad,” continued Sullivan. “Right now nobody did emerge and it’s going to be fine just the way it is until we get to camp.”
Sullivan just completed his first spring practice, while Graham went through his second. Sullivan admits that it was a learning experience and that played into some of his inconsistency on the field. As for Graham, the 6-foot-4 signal caller says he didn’t get everything done that he wanted.
“I would say I got a little bit accomplished,” said Graham. “I still need to work on my progression, like going through and staying with the plays and stuff like that. That’s just stuff you go into the film room, turn it on and watch it and learn from it.”
The competition will get a little more heated when August comes around. Incoming true freshman Rakeem Cato and Blake Frohnapfel will also be in the mix for playing time.
Who ever does win the starter quarterback job will be expected to step up and become a leader, but Sullivan and Graham know that there is going to be plenty of experience around them to help both of them command the offense when they begin the season at West Virginia.
“As an offense I don’t think there is going to be one leader,” explained Sullivan. “I think it’s going to be the whole group. It’s going to be everybody buying into the whole offensive scheme and everybody doing their job.”
And both Sullivan and Graham’s job will be to continue competing for that starting quarterback spot as fans still wonder who will emerge.