Freshman quarterback leads Air Force
STEVE KIGGINS Star-Tribune staff writer | Posted: Saturday, October 30, 2004 12:00 am
Should I dare start a freshman quarterback?
About a week into fall football camp, Air Force offensive coordinator Chuck Petersen was asking himself that very question. The Falcons' players had his answer.
Yes. Shaun Carney should be our quarterback.
"Players respond to kids that make plays," Petersen said. "I don't know how many guys came up to me and basically said, 'Don't be afraid to put the kid in, because he's a player.'
"Certainly if he was just a goof, they wouldn't have accepted him the way they have."
Seven games later, Carney has done anything but disappoint. While leading Air Force to three victories - including Mountain West Conference wins over UNLV and New Mexico - Carney has passed for 991 yards, rushed for 408 more and played a part in 14 of the team's 25 touchdowns.
A freshman? Carney sure doesn't play like one.
"I've been around a lot of special quarterbacks and for him to be as mature and poised at this stage is pretty remarkable," said Petersen, who has coached, among others, Beau Morgan, Blane Morgan, Mike Thiessen and Chance Harridge during his 15 years at the academy. "To be honest, I'm not sure any of us counted on Shaun coming in and having the success he's had as early as he's had."
Said Falcons head coach Fisher DeBerry, "He's a guy, like a duck, he can just let the water roll off his back. He comes back and plays harder the next play and realizes that's part of the game."
Carney's rise to prominence could be the most improbable development in Mountain West history.
This spring, Carney wasn't even on Air Force's radar screen. Former Gillette high school standout Adam Fitch was the projected starter, with Andy Gray and Lucas Ewing set to serve as his backups.
Then, in April, Fitch ruptured the Achilles' tendon in his right leg, an injury that would keep him sidelined for four to six months. Even then, Petersen didn't figure Carney would play a role.
"What I was hoping we could do is get through the first couple games with Andy and see where we were at the end of a two- or three-game stretch," Petersen admitted. "Depending on how Andy performed, hopefully, Adam would be able to come back and lead us from there.
"As much as I'd like to say Shaun was a part of it, at that point in time, he really wasn't."
In August, though, Carney performed so well during the team's fall camp that Petersen simply couldn't ignore the suddenly impressive freshman from North Olmsted, Ohio.
"You could tell that there was something about the kid," Petersen said.
Three weeks into camp, the Falcons announced Carney would become the first freshman in program history to start the team's first game of the season.
Not even Carney himself could have imagined such a turn of events.
"I always hoped and dreamed it would happen and I knew that if I put in a lot of work, it was possible," said Carney, whose abilities as a passer have diversified Air Force's typically predictable triple-option offense. "I had a vision that it could happen. (But) I didn't come in here thinking it was mine, I came in here with the attitude that I had to work hard to get it.
"I'm thankful and grateful that I (have) the opportunity."
Carney's transformation from nobody to somebody has been aided greatly by his teammates, who rallied around him from the beginning and have continued to show faith in him each week.
Despite his standing as a freshman, Carney said his teammates have always "looked at me like, 'You're the guy.'"
Not that he's given them reason to think any less of him.
"They really respected the fact that the coaches put me in that position," Carney said. "To my teammates' credit, they really just made me really comfortable and (that) gave me all the confidence in the world to go out and lead 'em."
Senior sports reporter Steve Kiggins can be reached at (307) 266-0596 or steven.kiggins@casperstartribune.net