By David Carducci
Record-Courier staff writer
Spencer Keith may play quarterback for Kent State earlier than anyone expected.
With fifth-year senior Anthony Magazu making a slow recovery from an elbow injury, Golden Flashes head coach Doug Martin has come to terms with the idea he may need his promising true freshman to step in as the primary backup to starter Giorgio Morgan.
“You have to have two healthy guys,” said Martin, “And right now, with (Magazu) we have one and a half.”
Martin had planned to redshirt Keith this season, allowing the talented Little Rock, Ark., native the chance to sit back and learn the offense while watching Morgan and Magazu.
Keith found more reps than the average first-year quarterback during preseason camp while Magazu rested his injured elbow. The Flashes had hoped Magazu would be ready to serve as the backup by the start of the regular season, but when Morgan was injured in the first half of KSU’s season-opening 18-0 win over Coastal Carolina last week, Martin said he didn’t feel comfortable taking his sophomore starter out of the game.
Magazu wasn’t healthy enough to play, and at the time Martin was clinging to the hope of keeping the redshirt on Keith.
“I’m really starting to anticipate playing Spencer Keith before the season is over,” Martin admitted during his Monday press conference. “I think we are going to need him. Anthony is battling as hard as he can with the arm, and I think Giorgio is going to be fine from all the reports on his ankle, but before the season ends we are probably going to need another guy. And I think it is going to be Spencer.”
According to Martin, arm strength is the issue with Magazu.
“Anthony just hasn’t progressed to the point where he can go out there and make all the throws we would need,” said Martin. “He knows where to go and all of that, and he’s not really having a lot of pain. It’s just getting the arm strength and the accuracy back. He may get it back, but right now it is not at that point.”
Keith will prepare this week to be the backup when Kent State plays at Boston College on Saturday at 2 p.m.
“If something happened to Giorgio in this game, we’d put Spencer out there,” said Martin.
Depending on how he performs in practice, the Flashes may give Keith a series or two at quarterback even if Morgan stays healthy. In recent years, Martin has dedicated the third or fourth series of each half to young quarterbacks who needed experience.
Based on Keith’s play in scrimmages during camp and his understanding of the KSU offense, Martin has a hunch the young quarterback will be ready if called.
“You don’t lose anything (mentally) when he goes in,” said Martin. “He is really sharp, and he understands the offense. (The questions) are going to be the same things any freshman quarterback would go through. It’s the speed of the game and the difference from high school to college, and all of that type of stuff. But I think for what we do, he will be fairly effective if he has to be put in that role.”
Martin compared the decision remove Keith’s redshirt to a similar decision to use Morgan as a true freshman in 2007. In that year, the coach’s hand was forced a bit more by injuries to both former starter Julian Edelman and Magazu. Morgan played in two games before being suffering a season-ending injury of his own, but then sat out as a redshirt during his second year in Kent. He returned this year to take over the starting quarterback job as a third-year sophomore.
While the ideal situation may have been to sit Keith this season, “he could still get his redshirt back next year,” Martin said. “Giorgio is just a sophomore, so Spencer would be in the same mold as Giorgio when he came up. Play a little bit as a freshman, get your feet wet, understand the game, and then that sophomore year you can redshirt, get bigger and stronger and learn. Then you come back with three more years.
“It wouldn’t be a wasted year or anything like that for Spencer,” Martin said. “It would be a great learning year for him.”
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David Carducci can be contacted at dcarducci@recordpub.com