Bulldogs add 15 recruits, new quarterback

The football team announced last week the signing of a transfer and former Div. I-AA quarterback. The quarterback put up solid statistics as a starter at his old school, which is not located in the Midwest, and comes to Truman in a situation where there is no clear-cut quarterback to replace a departing senior.

The transfer, who had not been on Truman's long-term recruiting radar, comes into a program that is attempting a turnaround after a season in which the team finished in the bottom third of the conference.

Story sound familiar?

That's what happened when Matt Ticich was recruited to Truman in 2006. Ticich led the 'Dogs to two straight 6-win seasons and finished second in career passing yards at Truman after starting for three years. The Bulldogs have not had a winning season in the two years since Ticich graduated.

Now, Truman has signed senior quarterback J.B. Clark as part of a 15-person recruiting class following head coach Gregg Nesbitt's first full season. The final recruiting class was announced a day late due to weather conditions.

Nesbitt said Clark, who started 19 games at FCS (formerly Div. I-AA) Lehigh University (Pa.), is one of three candidates to replace departing two-year starter Phil Davis.  Sophomore Taylor Breen and freshman Conrad Schottel are the other two candidates.

"He's not promised a starting position," Nesbitt said. "He's got a chance to compete. … He simply wants to have an opportunity to start and to play, and we'll certainly give him that opportunity."

Clark was a 2.5-year starter in the Patriot League, where he threw for nearly 4,000 yards with 37 passing and five rushing touchdowns. He originally would have finished his career at Lehigh, but his plans changed after he re-fractured his collarbone.

The bone originally broke in Fall 2009, but Clark played through it because the fracture was unknown at the time. Then last spring, the bone fractured again and was not healed until the middle of the season when Lehigh already had another established starter.

Redshirts — medical or otherwise — are not allowed in the Patriot League, and Clark would have had to sit out a season if he had transferred to another Div. I school. Clark said he received looks from some top-25 Div. II programs, but came to Truman because there was no clear-cut starter for next season unlike other schools.

"I'm not going to step on people's toes," Clark said. "I'm not going to, you know, break up a quarterback that was already a starter for a year or two. I didn't want to do that to ruin the camaraderie of the team."

Nesbitt recruited Clark after he saw Clark's highlight video, and Clark enrolled at Truman this semester.

Clark has the most experience of the three quarterback candidates, as both Breen and Schottel have received limited snaps in their Bulldog careers — although Breen has been injured multiple times. Recruit Zach Tobin and freshman Brady Nowak are the two other quarterbacks on the roster.

"It's going to be fun going into spring ball competing," Clark said.

No matter whom the starter is next season, Nesbitt said the offense will switch from an zone-option to pro-style. Nesbitt said the option offense was the best for Davis' strengths — who led the team with 913 rushing yards in the fall — but it's not in Nesbitt's long-term plans.

"We're going to spread the ball via throwing it [with] a short, hopefully efficient, passing game of some sort," Nesbitt said. "And hopefully we'll be able to be proficient enough spreading the ball horizontally and vertically throwing it that we can still find ways to run the football."

The offense should fit well for Clark, who said he played a pro-style his freshman year before switching to a west-coast his sophomore year and then a no-huddle in 2009.

"I'm traditionally a pro-style quarterback, but in my college career I've kind of grown on the aspect that I can run," Clark said. "Because offenses these days you have to be both, even if you call yourself a pro-style quarterback you have to be able to move around."

Clark, like Ticich was, is not guaranteed a starting spot. And like Ticich, Clark has two quarterbacks to compete against heading into spring practice. At least for now, that's where the comparisons end.