9 Days To Kansas Football: Roundtable - Starting QBs and Exciting New Players

It’s time for another edition of the roundtable! In each edition, our staff gets together to look at two questions about the Kansas Jayhawks that are being talked about by those who follow the program. Take a look at our answers, and then give us your own in the comments below.

Now that camp is getting ready to wrap up and games are right around the corner, who do you think WILL be the starting QB, and who do you think SHOULD be the starting QB?

David: I think it’s still MacVittie, but it’s a bit troubling that Miles seemed to get less sure of that as camp went on. I’d also prefer MacVittie out of the gate. We’ve seen plenty of Stanley, and he’s proven that while he doesn’t make many harmful mistakes, his skill set is very limited. I’d like to see what MacVittie has to offer, and if he struggles, hand the reins to Stanley to be a game manager type.

Andy: As Jesse and I said on the podcast that dropped this morning, when MacVittie was recruited to KU, it basically signaled that he was going to be named the starting QB this year barring disaster. So even though it is taking much longer than I thought it would, I still think he will be the inevitable starter unless there is an injury. That being said, I still maintain that Carter Stanley SHOULD be the starter. Maybe that’s because I #Stan4Stanley, but I still think that most of the limitations that we’ve seen have been more about what the prior coach was willing to let him attempt as opposed to what he is actually able to do. This team isn’t going to be one to air it out constantly, and so the one true weakness we know Stanley does have shouldn’t manifest very often in the gameplan.

dnoll5: MacVittie. Those guys above me have said it all. What reason would there be for him to come here if he wasn’t basically guaranteed to be the starter in game one?

Mike: Yeah, it will be MacVittie. A Juco QB like that doesn’t come in to a place like KU if he hasn’t been given some sort of playing time agreement. That said, I have yet to figure out how he was the #1 Juco QB recruit at one point. Obviously, we haven’t seen him play in games, but his Juco numbers were… not great. He completed less than 54% of his passes and threw 8 INTs in just 6 games. Considering those numbers were against Juco competition, pardon me if I’m not inspired. I think it should be Stanley’s job to lose, but I doubt that was the case going in to fall camp.

Kyle: MacVittie is the answer for all of the answers already provided. So I’ll instead ask a more important question: when do we get a Manny Miles appearance?

It’s feature season, where all the key players are getting feature-length stories about what’s new for this year or introducing them to the fanbase. Which new player on this team are you most excited about seeing?

Andy: I’m most excited to see Gavin Potter. From his attention-grabbing (and cocky) commitment ceremony to the fact that he is coming into a huge position of need, I’m hoping that he gets off to a fast start and quickly becomes a fan favorite who can both talk a big game and also back it up. He seems to have the tools, now hopefully he can put them to good use.

David: I probably would have said Gavin Potter as well, but to keep things interesting I’ll say Dajon Terry. He didn’t have the most impressive list of offers out of high school, but the true freshman is already 330 lbs, and Miles has said he’s going to get plenty of snaps at NT this fall. If there’s even a small chance he becomes a 4 year anchor of the interior line, that’s something to get excited about.

dnoll5: Is it ok to say Les Miles instead of a player? I honestly haven’t kept track of many of the players during a more hectic than normal summer and start of the school year, so I’ll say Miles. I’m really interested to see if he can get these guys to buy in even when the going gets inevitably tough. If he can, I think a bright future is in store for Kansas football.

Mike: Potter is a good choice, but I’ll go with the highest rated recruit from the 2019 class, four-star DE/LB Steven Parker. There’s a lot of PT to be had in the front seven this year, and Parker is the best defensive prospect of the batch of new faces that just arrived in Lawrence.

Kyle: I agree with David on Dajon Terry, especially since that’s an area of need for someone to step up. MacVittie also needs to be mentioned purely based on the low bar set by the recent QB play and how long the fan base has waited to see someone step up and lead at that position. There’s been so many “he could be it” guys (hey, Dayne Crist), so there’s a lot of anticipation whenever there’s a new potential candidate to take the reins and actually live up to the hype.