Baker says Eagles ready; Scott to start at QB
August 27
Faulkner’s Gregg Baker is less than two days away from his first game as a collegiate head coach and, despite some game-week bumps in the road, he believes his Eagles are ready for the trip to Orlando to face Webber International University.
The game kicks off at noon and can be heard on WLWI-AM1440.
The top story throughout fall camp has been the battle for the starting quarterback position. Things took care of themselves this week, with redshirt freshman transfer Trey Martin suffering an injury and redshirt freshman T. J. Jacobs also becoming unavailable for the opener. Martin and Jacobs had been leading the battle for the job. In their absence, Saturday’s start will go to pure freshman Joe Scott, who played last season at Northside High School in Warner Robbins, Ga.
Despite Scott’s youth and inexperience, Baker has confidence in his first-year quarterback.
“He’s handled it well in practice,” Baker said. “He’s prepared himself well and has worked hard in the film room. Obviously, I’m sure he’ll be nervous on Saturday, but he’s a student of the game and I think he’ll do well.”
Scott signed with the Eagles back in February, and immediately requested a playbook from his new coaches – a fact that impressed Baker at the time.
“This guy’s gonna be ready,” he said. “He will do a fine job. We have a lot of confidence in him. He knows the speed of the game will be faster, but we feel he’ll adjust. We hope he plays so well that we have another battle in practice next week.”
Faulkner is coming off a 2-9 season, while the Warriors were 3-8 a year ago. The two teams played in 2007, with Webber winning 26-7.
“I know our guys are excited about playing a football game,” Baker said. “ I feel like we’re farther along than where we were a year ago. It’s been a good camp, but it’s time we stop beating up on each other and have a different color jersey on the other side.”