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Published: Aug 15, 2004
Modified: Aug 15, 2004 8:50 AM
Athletic passer has a firm hold on his future
Freshman Marcus Stone (9) is the sole rival of junior Jay Davis (10) for the starting quarterback position at N.C. State.
Staff Photo by Robert Willett
By LORENZO PEREZ, Staff Writer
RALEIGH -- One pass into his high school quarterback career, Marcus Stone was down a touchdown.
He was starting on the road against Pennsylvania's defending state champion, and the 14-year-old freshman had just watched an Allentown Central Catholic defender intercept his first throw and return it to the end zone. There were 12,000 Allentown fans roaring in the stands, Bishop McDevitt High coach Jeff Weachter remembers, but he wasn't ready to yank his young quarterback so quickly in the season opener.
Jeff Weachter relished seeing how Stone would respond, whether he would crumble or prove he wasn't too young to lead.
"He came back the next possession to drive the team to a touchdown," Weachter said. "If I ever had any doubts about Marcus' mental toughness, they disappeared in Allentown."
MARCUS STONE JAY DAVIS
*Freshman YEAR *Junior
6-4 HEIGHT 6-2
228 WEIGHT 206
Steelton, Pa. HOMETOWN Clearwater, Fla.
19 AGE 21
Business management MAJOR Psychology
Father J. Michael FAMILY TIDBIT Older sister
Stone Lavana was
wrestled at scholarship
Elizabethtown College golfer at Miami
Has not played CAREER STATS 10 games
a college game 17-of-29 passing 177 yards, 1 TD
Strong arm, STRENGTHS Three years in
athletic, size and system, knows playbook,
speed to run nice touch on passes
No game WEAKNESSES Average
experience, only arm strength,
his second year decent speed but
in complex offense no breakaway threat
WHO'LL GET THE STARTING NOD
Davis has seniority and likely will be the starter Sept. 4 against Richmond
That first game ended as a close loss for Weachter's team, but Stone spent the rest of that season and the three that followed passing for more than 5,100 yards and 50 touchdowns, good enough for high school All-America honors in his senior year.
Now a 6-foot-4 redshirt freshman at N.C. State, Stone has emerged as redshirt junior Jay Davis' sole rival for the starting role that Philip Rivers owned the past four seasons.
Whether it was worrying then about his second pass at Allentown or worrying now about how Wolfpack fans will react if he ever struggles on the field, Stone offers the same response.
"You can't really think about the past," Stone said. "You need to think about what's going on in the future."
His glowing high school credentials have prompted "The Chosen One" hosannas from some outside observers of the Pack's program. But Stone's capabilities as a starting college quarterback remain unknown.
After redshirting last season, Stone fractured the middle finger on his right hand during spring practice and missed the spring scrimmage. Last week, State coaches were keeping any daily progress reports to themselves and did not plan to release Davis' or Stone's passing statistics from this weekend's scrimmage.
Stone carries the reputation of an athletic, mobile quarterback with a strong arm. In middle school, he played at fullback and middle linebacker. By the time he was in the eighth grade, Stone was too big for Midgets football and spent the fall playing soccer.
Stone's older brother David also was a quarterback at Bishop McDevitt, and Stone spent his last fall before high school tagging along with his brother as a team manager.
Always an enthusiastic weight-lifter -- Stone swelled to a musclebound 245 pounds in high school -- he also ran the grueling hills surrounding his Steelton, Pa., home.
J. Michael Stone remembers coming home from a darts competition about 11 on a summer night when his son was still in high school. Stone pulled into the driveway and saw Marcus hunched over by the front door.
His son looked so whipped that he thought Marcus had been beaten up and dumped on the doorstep. Then he noticed Marcus' strength shoes, the ones with the platforms forcing him to run on the balls of his feet.
"If you ever saw the hills in Steelton, you'd say, 'Oh, Lord,' " said J. Michael Stone, 47. "Marcus said, 'Pops, somebody out there is training, and I'm not going to let them get ahead of me.' "
Midway through his high school career, Stone started receiving additional coaching from Dick Shiner, a Maryland alumnus and an NFL quarterback for 11 years.
Stone already could throw a 50-yard frozen rope of a pass in high school. By the end of his high school career, Shiner said, Stone was further along at that stage of a quarterback's development than Boomer Esiason and Frank Reich, two Maryland quarterbacks who went on to play in the NFL.
"What they did in college is they both learned to visualize plays unfolding before them," Shiner said "They both made leaps and bounds in college. Hopefully, Marcus will, too."
Stone spent most of last season following behind Rivers as an eager pupil, and State coaches said that Stone's development hinges on learning how to prepare for game action. The athletic ability is there already.
"He's learning what it takes to be a quarterback at this level, in terms of the mental aspect and preparation," quarterbacks coach Curt Cignetti said.
Stone still ends most practices with rapid-fire sets of push-ups and abdominal crunches, but the film room is where coaches steer him.
"Every quarterback needs to get in the film room so he can just make the game slower," Stone said. "The more you know about the game, the slower it gets for you."
Stone's teammates have noticed a more laid-back version of the quarterback who arrived last year.
"Marcus last year was a different guy. A cool, stud kind of guy, hair all slicked back, a tough bruiser. A cool dude," redshirt junior wide receiver Tramain Hall said. "Now he's a new Marcus. I love the new Marcus. ... We may be standing on the sideline, and he'll whisper a joke to you, and we'll both start cracking up."
Stone doesn't know when the good times will extend beyond the jokes on the sidelines to game experience, but he insists he's loose and ready.
"Football is supposed to be a game. When it's not fun anymore, you know you shouldn't be out there anymore," he said. "I like to keep a team loose and calm. When it's third and 6, I don't want anyone to be stressed out."
No matter how that first pass turns out.
Staff writer Lorenzo Perez can be reached at 829-4643 or
lperez@newsobserver.com
A "Chosen One" in Raleigh
