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Between them, they have some 15,000 yards of offense.
Our 2013 Pigskin Preview cover boys sat down with me for about 25 minutes and discussed their careers, playing against each other, how time flies and their decisions on where to play college football.
Weirton Madonna’s Ross Comis and Steubenville Catholic Central’s Brenton Colabella will continue their academic and athletic careers next year with an opportunity to play as freshmen.
Comis is off to UMass, while Colabella heads a short distance to West Liberty.
To watch the reparte, visit www.youtube.com/v/IXmvGfBcG44
One thing they have in common, which they talked about, is being a 6-foot-1 quarterback and how there is a bias against them because of their height.
Then again, they aren’t the only 6-1 quarterbacks who tend to get overlooked because of guys 6-3 and taller.
I’m not sure how height equates to skill, but apparently it does.
Coldhardfootballfacts.com looked at the 214 quarterbacks with at least 1,000 career pass attempts through the 2012 regular season. This data is also available at Pro-Football-Reference.
The average height of those 214 is just over 6-2.
QBs in that range who have played or are playing in the NFL include Aaron Rodgers, Joe Montana, Steve Young, Robert Griffin III, Tony Romo, Donovan McNabb, Steve McNair, Kurt Warner, Brett Favre, Jake Plummer, Joe Namath, Sammy Baugh and Ken Anderson.
Six-foot-1 signal callers include Bart Starr, Johnny Unitas, Brian Sipe, John Hadl, Mark Brunell, Otto Graham, John Brodie, Joe Ferguson and Jeff Garcia.
Those at 6-0 are Drew Brees, Len Dawson, Michael Vick, Y.A. Tittle, Fran Tarkenton, Joe Theisman, Billy Kilmer, Sid Luckman and Rodney Peete.
Those under 6-0 are Doug Flutie, Pat Haden, Eddie LeBaron and Sonny Jurgenson and some guy named Russell Wilson.
Dan McGwire, brother of Mark, is the tallest quarterback drafted at 6-8 and his career, unlike him, was short.
At 6-7 are Ryan Mallett, Brock Osweiler, Sonny Gibbs and Frank Patrick.
The 6-6 QBs are Joe Flacco, Josh Freeman, Scott Mitchell, Derek Anderson and Marc Wilson. Stats say the height of the quarterback really means nothing at all.
One thing about a 6-1 QB like Comis and Colabella is that they have been a 6-1 quarterback basically their whole career. It’s not like they went from 6-5 to 6-1 or from 5-6 to 6-1.
But, then again, Steubenville Big Red graduate Zach Collaros, was overlooked coming out of high school, mostly because of his height.
He will be the starting quarterback of the Hamilton Tiger Cats in July.
I am not saying there are terrible quarterbacks between 6-3 and 6-5 because there are a lot of studs.
I am saying that height cannot be the determining factor but, too often, it appears it is.
Like Collaros, I’ll take the odds they succeed.
* Attitudes are contagious, are yours worth catching?
* Is your cup upside down or ready to be filled?
* There is zero talent involved in being humble.
*Some choices mean the unemployment line.
* We should all want the person with a muddy face.
* Alabama softball coach Patrick Murphy posted this: “Uncoachable kids become unemployable adults. Let your kids get used to someone being tough on them. It’s life. Get over it.”
I am not saying he is the originator, but his name is most associated with it.
To me, one big thing about parents becoming coaches or school board members – what is in the best interest of the team or the school district is not necessarily in the best interest of your child and that’s OK.
I have no problem chewing my son on the basketball court. He doesn’t like it, but his dream is to play college ball and when his college coach gets in his dish, I want him to think, “that’s nothing.”
I don’t want him to sulk or go into a shell or throw a pity party because he got yelled at.
Players must listen to what was said, process what was said, put it into action and then move forward.
Players cannot dwell.
If a coach, teacher, employer, school board member puts his or her child above the rest, the rest will walk away and you have lost them.
Once that is done, you don’t get them back.
Defining uncoachable is easy – “they don’t listen.”
Sometimes, though, it’s more than that.
Remember the rant by Southern Illinois men’s basketball coach Barry Hinson in December? In part:
“They won’t let me coach them. Any time I coach somebody they put their head down. We’re soft. We’ve been enabled for whatever reason. I got a bunch of mama’s boys right now. And we just won’t buck up and bow our necks, and we’ve got to get through that. I’m tired of coaching a guy and having him roll his eyes, or put his head down or feel sorry for himself. I’m tired of that.
This is big time. … We’ve got men and women serving our country. They don’t get to take days off. We’re going to college and getting it paid for.”
* Other than a 15-0 state championship season, what do the people at Canton McKinley want for their football team?
(Mathison, a Weirton resident, is the sports editor of the Herald-Star and The Weirton Daily Times and can be contacted at mmathison@heraldstaronline.com and followed on Twitter at @MathisonMike)