A New Quarterback, Again, and Ken Grows a Beard
Cleveland State45
East Carolina3
- Game
- 2030 Week 1
- Site
- Away
- Result
- Win
- Record
- 1-0
Vikings 45, East Carolina 3, in Greenville. One and oh!
Folks, we have a new quarterback. Again. Last year Greg Price, a redshirt freshman, took us all the way to the national championship game. This year Coach Dolan looked at Price, rated 83, and at Dave Shelley, a redshirt sophomore, also rated 83, and picked Shelley. Same number. Different choice. That’s why he’s the coach and I’m the guy yelling on a porch.
Shelley came here as a five-star recruit out of Michigan, one of the top handful of quarterbacks in the country. Price was a five-star out of Oklahoma. We have two five-star quarterbacks. Big Stan said, “Mick, that’s like having two pierogi and only one mouth.” Then he ate both, to demonstrate.
And jersey thirty-seven goes in the closet. Donna has started a second rack. She says it’s “for the overflow.” I said, “Donna, the overflow is my life’s work.” She said, “Then your life’s work needs a second rack.”
Forty-two points of daylight and a defense that gave up three. Four pierogi. A good start. A new start. We’re good at those.
A forty-two-point road win to open the season, with a new starting quarterback, a new defensive coordinator (Lonnie Arnold, from South Alabama) and a defense that allowed a field goal.
I have one concern, and I’ll state it plainly: Greg Price started a national championship game nine months ago and is now the backup. I don’t doubt Dave Shelley. I doubt situations. A program with two good quarterbacks has one happy quarterback. We’ll see how that goes in November.
Now. Mickey is going to mention my face, so I’ll get there first. I’ve grown a beard. It’s close-trimmed. It’s for gravitas. A man who has covered a national champion and a national runner-up should look like he’s seen things. Teresa says it makes me look “like a librarian who’s been through a divorce.” Nadia says it makes me look “like you lost a bet,” which I did, last year, and she knows it.
“Lil,” for the record, since the beard has raised the question again: a high school drama club. I was cast as “Little Ken” in a play about a family of Kens. It was experimental.
Back and forth
The beard, Kenny!
Gravitas.
Donna says you look like a Civil War general.
A losing one, she said. I heard her. I’ve chosen to keep it anyway.
Forty-two points in Greenville, two five-star quarterbacks and one starting job, a second jersey rack, and a beard grown on purpose.
Split Decision is fiction. Mickey Bridges, Ken Hogmanes and The Lakefront Ledger are invented; the games and scores are not.