IPS FOOTBALL FOCUS: Brennan Armstrong
With recruiting slowing down to some extent over the next few months I decided to start a new series called Football Focus. Each week I’ll pick a topic of particular interest to Wolfpack fans and give some personal insight and thoughts. This week I’ll take a look at the addition of Virginia transfer QB Brennan Armstrong.
The day that Devin Leary announced he was leaving NC State there was no doubt the Wolfpack had to add a quarterback through the transfer portal. There’s no way any team goes into the upcoming season with just two scholarship quarterbacks.
The question became -- how does Dave Doeren go about filling the spot? Does he put all of his eggs in the MJ Morris basket and just target an emergency third string depth chart piece, or does he go out and get an established signal-caller that can compete for the starting spot?
Let’s start with Morris. I have no doubt that the NC State staff views him as the future of the program. However, is the future in 2023, or is a better scenario that he’ll be the guy in 2024? Honestly, no one completely knows the answer to that question.
But here’s what we do know. Morris played extensive action in three games. Against Virginia Tech he struggled in the first half as State scored just a field goal, but Morris came alive in the second half with three TD passes to rally the Pack from a 21-3 deficit to get the win.
The next week State took on Wake Forest and Morris had his best outing of the year. He was solid from start to finish, completing 18 of 28 passes for 210 yards and three touchdowns. I thought Morris clearly outplayed his more experienced counterpart, Sam Hartman.
Against Boston College Morris started off strong. The Pack raced out to a 14-0 lead and just five minutes into the game it appeared it would be an easy win for State. From there the Pack offense struggled. Terribly. In the end, State suffered their most disappointing loss of the year -- 21-20 to arguably the worst team in the ACC. To be fair to Morris, I don’t think he was 100% in this game and I think that has to be factored in.
At the end of the day, if you boil it all down, with Morris as the starter you had seven good quarters of offensive football sandwiched between five quarters where you struggled to score. If you’re Dave Doeren I think the bottom line is you simply didn’t have a big enough body of work to proclaim Morris as THE guy headed into next season. In a profession where the only thing that matters is right now, in my mind the decision to go after the best available quarterback in the portal was a no-brainer.
There’s been quite a bit of angst as to what effect this strategy might have on MJ Morris. First of all, Morris is a very mature young man, and as long as he feels he’s getting an equal shake I have no concerns with him leaving. Had Leary stayed at NC State another year Morris would’ve almost surely been his backup. Morris’ situation is somewhat different headed into 2023 as he’ll have the opportunity to compete for the starting spot. Who knows, Morris may kill it during spring ball, have that carry over into fall camp, and ultimately win the job. It’s certainly on the table.
Circling back to Brennan Armstrong. He went into the transfer portal on Dec. 1. He entertained early interest from Oklahoma State and Wisconsin and made official visits to both. I didn’t give much thought to Armstrong at the time, but on Dec 12 NC State announced Robert Anae and instantly, Armstrong immediately became the top guy on my personal board.
From the time Anae was hired until Armstrong popped up on our radar was about a week. On Dec 22 things took a definite turn in favor of NC State, as many of you probably saw by the tidbits dropped on the Varsity board. On Dec 23 discussions began about coming together on an NIL agreement. By Christmas Eve an amount was agreed on and then it was a matter of getting those funds committed. Once that was accomplished things began to move relatively quickly.
We initially thought Armstrong would visit Jan 6 but that was moved up to Jan 4. In actuality, it was a very short visit -- lasting just over 24 hours. The advantage with going after some of these older portal guys is they really don’t care to be recruited anymore. It’s more a matter of evaluating the program, the area, the current roster/coaching staff, and figuring out if it’s a fit. For Armstrong, with Anae as his OC I think the deal was done even before he made the trip to Raleigh. However, he told the coaches Friday night and then made his commitment to NC State public on Saturday. Armstrong was scheduled to fly to Raleigh on Sunday and then enroll for classes today.
I talked with a few people who spent time with Armstrong during his visit. Ironically, a couple mentioned that, personality-wise, he reminded them a lot of Devin Leary. Armstrong is a no-nonsense guy that takes a business-like approach to football. Clearly that comes with age and experience, and he’s certainly looking at 2023 as an audition for the NFL.
In my opinion, landing Armstrong was a home run. Given the circumstances with Robert Anae being the offensive coordinator, there’s not a single quarterback that went in the portal that I would’ve preferred over Armstrong. He’s experienced. He can make plays at clutch times. He’s a fierce competitor, and he’s a team first guy. The icing on the cake for me is he’s mobile. I think the offensive line is one of the bigger question marks for me, and having a mobile guy is a necessity.
Going into next season I felt it was a crap shoot that could’ve gone in any number of directions. For a number of reasons -- maturity, experience, talent, familiarity with the offense, and the ability to communicate that with his teammates -- I’m very excited about what Armstrong will bring and how those attributes could have a huge impact on the win-loss record next season.
