30 college football players with the biggest shoes to fill in 2018
Shoes to Fill: Quinton Flowers
Similar to Bradshaw at Army, USF quarterback Quinton Flowers played a big role in helping the Bulls turn around a program that had grown stale. Flowers saw his first action for the Bulls as a freshman in 2014, when USF posted a 4-8 record. In his first season as a starter, Flowers led the Bulls to an 8-5 record, which the team improved to 11-2 in 2016 and finished ranked No. 19 in the AP Top 25.
Last year, Flowers and the Bulls spent the entire season in the rankings, flirting with an AAC Championship and New Year’s Six bowl game all along, but fell short, finishing 10-2 after a second straight Birmingham Bowl victory. The 6-foot, 215-pound Miami native should have an opportunity to continue his career in the NFL after capping his career with 11,796 yards of total offense (8,130 passing yards and another 3,672 rushing yards), which ranks 58th all-time, plus 71 passing touchdowns and 39 touchdowns on the ground.
With Flowers out of eligibility, backup Brett Kean has the inside track to the starting job for 2018. Kean completed 7 of 11 passes for 64 yards in four games last season and has 193 yards and two touchdowns with one interception in two seasons as No. 2 on the QB depth chart. He also impressed in the spring game last year, for whatever that is worth, tossing a 51-yard touchdown pass. However, Kean’s ascension to the No. 1 spot is far from guaranteed.
Chris Oladokun (like Kean a pro-passer style signal caller who threw a 76-yard touchdown pass in last year’s spring game), got his first taste of collegiate action last season, and head coach Charlie Strong added two dual-threat signees to the mix om Pctavious Battle and Jordan McCloud.