FREE: Bradshaw not looking over his shoulder going into season opener
“Right Now, It’s Ahmad’s Game.”
Not a subscriber to GBK? There’s no better time than now, as the Black Knights begin the kick-off of their 2016 Army football season on Friday night versus Temple.
Army will start its season this coming Friday versus Temple with the same starting quarterback who opened up last season.
Yes, head coach Jeff Monken announced at yesterday’s pre-game press conference that junior Ahmad Bradshaw will start under center against the Owls as the team steps on the turf at Lincoln Financial Field in Philadelphia.
“Ahmad’s got most of the reps in pre-season camp. We’ve had Chris [Carter] healthy for the last couple of weeks and he continues to improve, so we may likely play both those guys. But right now, it’s Ahmad’s game. He’ll start and he’s the No. 1 quarterback right now.
When Bradshaw arrived on campus as a freshman via the United States Military Academy Prep School, the product of Chicago didn’t see any action his first. Although he traveled with the team, the offense was lead by then starting quarterback, Angel Santiago, with A.J. Schurr has his backup.
However, in 2015 as a sophomore the 5-foot-11, 200 pounder appeared in eight games with seven starts, including starts in the first four games, until being injured which lead to Schurr starting three contest and then freshman Chris Carter starting the last two games of the season versus Rutgers and Navy.
During the 2015 campaign, Bradshaw was No. 2 on the team in rushing where on 130 carries he rushed for 616, scored 5 touchdowns with a long of 56 yards.
On the passing side, he completed 23 passes on 48 attempts (47.9%) for 429 yards and 5 touchdowns with 2 interception, whereby he registered an efficiency rating of 149.03 (average of 53.6 yards per game).
Clearly Monken has confidence in his junior QB to run the show, as does offensive coordinator Brent Davis, who shared these words with GoBlackKnights.com on Wednesday.
“We expect him to move the team, make business decisions with the football and compete like he always does,” stated Davis.
Of course Bradshaw himself knows that if he under performs .... Carter will be waiting in the wings, but by all accounts, he is not looking over his shoulder or in the rear view mirror.
“Going into any game it’s always a business mentality and I don’t really about that ... meaning if I mess up type things,” Bradshaw declared. “One of the biggest parts of our plan is to never or don’t flinch and always believe. So, I never think about ‘what if’ I do something bad.”
And that has been how the quarterback competition seems to have been handled, which is business as usual. One might think that the staff sat down with the junior signal caller to formally and officially share the starting QB designation, but that is not what unfolded.
“It was really just communicated throughout the last couple of weeks while practicing with the 1st group all the time,” where the QB indicated that there wasn’t a formal sit down with his coach, or offensive coordinator Brent Davis, but just focus at the task at hand, which is Temple. “It wasn’t really like a said thing.”
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