Inexperienced Renner not alone in starting QB role

Saturday, Bryn Renner will step under center and get his first career start, trying to build on a career stat line that currently reads 1-for-2 for 14 yards.

The redshirt sophomore saw action in three games last season but didn’t get a chance to compete much as T.J. Yates ran the show for the fourth straight season.

While Renner is the most inexperienced starting quarterback in the ACC in regards to snaps, games, yards, pass attempts and touchdowns, he’s not far behind most of the projected conference signal callers this year. And that offers Renner some comfort.

“We’ve been to camps together, so I think it obviously helps that they’re all new and we’re all in the same situation,” Renner said.

The ACC will have many new faces at quarterback this season with seven QBs beginning the year who were not regular starters last season. In his first year as the starter, Renner will have a chance to really stick out among his peers in a league that will be fraught with inexperience at the most important position on the field.

I took the career stat lines of all 12 projected starting quarterbacks in the ACC and averaged them. The final line: 9.5 game appearances, 90-for-156 for 1,063 yards, six touchdowns and six interceptions.

Forget an entire career, those stats are below mediocre for just one year. Including Renner, there are six quarterbacks who have not passed for more than 500 yards in their collegiate careers. That said, there’s a lot of potential for Renner to stand out.

N.C. State’s Mike Glennon (326 passing yards, one TD) takes over for Russell Wilson; Stephen Morris (seven TDs, nine INTs) will start at least the first week at Miami; Tevin Washington (41.9 completion percentage) replaces Joshua Nesbitt at Georgia Tech; Logan Thomas (107 passing yards) will step into the big shoes left by Tyrod Taylor at Virginia Tech; Clemson’s Tajh Boyd (329 passing yards) replaces Kyle Parker; and Michael Rocco (six games, 13 completions) will take over at Virginia.

All six of the teams will face North Carolina this season. In fact, of the five ACC schools with a returning QB starter, only Sean Renfree’s Duke squad and Tanner Price’s Demon Deacons are on the Tar Heels’ schedule in 2011.

Renner shrugged off the notion that he’d be able to stand out this year as inexperience abounds in the conference, saying that “if everything goes right and we start winning ball games … that would
take care of itself.”

He’s in a spot that most new quarterbacks typically aren’t. He’s not the one new guy everyone has their eye on; he’s one of many. And if Renner succeeds this year, he could be more than the “good new guy” — he could be the best of them.

Contact Jonathan Jones at jjones9@email.unc.edu.