Notes from the Gamecock Huddle Radio Show last night

Last night’s radio show featured Coach Ronnie Letson and JSU’s quarterbacks. We heard from all four; Marques Ivory, Coty Blanchard, Thomas Darrah, and Stephen Coates. We also heard from legendary Gamecock quarterback, Ed Lett.

Letson had a couple of lines about each quarterback as he introduced them. We’ve paraphrased his response here.

Ivory – Marques is in his first year as the full-time starter, but he’s had playing time before now. Marques is smart. He’s like having a coach on the field. He has great leadership skills and is respected by his teammates. He makes adjustments that keep us out of bad plays. Last week, Marques was 10-12 passing. One of those passes was dropped.

Blanchard – Coty has one of the highest passing efficiencies in the nation. He may not have enough pass attempts to qualify as a leader nationally, but he does everything we ask him. Last week, he completed all four pass attempts. Only one game, UT Martin, did Coty complete less than 60% of his passes. Coty keeps getting better each week.

Darrah – Thomas has made great strides this year. He had shoulder surgery shortly after arriving here and the healing process kept him out of spring drills. He’s feeling a lot better now. He got a chance to play a little in the past 2 games. He’s done well. It’s tough to try to get 3 quarterbacks worked into a rotation. Thomas has kept a great attitude and will contribute here. When (Stephen) Coates went down with an injury, Thomas went to the scout team to help us out. He didn’t complain and that means a lot.

Coates – Stephen was redshirted this year. When you have two freshmen quarterbacks, you have to redshirt one of them. With Blanchard being the punter, it just made sense to redshirt Stephen. He’s a great athlete. He’s grasping more and more of the offense. He will shine at JSU.

Marques on EKU…”We have to go in there focused. We have something to prove – we lost the last time we played there. We’re going to have to play hard.”