Two for (QB) One
FB: Camp competition between Tyler and Keefe will carry over into the season
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Whether it’s fair or not, the quarterback position is the most highly scrutinized position in football, if not the entire sports landscape.
Running backs rotate in and out of games. Linebackers do the same. Receivers and defensive backs battle each other on every play and then they go to the sidelines while subs take their place. Every offensive and defensive position group has multiple players on the field at the same time.
Except one.
Once a quarterback is installed as the starter, the team becomes his team. The offense becomes his offense. The wins come with personal glory and the losses come with heightened blame.
Which is why those outside the Valparaiso football program have been paying such close attention as to who Andy Waddle will name as his starting quarterback in his first year leading the Beacons.
There are seven quarterbacks on the roster, but the competition is really between two players. With respect to redshirt freshman Marcus Brown and the four true freshmen on the roster, Waddle and his offensive coordinator, Reed Florence, have spent the last nine months weighing the choice between Caron Tyler and Rowan Keefe.
They still haven’t made one.
The Competitors
Keefe is the redshirt junior that missed the 2022 season due to a shoulder injury and then made a big splash midway through the 2023 season when he threw for 187 yards and three touchdowns in a half against Davidson.
If Keefe made a splash in 2023, then Tyler delivered a cannonball in 2024. The California native came on in relief of Keefe in the second week of the season against Youngtown State and turned heads on a national stage. Tyler threw for 160 yards and added another 120 on the ground. He accounted for three touchdowns, including a highlight-reel play that aired repeatedly on ESPN.
The breakout performances for both Keefe and Tyler came in losses. They both eventually had successful moments in leading the Beacons. Keefe quarterbacked Valpo to a 21-7 win over Dayton late in the 2023 season. Tyler’s heroics were once again on display in the 2024 season finale when he found Gary Givens III in the back of the end zone to setup a game-winning two-point conversion and another ESPN highlight.
Beacons by position: Specialists | TE | DL | OL | LB | WR | DB | RB | QB |
If this were a Hollywood movie, the script would likely pit the two quarterbacks against one another. Think Any Given Sunday with Cap Rooney and Willie Beamon. The quarterbacks are at odds with each other from the jump and it isn’t until the third act of the film where they find common ground.
The difference when it comes to Keefe and Tyler is their relationship was forged on common ground that took place in the first act. Instead of a Hollywood drama, think buddy comedy. Two quarterbacks that spent their first years at Valparaiso so buried on the depth chart that they had no choice but to bond with each other.
“Coming into college, I didn’t understand how guys were able to remain close friends while competing,” Keefe said. “Throughout these four years, the guys in the quarterback room have been my closest friends and closest allies in this journey, Caron especially. We had older guys like Jeff Jackson and Mikey Appel Jr. ahead of us, so we were able to cultivate a friendship before there was any competition aspect.”
Tyler arrived to Valparaiso one year after Keefe, so in a way, he’s always been chasing the Maine South product. The two have different skill sets, although it’s not as cut-and-dry as saying Keefe is the traditional pocket passer like Rooney and Tyler is the option specialist like Beamon. Keefe has his own set of wheels and Tyler has been known to thread the ball down the field at times.
It’s part of what makes the decision so tough. They each bring something different to the field and they each desperately want to be the one to stay on the field, but not to the point where they’re wishing ill will on the other.
“You never want to have any bad blood or any animosity with someone that you’re competing with,” Tyler said. “It’s someone that you’re eventually going to be helping out. The top priority is having a great relationship with the guys in the room. I know if I’m on the field, Rowan is going to be helping me. If he’s on the field, then I’ll be his eyes on the sideline helping him. You never don’t want to root for the other guy that is out there.”
The Coordinator
As Andy Waddle was going through his introductory press conference last December as well as everything else that came with transitioning to a new job, Reed Florence was already busy at work.
Florence, the coaching savant that helped guide Marietta’s offense to national rankings in a handful of offensive categories, was brought along to lead Valparaiso’s offense. That meant starting with the quarterback.
“The first thing I did when we got the job was I called all the quarterbacks that were on the roster just to introduce myself, tell them a little bit about what we planned to do and what our offense was going to look like,” Florence said. “I wanted to assure them that it would be a good situation for them.”
As Keefe and Tyler began considering the futures and whether that meant staying at Valparaiso, Florence began the next step of his immersion process.
“The second thing I did was just dive right into the film,” Florence said. “I watched every single game multiple times throughout the months of December and January just to see what talent we have on our roster, who played last year, who those guys were and how we can improve. It really was figuring out how we could now build the offense around our players.”
It didn’t take long for both Keefe and Tyler to decide they were staying at Valpo. Both felt they left some unfinished business on the field last year. Keefe started games against Northern Iowa and Youngstown State, but wasn’t given much of a chance after going against the two FCS powerhouses.
“It was certainly a lot to process last year,” Keefe said. “I think it was difficult for everyone, and not just the quarterbacks or the coaching staff. Throughout the offseason and just talking to this core group of guys we have here, I realized how special this group is. Comparing that to other things, I was able to prioritize this team and how important these guys are to me. Looking ahead to the next season meant a blank slate and that meant a lot.”
The 2024 campaign was one of learning and growth for Tyler. Each game was the opportunity for a new lesson and those lessons came after wins and after losses. Armed with two years of experience in the program and a laundry list of coaches already under his belt, Tyler welcomed some stability that seemingly appeared in the form of Florence.
“I think it’s a great restart,” Tyler said. “Through the past two years we’ve had a lot of coaching changes. As a young quarterback coming in, it’s kind of tough to develop as you should be developing with so many changes. Having a complete staff come in with guys that you feel good about what they’re doing, it’s a clean wipe. It’s a clean slate. We’re starting from square one.”
If Keefe and Tyler sound like broken records of one another, it’s because that record originated with Florence. The offensive coordinator wasn’t afraid to have difficult conversations with his two quarterbacks and the quarterbacks weren’t afraid to listen.
“I was up front with them in that first conversation,” Florence said. “I told them it was a tough situation. They’ve both played meaningful snaps, but it’s a whole new staff now. It’s a fresh opportunity for both of them as well as everyone else on the team. There’s 11 open positions out there and we want competition. We want to drive competition between our team and between our units and our groups. We do this with the understanding of care, love and respect for one another and that is something these guys have really adopted. We’ve competing, but at the end of the day, we’re still teammates and we’re still brothers.”
The Choice
The last time Waddle and Florence picked a new starting quarterback came prior to the start of the 2021 season when they tabbed Connor Vierstra to lead Marietta’s offense. Vierstra went on to start all 41 games over the next four years for the Pioneers and he ended his career as the program’s all-time leader in passing touchdowns, passing yards and completions. He has since been named Valparaiso’s tight ends coach.
There’s no guarantee that whoever starts Valparaiso’s Week 1 game against Virginia Lynchburg on Saturday is going to be the guy that starts Week 2 or even the next 39 games after that.
Waddle said prior to training camp beginning that he was confident that several quarterbacks on the roster were capable of winning games in the Pioneer Football League. He has also alluded throughout camp that he wanted to see reps with both of his quarterbacks in live situations.
Tyler has excelled when the play has broken down around him and Keefe’s ability to scramble out of trouble is one of his major calling cards. Busted plays and quarterback runs are nearly impossible to execute in a simulated environment where tackling the quarterback is off the table. That’s a major part of the reason why both Tyler and Keefe are listed as the starting quarterback going into Saturday’s game.
“Our guys are not live for a lot of different reasons in practice,” Florence said. “Most importantly with the quarterbacks, if your guys goes down, usually the second is not as good. With our case, I think we have some flexibility. I think both guys can go out and do a really good job and run our offense and be efficient. The competition period and the evaluation period is still an ongoing process. We’re going to use both guys throughout the first couple of weeks and see how that goes. If it’s going well, then we’ll continue to build packages around that and see how far we can take it within our offense.”
Breaking down Valparaiso’s quarterbacks
Key losses: Mikey Appel Jr., Clayton Mains
Returners (3): Marcus Brown, Rowan Keefe, Caron Tyler
Newcomers (4): Johnny DiBlasio, Nathan Downey, Jacob Ritter, Iosua Stephens
A year ago at this time the big debate surrounding the Valparaiso quarterback position was between Keefe and Mikey Appel Jr. Appel Jr. was the starter in 2023 until he suffered a broken collarbone in a game at Drake. Waiting in the wings in a distant third on the depth chart was Tyler. When Appel suffered an early season hamstring injury and Keefe was ineffective to start the year, Tyler was thrust into the lineup.
With that in mind, Marcus Brown is the redshirt freshman that is currently waiting in the wings in a distant third on the depth chart. In a sport where a backup is always one play away from becoming the starter, Florence has spent plenty of time watching Brown in practice.
“I’m going on record right now that I truly believe Marcus might be the most athletic football player on our team,” Florence said. “He’s just electric when he has the ball in his hands and he can make something happen.”
Depending on how the season unfolds, it’s not outside the realm of possibility that one of the four true freshmen, including Johnny DiBlasio, Nathan Downey, Jacob Ritter and Iosua Stephens, could see some playing time. If that were the case, Florence knows they’d be prepared.
“I’m impressed by how fast the young guys have picked up the terminology,” Florence said. “This is my 10th year being an offensive coordinator and I think this is the fastest that our freshmen quarterbacks have picked up the offense and understood what we’ve trying to do. I think that’s a credit to our older guys too as they’ve helped them and coached them up as well. It’s not just me coaching all the guys out there. They’re all bouncing ideas off of each other and I fully believe that is what makes us a special group.”
(Photos courtesy of Valpo Athletics)