If anyone saw the emergence of Tyler Eckenrode coming — from third-string quarterback to starter — it was Emporia State defensive coordinator Ken Gordon.
Gordon watched Eckenrode more than anyone last year when the quarterback was running the scout team.
Gordon saw the big arm, the way Eckenrode controlled the rest of the scout team and then he was told about the extra work he had been putting in outside of the practice field.
During the week, Eckenrode had been coming in and watching film of the opposition’s offense. He wanted to make sure that he knew the intricacies of the offense, so he could give the ESU defense a good look at what they would be facing.
Gordon had never seen this from a scout team quarterback before.
“That’s going to be the guy,” Gordon would tell the other coaches.
Last Thursday, ESU coach Garin Higgins finally made the decision to make Eckenrode ‘the Guy.’ Too many turnovers by starter Andre Sloan El, and a 1-4 record, helped him make that decision, but Eckenrode helped make it easier.
The hesitation was obvious. Eckenrode is just a redshirt freshman and for a 1-4 football team — now 1-5 — there’s the danger that everyone will look at the quarterback as the savior.
Eckenrode might not be the savior this season, but it’s becoming clear that he is the future. As Gordon witnessed last year, Eckenrode has all the tools to be “the Guy.”
The arm
Eckenrode doesn’t fit the big-armed quarterback prototype. He missed out on the genetic lottery.
That was won by his 6-foot-2 older sister, Lindsey Eckenrode, a senior on the Wichita State volleyball team.
“I thought I was going to be taller,” he says. “The doctor told me I was going to be taller. Didn’t drink as much milk or something.”
Eckenrode is just 5-foot-11 and 175 pounds and his stature is the brunt of many of his teammates jokes. But they also are the first to tell you, ‘that skinny guy has one big arm.’
“He has a cannon,” Zach Rampy says. “It doesn’t look like he has a cannon, but when he goes back there to throw it, it goes a long way.”
Eckenrode’s big arm was on display last Saturday in his starting debut against Nebraska-Omaha. In the first quarter, La’Darrian Page got behind the secondary and Eckenrode threw the ball deep down the middle and Page ran underneath it.
The ball floated more than 60 yards, perfect spiral, perfect timing, right over Page’s shoulder — the throw that announced his arrival.
“Some people might underestimate what he can do,” Page says, “because he was the third-string quarterback and kind of bounced up to first string, but I think he’s going to be great for this program.”
The leader
Eckenrode’s roommates call him the Little Mouse Man.
They tell you, even at home, Eckenrode doesn’t have a whole lot to say, and when he does, he speaks softly.
Eckenrode might raise his voice a little bit at the line of scrimmage, but he doesn’t change much on the football field.
Still, everyone you ask says Eckenrode has all the makeup to be a great leader.
The Hornets are just starting to learn, but Eckenrode’s high school coach, Mark Schmid, witnessed this a long time ago.
“The confidence that he exudes, it’s a quiet confidence and I think everybody feels it,” Schmid says. “He doesn’t get rattled. He’s very poised. You can never see any worry in his eyes. He takes command in the huddle. He has great leadership abilities, and I would just think his poise and his quiet confidence are two big strengths for him.”
It’s no secret that the Emporia State offense and its quarterback have lacked confidence this season. Higgins says that Sloan El’s confidence took a hit last year at Washburn and has never really returned.
Already, Eckenrode’s belief in himself and his teammates has started to rub off.
On Tuesday at practice, Page dropped a perfect pass. Eckenrode didn’t throw up his arms or give Page a dirty look. He ran straight over to Page, told him he’d catch the next one.
The Hornets lined back up, ran the same play, Eckenrode put the ball in the same place, and Page caught it in stride.
“He’s got a kind of confidence, not a swagger, but he just walks around with a lot of confidence,” center Lance Uhles says. “I like having that back in the backfield. He’s just got that confidence that we’re going to go down and drive the ball.”
The work ethic
This is the second time Eckenrode has worked his way from the bottom of the depth chart to a team’s starter.
During his freshman year at Woodlands High School in Houston, Eckenrode was the freshman B-team quarterback. His sophomore year, Woodlands had two junior varsity teams, and he was the lower team’s quarterback. His junior year, he was the JV quarterback before he broke his collarbone.
When his senior year came around — usually the time for a senior to become quarterback at a big 5A school such as Woodlands — Eckenrode still had to beat out one of the quarterbacks that had always been in front of him. Plus, there was a transfer who was battling for the position.
Eckenrode, 113 pounds as a freshman, had finally grown enough to play varsity, and in his coach’s eyes, he’d grown into the position.
“Lo and behold, through his persistence and hard work and everything he had done, he earned a starting job as a senior and did a really, really nice job for us,” Schmid says. “The kids responded to Tyler too, because he’s such a likeable guy. He’s not one of these kids who demands attention. He’s just a blue-collar, hard-working kind of kid who gets in there and gets the job done.”
The work ethic was evident from the start at Emporia State when he watched film for the scout team.
Higgins loves watching film and loves having a quarterback in the same mold.
“I always tell my quarterbacks, if you want to be good, watch film when you’re supposed to,” he says. “If you want to be great... you’ve got to put in extra time.”
On Wednesday as his teammates lounged in the locker room before team meetings, Eckenrode was in Higgins’ office, watching tape of the Pittsburg State goal line defense.
“It’s kind of exciting,” Higgins says. “He’s bringing something new to the table. He’s always prepared week in and week out. It’s kind of fun to watch him grow and develop as a quarterback as he’s more involved now with the gameplan, to see how much he can improve each and every week.”
The brain
Higgins has already witnessed Eckenrode’s intelligence in practice, but the quarterback really impressed him following Saturday’s game.
Eckenrode came up to Higgins in the locker room and started going through what went wrong for the Hornets.
“He was thinking the same thing I was,” Higgins says.
Eckenrode’s understanding of the game has already made a big difference in cutting down on some of the small mistakes the offense had been making.
The Hornets have had problems with false starts and getting plays off on time, and already, those problems have started to disappear.
“Anytime you do the no-huddle, if you check a play and the clock’s ticking down, you get the play in and it’s maybe seven seconds, and he sees that,” Higgins says. “He noticed and he got us up there quick and still got the ball off. We were close maybe two or three times, and he made sure we didn’t get delay of game.”
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Higgins has cautious optimism with Eckenrode. He’s quick to remind everyone that — yeah, Eckenrode played well Saturday and he had shown glimpses of potential in previous mop-up appearances — but he’s still a redshirt freshman and he’s only started one game.
Higgins stops short of anointing Eckenrode as the future, but after pausing for a second, Higgins admits, “He showed some promise.”