Battle rages for starting quarterback job at Georgia State

There will be many new faces in the starting lineup for the Georgia State football team in the coming season, but none as obvious as at quarterback, where the slate has been wiped completely clean.

Darren Grainger finished his record-setting career by earning MVP honors at the Famous Idaho Potato Bowl and now is trying to catch on with the Canadian Football League. Mikele Colasurdo, the highly regarded prospect from South Carolina, was the top reserve for three years and left the program.

That leaves the key position wide open for first-year coach Dell McGee and offensive coordinator Jim Chaney, who will continue the selection process throughout preseason camp. It may be the most important decision leading to the Aug. 31 opener at Georgia Tech.

“That’s one of the toughest positions in football,” McGee said. “Just looking for how they respond, how they lead, who can throw, and minimize mistakes and play clean football every day.”

There are four scholarship players at the position – holdover Braylen Ragland and transfers Zach Gibson, Christian Veilleux and Kyle Lowe. Each is getting reps with the first unit as the staff continues the evaluation process.

“Right now, we’re going to challenge their mind,” McGee said. “And eventually we’ll get to just some basics and kind of evaluate who’s going to put us in the best situation to lead this football team. And it may be more than one quarterback. I don’t know. So, it’s an evaluation process every single day, and we’ll look at every single rep.”

The returner is redshirt freshman Ragland (6-foot-1, 203 pounds) from Memphis, Tennessee, where he was ranked as the No. 54 quarterback in the nation coming out of high school. Ragland is more of a pocket passer but isn’t afraid to tuck it and run.

Credit: Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Gibson (6-2, 201, fifth-year senior) played at Johns Creek and began his career at Tech. He was recruited into the program by former GSU coach Shawn Elliott. Gibson spent two seasons at Akron, throwing for 2,471 yards and 15 touchdowns in 17 games, before transferring to Tech. He played in six games for the Yellow Jackets, making three starts in 2022 and engineered an upset over No. 13 North Carolina. He did not see game action in 2023.

McGee brought in the other two transfers. Veilleux (6-5, 209, junior) and Lowe (5-10, 195, redshirt freshman). Freshman Rodge Waldrop (6-4, 195) from Brookwood School in Thomasville is a preferred walk-on.

Veilleux, born in Ottawa, is a pro-style quarterback who spent two seasons at Penn State, where he played five games and became the first Canadian-born quarterback in 16 years to start for a Power Five school. He transferred to Pitt in 2023 and played in seven games and made five starts. He threw for 1,179 yards and seven touchdowns, with eight interceptions for the Panthers in 2023 and led Pitt to an upset win over Louisville in his first start.

Lowe was the No. 74-ranked quarterback in the nation at Fayette-Ware High School in Collierville, Tennessee, where he played for his father, former Alabama great and NFL linebacker Woodrow Lowe. He spent two seasons at Middle Tennessee, was redshirted in 2022 and played in one game in 2023.

Waldrop threw for 10,147 yards in his high school career, including a game with 698 yards and nine touchdowns.

All of the candidates have been spending extra time in the film room and working with the receivers to improve that connection. The effort hasn’t been lost on McGee.

“I like to see that our quarterbacks have taken the bull by the horns, so to speak, with meeting extra,” McGee said. “You see them in the building as much as the coaches. They’re all working really hard and trying to harness the offense.”

Get all the news about the Atlanta Braves delivered each morning. Sign up for Braves Report.