Senior Clay Pinnick is one of two Franklin quarterbacks coming into the season with starting experience.
Daily Journal file photo
Where some might see a conundrum, Chris Coll sees an opportunity.
The Franklin coach is plenty familiar with the old saying about how if you’ve got two quarterbacks, you don’t really have one. He just doesn’t necessarily agree with it.
Senior Clay Pinnick and sophomore Greyson Betts both come into Friday’s opener against New Albany with starting experience. Neither one has yet been ordained by Coll as The Guy, but the coach doesn’t view that as a problem.
“The good thing about this is, I feel like we’ve got two varsity quarterbacks, which is rare,” Coll said. “Even at bigger schools, it’s rare. So I feel good about that. Just figuring out what direction we’re going to go; I don’t think we’re there yet, and I don’t know that there’s a timeline on it, to be honest with you. They both bring some good things to our offense, and then both of them still have things they have to work on to get better at.”
“We’ll see how they move the offense and how productive they are.”
Pinnick was the Grizzly Cubs’ starter in 2021 and in the first five games last season before being injured. Betts stepped in as a freshman and steered the team through the next two weeks before platooning with Pinnick the rest of the way. Franklin was fine in both cases. Take away two shutout losses to Class 5A state runner-up Whiteland, and the offense scored at least 20 points in every game. The only other blemish on an 8-3 record was a 27-26 home loss to Martinsville.
The two quarterbacks split snaps in last week’s scrimmage against Roncalli, and Coll plans to continue rotating them in a similar fashion during the regular season, at least for the time being.
“We’ll find out more as we progress and make decisions based on the situation,” he said. “I’m not going to predetermine that we’re going to have to zero in on one. I’m not going to predetermine that we’re going to use two. We’re just going to let it play out. We’re going to keep coaching them both and evaluating them both, and see where it goes.”
Whether it’s Pinnick or Betts under center, Franklin has a decent amount of experience returning on offense around them. Seniors Conner Voris, Sam Welch and Brody Stephens were all starters on the line last fall, and Bechert was the team’s No. 2 receiver (17 catches, 204 yards), a reliable presence week in and week out. Junior running back Alex Leugers is healthy after missing most of last season due to injury, fueling high hopes for a ground game that also brings back senior Kaleb Owens (335 yards, 3 touchdowns).
Both quarterbacks, Coll says, are capable of contributing elsewhere on the field, but that won’t be a primary factor in determining which one starts — if a clear starter is ever named at all. There’s no guarantee that one will be.
By the coach’s own admission, it’s an unusual situation. But that doesn’t mean it won’t work.
“I know both of them can help our offense compete and win,” Coll said.
SCOUTING THE GRIZZLY CUBS
Coach: Chris Coll
Last season: 8-3, lost to Whiteland in Class 5A sectional final
Key returnees: WR Luke Bechert, DB Jacob Dinkens, DB Brayden Isley, LB Lance Jones, RB Kaleb Owens, QB Clay Pinnick,WR Quentin Richards, OL Brody Stephens, WR Cooper Taylor, OL Conner Voris and OL Sam Welch, seniors; RB Alex Leugers, junior; QB Greyson Betts and DL Blake Smythe, sophomores
Top newcomers: LB Joey Fulmer, DL Josh Jarrett and DB Will Leinweber, seniors; DB Landen Basey, DB Ryan Calloway, OL Eli Jewell, DL Richie Scott, K J.D. Sever and DB Harjot Singh, juniors; OL Mason Ford and RB Isaiah Stultz, sophomores
Outlook: The Grizzly Cubs lost most of their 2022 star power with the outgoing seniors, but Coll is hopeful that his program is in a strong enough place now that the younger replacements can fill those voids without much drop-off. Offensively, Franklin is starting from a good place with three returning starters (Stephens, Voris and Welch) on the line and two experienced quarterbacks in Pinnick and Betts. Bechert and Richards head up a deep receiving corps, and Leugers — who missed almost all of last season after a Week 1 injury — is a potential game-changer at running back (“He’s going to blow up this year,” Coll said.)
The defense might take a little longer to come together, with an entirely new starting secondary and a pretty green front (Smythe is the most experienced lineman coming back), but the linebacking corps should be a strength. Jones is a third-year starter and should be the straw that stirs the drink for the Grizzly Cubs on Friday nights, but he’ll have help from veterans Isley and Dinkens on the outside.
Now in his seventh season in town, Coll is more confident than ever that his outfit is capable of competing for a win every week. He just doesn’t know yet what that will translate into in the standings.“We’ve got some guys that we think are going to be okay,” Coll said, “but they’ve got to get out there on Friday nights and prove it.”
2023 SCHEDULE
Date;Opponent;Time
Friday;New Albany;7:30 p.m.
Aug. 25;at Mt. Vernon;7 p.m.
Sept. 1;at Perry Meridian;7 p.m.
Sept. 8;Whiteland;7 p.m.
Sept. 15;at Martinsville;7 p.m.
Sept. 22;Mooresville;7 p.m.
Sept. 29;at Plainfield;7 p.m.
Oct. 6;Greenwood;7 p.m.
Oct. 13;at Decatur Central;7 p.m.
