Who will be the Wake Forest Starting QB in 2023? Exploring the QB depth chart ft. Mitch Griffis, Michael Kern, and more
Like with several other teams, the Wake Forest starting QB position for the 2023 season was just recently filled. But will that be enough to help the Demon Deacons make a name for themselves this year?
Today, we're going to look at the team's current QB corps and whether they have a chance of competing. Let's begin.
What does the Wake Forest QB depth chart look like for 2023?
As reported by CBS Sports, the Wake Forest starting QB is Mitch Griffis. Some might remember that Griffis had already got a taste of the starting signal-caller job last year when former QB1 Sam Hartman was out of the 2022 opener because of medical reasons. Hartman has since transferred to Notre Dame.
Rounding up the Demon Deacons' QB corps are junior Michael Kern and sophomores Santino Marucci and Troy Hoilman. Kern is the only one closest to Griffis in terms of pure passing skill, logging a good enough 57.1 CMP%. He had his best season in 2020 when he passed for 253 yards.
Marucci and Hoilman are both youngsters with their own merits. Marucci is a former three-star recruit who was selected for the 2020 Florida/Georgia All-Star game. In high school, he passed for 5,064 total yards and rushed for another 1,495. Hoilman, on the other hand, was a stellar high school QB himself, tallying 5,803 yards in three seasons at Avery County. Both haven't seen action on a collegiate field yet.
Mitch Griffis - Stats and strengths
Griffis' last year's stats aren't impressive for a current Wake Forest starting QB. In 2022, although he logged a relatively low-key 348 passing yards, he did have a sky-high 70.7 CMP%, indicating his innate skill and talent as a passer (via ESPN).
As a redshirt freshman in 2022, Griffis appeared in six games and started one. He helped lead his team to its seventh-straight bowl game as well as to back-to-back bowl wins in the Gasparilla Bowl. For the foreseeable future, he is expected to hold the Wake Forest starting QB job.
Here's what Clawson had to say about his ward (via LastWordOnSports),
"I (like) how comfortable he is leading, directing. That experience he had last year starting that first game I think that gives him a lot of confidence."
List of Wake Forest starting QBs in the last 5 years
Here are the players who were the Wake Forest starting QB in the last five years:
- 2018, 2019 - Jamie Newman
- 2020, 2021, 2022 - Sam Hartman
- 2022 - Sam Hartman, Mitch Griffis
As you can see, there's not a lot of changes for Wake Forest during the past five years. Sam Hartman, the long-time QB, has had an extremely stellar career for the Demon Deacons. While he had numerous injury issues during his stay, Hartman still managed to log 12,967 total pass yards for Wake Forest and remains one of the best QBs in the nation as of this season.
Jamie Newman, on the other hand, was no slouch as well. As a redshirt junior in 2019, he finished second in the entire ACC in total offense yards per game. He was also fifth in passing yards per game and had a school-record 227.9 career total offense yards per game (via GoDeacs). Safe to say, Mitch Griffis has a lot to live up to.
There's no question for Wake Forest as the season moves along. They will be leaning heavily on their Griffis' talent and experience if they want to make a deep run this year.