The news on Christian Chapman’s left knee isn’t good, exactly, but it’s not as bad as initially feared.
This projected timeline for Chapman’s recovery means that at the very least, it will be the Ryan Agnew show for games against Arizona State and Eastern Michigan. Chapman could possibly return after the bye to face Boise State on the Avatar turf, though that seems like a tough scenario to drop a rusty, hobbled QB into the middle of.
Honestly, the way Chapman writhed in agony after being hit low in the second quarter against Sacramento State, I was expecting a season-ending ligament tear. So the fact that he should be back for a division title run is a positive development.
The Rocky Long Aztecs have a history of mid-season QB injuries — and the results haven’t always been bad!
- In 2012, Ryan Katz broke his ankle and gave way to Adam Dingwell, who game-managed the Aztecs to a win at Boise State and a share of the Mountain West title.
- In 2014, Quinn Kaehler sprained his shoulder and missed two games, leaving Nick Bawden to struggle in a pivotal loss to Fresno State.
- In 2015, Maxwell Smith tore his ACL in the second to last game of the regular season, giving way to one Christian Chapman, who won the season finale, Mountain West title game and Hawai’i Bowl.
Judging from this historical timeline, Agnew has a 66 percent chance of leading the Aztecs to championship glory, and a 33 percent chance of gaining 40 pounds and reinventing himself as a club-handed fullback. It’s a win-win really!
Everything old is Agnew again
What do we know about junior backup QB Ryan Agnew?
Agnew was a three-star quarterback prospect out of football-crazy Texas. He won 36 games as the quarterback of Carroll High School in Southlake, Texas, a Dallas suburb that is Texas high school football in all its obscene opulence. Seven of the 12 people listed in the “notable alumni” section of the school’s Wikipedia page are current or former NFL players. Carroll has its own 11,000 seat stadium that for one season was home of the Dallas Burn MLS franchise.
He likes to run. Agnew put up big passing numbers for the Carroll High Dragons, throwing for 6,967 yards and 56 touchdowns in three years while rushing for an impressive 2,286 yards with 38 touchdowns. In his junior year he threw for 29 touchdowns while also rushing for 1,257 yards and 20 TDs.
Rocky Long is no fan of spread or run-option offenses. But with his backup and heir-apparent starter for 2019 suddenly getting all the first-team snaps, one would imagine a few quarterback keepers might leak into the playbook.
Our at-present starting quarterback is on Twitter (under the cheeky handle shagnew_7) but has only tweeted once since last November, meaning his decision-making is about a thousand times better than mine.
Agnew’s SDSU player page hasn’t yet caught up to his newfound for-now temporary status as Big Man on Campus, displaying this image of him apparently from an intrasquad scrimmage with his playcall wristband flopping in the wind.
Agnew has thrown all of 26 passes in three years as an Aztec (17 of them on Saturday) and run the ball 16 times for 106 yards, 21 of them on three rushes against Sac State. Here’s a shaky hand-held glimpse of the work he put in on the go-ahead drive against the Hornets:
I like the mobility and the poise. One would think a week of first-team reps will make him even sharper.
Go get ‘em Ryan. You can do it!
KABEER THIRTY 