Duke Football: A Glance At The New Recruits, Pt. 1 – Quarterbacks

Photo from Jacksonville.com

Ever since taking over as Head Coach of the Duke football team, David Cutcliffe has put a dangerous and consistent passing attack on the field. Behind the arms of former QBs Thad Lewis (06-09) and Sean Renfree (09-12), Duke often found themselves ranked highly in passing yards per game and scoring offense, nationally. They’ve yet to take the next step and become an elite offense, but they’ve been dangerous, nevertheless.

With Renfree leaving the program, it is time for Duke to find the next leader of their air attack. Junior QB Anthony Boone appears to be next in line to take over the reigns, but he is very unproven and I doubt Cutcliffe simply hands the role over to him. Duke also has Brandon Connette, an option quarterback, but his skillset doesn’t fit well in the scheme, as he is more of a change-of-pace quarterback, rather than a guy you want under center on every play.

In addition to Connette and Boone, Duke also has freshman Thomas Sirk and sophomores Mackenzie Sovereign and Robert Collins returning. They already have plenty of options on their current roster, but Duke has taken the ‘the more the merrier’ approach, adding brand-new recruits Parker Boehme and Quay Chambers to the mix in this year’s recruiting class.

Don’t know anything about either of these two guys? Let’s fix that:

Parker Boehme

A 6’2, 215 lb, 3-star QB prospect out of Jacksonville, FL, Boehme chose Duke over other top-notch programs such as Auburn, South Florida, Central Florida and Houston.

Boehme is making the most of the opportunity of having the starting quarterback job open, as he has enrolled early. While he has a lot of potential, his arm still needs a lot of development before I’d be too comfortable with him being the starting quarterback. While he has above-average accuracy for a high-school QB, his arm strength and mechanics are lacking. Considering Cutcliffe excels in developing quarterbacks, though, I’m sure Boehme is going to be just fine.

While he is a pass-first quarterback, he is a smart and talented athlete in the open field. He ran for nearly 1,000 yards his junior season and his highlight reel is filled with numerous impressive scrambles. While Cutcliffe’s system doesn’t necessarily call for a dual-threat kind of player, having a guy with the ability to escape pressure never hurts.

Quay Chambers

Chambers comes from Monroe High School, the same school that produced fellow Blue Devils Jamison Crowder and and Isaac Blakeney. Chambers is a dual-threat quarterback, just like Boehme, but don’t be surprised if his future at Duke lies at wide receiver.

Some recruiting sites, such as Rivals.com, have him listed officially as an athlete and Chambers said this when he first committed to Duke back in March:

"“It wasn’t a hard decision because Duke was my favorite school growing up and I always wanted to go there, so when they offered me, I had to take advantage of it…Coach Cutcliffe and Coach Lubick have been recruiting me and talking about playing QB or WR."

The 6’4, 200 lb playmaker runs a 4.6 40-yard dash, which I expect will further improved come the fall, and has all the tools to succeed as a receiver. He is deadly in open space, as he ran for 16 touchdowns and over 1,000 yards his junior season, and he’ll own a size advantage over nearly every cornerback he would go up against.

He could end up at quarterback, but Silk and Boehme appear to have the better upside as a quarterback and it would likely be far more beneficial to both the Blue Devils and Chambers if he made the official switch to wide receiver.