Top college QB prospect is being called mix of Andrew Luck and Cam Newton
If the comparisons turn out to be even remotely true, Virginia Tech landed a prize recruit in quarterback Quincy Patterson.
The 6-foot-4, 230-pound Patterson — who attends Solario Academy in Chicago — has been called a combination of Cam Newton and Andrew Luck.
“He’s got Cam Newton and Andrew Luck qualities,” said Trent Dilfer, former NFL quarterback and former ESPN analyst who coached Patterson during the Elite 11 recruiting camps. “He will be one of the best players in college football in three years.”
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The four-star recruit has the size and arm of Newton and, while raw, shows great promise as a passer, with the ability to make plays with his legs as Newton and Luck do.
Patterson is the 14th-ranked dual-threat quarterback in this recruiting class, according to 247 Sports, but Dilfer says he has a much higher ceiling.
“When a guy has a naturally clean throwing motion, you can teach them anything. And he has that,” Dilfer said, according to Bleacher Report. “He’s got sports-car ability, but really he’s the ultimate SUV with 500 horsepower. He’s a more dynamic J.T. Barrett, and he will have that kind of impact and with more pro upside if he’s developed as a passer. Physically, he’s going to have no limitations.”
And he’s also impressive academically. His current GPA is 4.4 on a 4.0 scale, Bleacher Report noted.
The Southside of Chicago is not exactly a hotbed for football, having produced very few big-time college players. But Patterson is not your average player.
“He’s grown up in tough neighborhoods — neighborhoods you hear about in the news every day,” said Matt Erlenbaugh, Patterson’s coach at Solario Academy. “The fact that there was no chance he was going that way was such a breath of fresh air.”
His father, Quincy Patterson, Sr., said academics has always been first for his son, who plans to study engineering at Virginia Tech.
“We have always told him that it’s about more than football,” Patterson Sr. told Bleacher Report. “If he didn’t have the grades, he wouldn’t play. We know that his football career could end on one play, and we didn’t want him to have nothing to fall back on.”
Patterson received scholarship offers from more than 20 programs, including Ivy League schools Yale and Princeton.
“One school told him they weren’t going to bother him with academics, and he immediately took them off his list,” Erlenbaugh said. “I really appreciate that about him. He puts himself into everything he does.”
FUENTE ON PATTERSON @CoachFuente discussed how Tech's relationship began with @Quincy_QB1
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When he visited Virginia Tech, coach Justin Fuente took him on a tour of the engineering school and introduced him to a top professor before showing him the football facilities.
“I’m going where I want to be rather than where people want me to go,” Patterson said about signing with Virginia Tech. “I’m happy to be in the position I’m in. I wouldn’t have it any other way.”
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