It is safe to say that at the start of the 2012 Georgetown football season, no one in their right mind thought Kyle Nolan would be the quarterback lining up under center for the Hoyas this past week against the Lafayette Leopards. Most fourth-string, freshman quarterbacks like Nolan hope to see the field once or twice in their whole careers, making what he is doing this season and the success he has had highly unconventional.
But for Nolan, life has been unconventional before. During his sophomore year of high school, a bout with the flu turned serious when doctors informed him he would need open-heart surgery due to an enlarged vein. Nolan, the starting center on the basketball team and starting quarterback on the football team, refused to be sidetracked by the heart problem; he returned to action just 10 weeks after surgery, undergoing a remarkably smooth recovery.
Fast forward to Nolan’s freshman year at Georgetown. Again, he has been thrown into a challenging situation–with the three quarterbacks ahead of him on the depth chart sidelined by injury, the coaching staff has turned to him to lead a struggling Hoya team whose chances at a postseason run have started to slip away. Just as he exceeded all hopes in his recovery from surgery, Nolan has exceeded all expectations as the new starter, something his coaches have begun to notice.
“Kyle has played very well and has displayed a great deal of poise,” said Offensive Coordinator Vinny Marino. “He has been very productive and has given the offensive another dimension that we were struggling to have.”
“He has a presence out there on the field and our players have noticed it,” Marino said. “He has done a really good job of paying attention in meetings while the other guys were getting the reps. It shows a great deal of maturity on his part. That maturity has shown itself on the field on more than one occasion.”
In his first two starts, Nolan has thrown four touchdowns, including three to sophomore wide receiver Kevin Macari, and is averaging of 228.5 passing yards per game. Nolan’s play thus far is a very promising sign for the future of Hoya football, a fact Marino himself has taken notice of.
“Kyle does give us a dimension that we have been trying to get to of having consistent balance between run and pass as well as getting the ball down the field,” he said. “We will see how the next two games go and as we head into the offseason and the preparation for the 2013 season but he certainly has a good chance to be the QB of the future.”
