Nov. 8, 2005

Charleston, SC - The search for a quarterback at The Citadel has settled on Ben Carnell, a freshman from Hanahan High School who began this season as the fourth-string scout team QB.

Carnell did enough in last week's 31-21 loss at Chattanooga to earn the start Saturday in the Bulldogs' final home game of the season against Elon, football coach Kevin Higgins said Monday. Carnell will become the Bulldogs' fourth starting QB of the season, following injured sophomore Duran Lawson and redshirt freshmen Justin Knox and Steve Tumbleston.

"I really thought Ben did enough good things to give us some encouragement for the next couple of games," Higgins said at his weekly news conference. "Ben will start, and I hope we will continue to see progress as he gets more repetitions in practice this week."

The QB door began revolving when Lawson suffered a season-ending knee injury in the third quarter of a 17-7 win at Western Carolina on Oct. 1. Knox got the next four starts, all losses, before giving way to Tumbleston, who started and played the first quarter against Chattanooga.

Tumbleston led the Bulldogs to a touchdown on their opening possession, but completed only 3 of 10 passes for 31 yards before Carnell came on in the second quarter. Carnell went 18 of 31 for 197 yards with two interceptions and led two TD drives.

Carnell's 197 passing yards marked a season-high for The Citadel, and the Bulldogs' 21 points matched their best total in regulation in a Southern Conference game this season (the Furman game was tied at 21-21 before The Citadel lost 39-31 in triple overtime.) Nine different receivers caught passes, also a season-high mark. "He threw the ball effectively," Higgins said.

"But more than anything, it helped the offensive game plan, just calling plays. Ben's got pretty good presence and knowledge, and can throw the ball down the field fairly accurately. That enables you to do some different things that you could not do with some of the other guys."

Higgins cited a throwback route to the tight end that Carnell hit a couple of times. Tight end Aaron Kelly, who had one catch for three yards in the first eight games, caught three passes for 56 yards against Chattanooga.

"One thing he was able to do was throw on the run," Higgins said. "We've seen very few throws this year where we are throwing back across the field to the tight end. We've called that play before, but the other guys had trouble seeing that and putting the ball in there between two defenders. Ben did that twice."

Higgins praised Carnell for his pocket presence, but said he would need to work on escaping the rush in preparation for Elon, which is second in the SoCon in total defense and employs a variety of blitz packages.

"A lot of young guys will feel and see the rush more than they see the receivers," Higgins said. "But one of the things Ben did instinctively is stay in the pocket and keep his eyes downfield. But we have to get him to be able to move and escape better in the pocket."

One of Carnell's interceptions came on a tipped pass, and the other was picked off at the goal-line near the game's end. His major mistakes came on the final drive, when he used the wrong cadence in the two-minute offense, resulting in two botched snaps for big losses.

"It doesn't matter how I did overall," an emotional Carnell said after the game. "I let them down on the last drive."

He'll get a chance to make up for it this week.

NOTES

--Senior linebacker Shawn Grant has a case of turf toe on his right foot, and his status for his final home game is uncertain, Higgins said.

--Higgins said he does not regret waiting to give Carnell a shot at QB. "I did have a gut feeling a few games ago," he said. "But where we are in this program, I don't think you can do that. I looked awfully hard at that, but when you have a guy who's been No. 2 since you got here, you have to give him a chance. And then you have another guy who has gotten reps, I don't know you jump that guy just on a hunch. I just don't think it would have been the right thing to do in this situation."

Quarterback Rotation

Freshman Ben Carnell will become The Citadel's fourth starting QB of the season against Elon on Saturday. A look at their numbers:

Player Starts Comp Att Yds Pct TDs INTs

Duran Lawson 4 55 94 434 58.5 5 3

Justin Knox 4 54 97 370 55.7 2 4

Steve Tumbleston 1 7 24 77 29.2 0 0

Ben Carnell 0 18 31 197 58.1 0 2

Totals 9 134 246 1,078 54.4 7 9