Quarterback is not a position for freshmen — not usually.
Duke coach David Cutcliffe has avoided that scenario for most of his career. True, as a QB coach at Tennessee, he did have to start freshman Peyton Manning in several games, but a few years later as head coach at Ole Miss, he was able to bring Eli Manning along slowly. At Duke, he never had to start a freshman quarterback — inheriting rising junior Thad Lewis, replacing him with redshirt sophomore Sean Renfree, followed by redshirt junior Anthony Boone and redshirt junior Thomas Sirk.