I think with the loss of Curtis Pulley, it is obvious to everyone that Louisville holds a pretty firm advantage over Kentucky at the quarterback position. My opinion on this is not attributed to Pulley being a superstar, but towards his in-game experience, where he had 22 games under his belt compared to Mike Hartline's four.
On the other side, you have Hunter Cantwell, a quarterback that has spent the last four years learning under Brian Brohm. In that time, he got into 18 games, including starting and playing the entire Gator Bowl game against Virginia Tech in 2006 with an injured Brian Brohm watching. In those 18 games, Cantwell has four starts, 1,419 yards passing, 10 touchdowns and 7 interceptions. As a player with a canon for an arm and great pocket presence, Cantwell is a guy that could have definitely started in a lot of other programs.
Currently, NFLDraftScout.com has Cantwell rated the #2 quarterback in tha nation, behind Clemson's Cullen Harper. ESPN NFL Draft expert Mel Kiper has Cantwell as the #1 quarterback in this class, ahead of Stephen McGee (Texas A&M), Nate Longshore (Cal), Graham Harrell (Texas Tech), and Chase Holbrook (New Mexico State). Not bad for a guy who has never been his teams "starting"
quarterback.
Cantwell is also on this year's Davey O'Brian Watch List for the nations top quarterback, The Maxwell Award Watch List for the nation's top player and the Johnny Unitas Golden Arm Award Watch List for the nation's best quarterback.
I think the major question mark with Cantwell has to be who does he throw to? With Trent Guy out for at least a couple of months after being shot last month, Louisville will not have a reciever in this game that was in the game last season. The lack of experience there has to make some Louisville fans nervous.
With Mike Hartline, you have a guy that has seen action in four games, all last season, after redshirting the 2006 season. In those four games, Hartline was 4-for-6 with 34 yards and 1 interception. Those numbers, or the lack there of, make it a little unnerving for the Kentucky faithful. Where UK had guys like Jared Lorenzen, Shane Boyd and Andre' Woodson over the past few years, all guys that had experience from years before, you now have an unproven guy with very little experience.
Yet, Mike Hartline is not a bad quarterback. Hartline stands at 6-foot-6 and has a canon for an arm. His height makes him an excellent candidate for quarterback in this system where there is a lot of drop back passing and screens. The ability to see over defenses will serve him well at Kentucky.
Known predominately for his throwing ability, Hartline also has the ability to scramble, a facet of the game not seen as much by Andre' Woodson. I'm not saying he is a Curtis Pulley clone or anything, but he can scramble. He showed that off in the spring. Where Andre' tended to become a statue in the pocket, leading to some sacks when the pocket broke down, I doubt you will see those kind of things out of Hartline. Add all of this to his ability to lead his team, I think Hartline will be a very good quarterback, I'm just not sure how long it will take.
In all honesty, before Pulley was released, I truly believed Hartline would be the choice at quarterback.
Hartline has the comfort of having a very good frontline protecting him and a strong corps of running backs that can catch the ball out of the backfield. He may be concerned a little with the lack of a deep recieving corps, a corps that boasts only two players with major minutes in Dicky Lyons and DeMoreo Ford. He has some great young talen in Aaron Boyd, Kyrus Lanxter and possibly Randall Cobb, but they are unproven.
Obviously, the quarterback position favors Louisville. So as it stands now, Louisville leads Kentucky 1-0.
