Who is first-year starting quarterback Matt Hunt?
As Old Gold weekend approaches, fans and alumni alike are excited to see their Tigers play at home for only the second time this season. The team is looking to get their first win of the season in front of what should be a boisterous home crowd for this weekend's game.
After starting three out of the first four games of the season on the road, the players are eager to show off that the win-loss record doesn't reflect the talent that's across the board on this team. However, no one is more eager than the new starting quarterback, first-year Matt Hunt.
But who is Matt Hunt? He is from the northeast side of Indianapolis, Ind. where he attended Heritage Christian School since kindergarten. This is also the same high school that senior wide receiver Jackson Kirtley and sophomore wide receiver Matt Costakis attended.
Hunt has played quarterback since third grade while also playing baseball all four years of high school. His senior year as a quarterback was without a doubt his best, accounting for over 4,000 yards in total offense along with 47 touchdowns and only seven interceptions thrown. Those numbers did not go unnoticed, as he was considered one of the top quarterback prospects out of Indiana.
"It was a natural for us to get involved in recruiting him," head coach Bill Lynch said. "We recruited him hard, he was certainly a player we had our eyes on...I thought he fit what we wanted to do on offense...we made a good effort to get him and we are very fortunate he decided to come."
When asked what made him decide to go to DePauw, Hunt credited coach Lynch and the football staff for helping him decide to become a Tiger.
"I had always heard of DePauw, knew it was a good school and connected to the [Indianapolis] area," Hunt said. "I knew I wanted to play football in college...I visited the campus and I liked Coach Lynch, I liked the coaching staff a lot and I liked what I saw of the players...I thought this would be my best fit and it has worked out well."
One of the characteristics of Hunt's game is that he was brought up by coaches and players alike is his elusiveness and quickness inside and out of the pocket.
"He really brings the ability to escape the pocket and make plays," Kirtley said. "I saw that in his early career in my high school days...he's able to use his physical ability to get out of the pocket and make something happen when most people think the play is going to be over, I think that's something he really brings to the table that we haven't been as fortunate as having in the past."
Lynch had a lot of praise for this first-year quarterback.
"He has maturity at the quarterback position, he doesn't get rattled despite playing against three very good defensive teams in Wittenberg, Kenyon, and Denison so far," he said. "Physically he's a very accurate thrower...he has good quickness and awareness out on the field that when you put all of those together makes him capable of being a starting quarterback."
This will be Hunt's first home game since taking over as starting quarterback and the stage couldn't be bigger. With what is expected to be one of the largest crowds for Old Gold in years and the first ever conference matchup against Oberlin College, it could be easy for a young player to be rattled by all the hype generated for this weekend's game. However, Hunt is focused on the job at hand.
"It's going to be a really cool experience to play in front of that many people," Hunt said. "I think we have a good shot [against Oberlin]."
Hunt said the team will need strength on bot offense and defense.
"We always have a good game plan going in offensively...I think we can exploit some of the things they do on defense," Hunt said, "it's just once we get into the game we have to execute and we can't take any plays off, every play has to be important to us."
The expectations for Hunt and the team remains high for Old Gold Weekend. The game kicks off at 1 p.m. at Blackstock Stadium and will feature a halftime ceremony for former head coach Nick Mourouzis, where DePauw will dedicate the new synthetic turf as the Nick Mourouzis Field. The game can be watched live online via the DePauw football athletics page or listened to on WGRE 91.5.