Kansas Football: Thomas MacVittie could surprise at quarterback position

Kansas football kicks off the 2019 season, and the Les Miles era, in a little over two weeks. Along with Miles coming to Lawrence, the Jayhawks also welcome in new quarterback Thomas MacVittie, who has potential at the position.

While the results won’t be immediate for Kansas football, KU fans should definitely expect an improvement in 2019 in Les Miles’ first season at the helm. Miles won a National Championship at LSU and also landed some respectable recruits during his first year in recruitment.

One of the respectable recruits coming to Lawrence is quarterback Thomas MacVittie, a JUCO transfer who is heading into his junior year. MacVittie, a Cincinnati kid, spent time at Pitt and Mesa Community College before landing at Kansas. He redshirted in 2016 and really only saw time on special teams in 2017.

That paved the way for MacVittie to transfer to Mesa Community College where he threw for over 1,000 yards and 16 touchdowns in six games. The pro-style quarterback then committed to Kansas and enrolled at the university in January of this year.

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While MacVittie might not be the surefire starter, Pro Football Focus did a ranking of every single starting quarterback in college football and they had MacVittie as KU’s signal caller on their rankings. They had him at number 110 out of 130 eligible quarterbacks.

"Originally a 4-star recruit from Moeller High School in Cincinnati, MacVittie lands at Kansas for what now is his junior season after garnering No. 1 JUCO pro-style QB ranking from 247Sports. MacVittie has more upside than his counterpart to win the gig and more projection tham actual data backing him as he went the JUCO route to hone his abilities as a quarterback after two years basically away from the position at Pittsburgh from 2016-17."

As PFF mentioned, MacVittie didn’t play quarterback during his time at Pitt and that’s why his performance at Mesa was even more impressive. He was a bit rusty, but played well albeit against JUCO-level talent.

While KU fans shouldn’t expect MacVittie to be one of the better Big 12 quarterbacks this year, he could surprise some people. He was a three-star rated prospect by 247Sports and is definitely better than what the Jayhawks have had at the position the past few years. He also chose to attend KU rather than Vanderbilt, which is a more successful program and would have put him in the spotlight a little more.

Not having a steady quarterback has been an issue for Kansas football and while Thomas MacVittie might have some early season struggles, there’s real upside with this kid. Fingers crossed he can be a reliable option at the position for the next few years.