There was a fairly decent chance that Jacob Park would’ve landed on the No. 2 quarterback spot on Iowa State’s depth chart anyway. Thanks to an injury, he’s wrapped that job up.
Head coach Matt Campbell confirmed this past week that Zeb Noland sustained an unspecified knee injury that will sideline him for the entire 2016 season. Noland suffered the injury in a non-contact drill during a Thursday practice, leading to speculation that the true freshman tore an ACL.
Noland and Park had been battling to be the backup to starter Joel Lanning.
“We look forward to having him back,” Campbell said. “He should be full strength by the time we start spring practice.
“It’s just one of those things that’s part of football and fortunately we’ve got depth at that position. Zeb was really playing well for us and doing some great things, but it’ll give him a chance to kind of sit back now and really take some time to study. The silver lining in all of this is he’ll come back, he’ll be 110 percent when he comes back and it’ll be nothing that has longterm effects on Zeb and his performance going forward, so that’s huge for us.”
Noland was a three-star 2016 signee. He enrolled early at ISU and participated in spring practice.
Park, meanwhile, is a transfer from Georgia by way of the junior college ranks who will man the backup job after a season away from the sport. Park did not play football in 2015, instead focusing on academics at Trident Technical College in Charleston, SC.
In mid-June of 2015, it was confirmed that Park would be transferring from Georgia. Two weeks later, he visited Alabama, although nothing ever came of that interest. 247Sports also reports that park had conversations with Pittsburgh and Virginia Tech before opting for ISU.
A four-star member of UGA’s 2014 recruiting class, Park was rated as the No. 12 pro-style quarterback in the country; the No. 4 player at any position in the state of South Carolina; and the No. 229 player overall according to Rivals.com. Park worked mainly with the scout team during his only season with the Bulldogs.
With Noland sidelined, the No. 3 spot will likely fall to Kyle Kempt. Kempt began his collegiate career at Oregon State before going the JUCO route.