Gardner Minshew

Height:
6-2
Weight:
215
Class:
Sophomore
Hometown:
Brandon, Miss.
High School:
Brandon
Prev School:
NW Mississippi CC
Major:
Communication

Earned designation as the Pirates’ starting quarterback at the close of spring drills … Turned in a strong spring showing after taking over the top signal-caller duties during the final two games of the 2016 campaign … Coaching staff expects competition with arrival of graduate transfer Thomas Sirk to promote continued development, both from an on-the-field performance and leadership standpoint … Completed a combined 40-of-67 (59.7 percent) passes for 610 yards and seven touchdowns in three spring scrimmages … Suffered only two interceptions … Was 8-of-16 for 215 yards and three scores in the first contest (April 1) … Connected with Jimmy Williams twice (48, 65-yarders) and Quay Johnson once (5) on TD strikes … Picked up 130 yards (11-of-15) during the second outing (April 7) and again found Williams twice for scores (27, 2-yarders) … Closed out spring work completing 21-of-36 throws for 265 yards and a pair of TDs during the Purple-Gold Game on April 22 … Delivered scoring tosses to Williams (36-yarder) and Johnson (18) … Recipient of offensive unit’s “Respect The Ball” award at the close of spring workouts … A 4-2-4 transfer who Initially signed NLI with Troy out of high school (but never played for Trojans and enrolled at Northwest Mississippi Community College instead).

2016: Played in seven games and made two starts during initial season with Pirates … Took over starting duties for an ailing Phil Nelson in mid-November and opened consecutive contests against Navy and Temple to close out the year … Completed 119-of-202 pass attempts for 1,347 yards and eight touchdowns … Completion percentage was 58.9 percent … Delivered TD throws vs. Navy (3), UCF, USF, Tulsa, SMU and Temple … Intercepted on four occasions (UCF/2, USF and SMU) … Topped 200-yard passing watermark three times, recording a season-best 336-yard performance at Tulsa … Also established personal highs in attempts (49) and completions (29) against Golden Hurricane … Other notable outings include a 238-yard (16-of-25), three TD effort against Navy in first career start and a 220-yard (21-of-33) afternoon at USF … Completed 20 or more passes thrice (Tulsa/29, USF/21, Temple/21) … Made ECU debut in second half against the Knights and promptly found Quay Johnson on a 75-yard TD strike for first Pirate completion … Closed year with at least one scoring toss in four consecutive contests … Logged TD throws of 40 (Zay Jones), six (Jimmy Williams) and season-long 77 (Jones) vs. Midshipmen for first multi-TD performance of career … Finished campaign with 13-yard scoring pass to Williams that helped ECU jump out to a 7-0 lead against eventual league champion Temple on the road … Executed Pirates’ only successful two-point conversion with short toss to Jones against UCF in American Athletic Conference opener at Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium … Forty-seven (47) of 119 completions went for 10 or more yards (15 exceeded 20 yards) ... Did not play in any non-conference contests, so all statistics were compiled in AAC action … Averaged 246.3 (739 in three games) passing yards on the road compared to a 152.0 clip at home (608 in four outings) … Had 20 rushes for -36 yards with a long of seven vs. UCF … Was a late addition to the 2016 signing class, officially inking with the Pirate program on May 4 … Arrived on ECU campus in mid-May and enrolled in summer classes.

Junior College: Played key role in guiding Rangers to an 11-1 record and the 2015 NJCAA National Championship ... Completed 223-of-367 passes for 3,288 yards and 28 touchdowns for NWCC during freshman campaign before graduating early ... Recorded a completion percentage of 60.8 percent and was picked off only five times all year ... Threw for a season-high 421 yards and five TDs during Rangers' 66-13 victory over No. 2 Rochester Community and Technical College (RCTC) during the national title contest on Dec. 6 at Biloxi ... Earned Mississippi Bowl Player-of-the-Year honors for performance in the championship tilt, which included 302 yards and three scores in the first half alone and an overall 23-of-30 aerial effort (76.6 completion percentage) ... Engineered a balanced offensive unit that averaged 480.8 yards and 38.7 points per game ... Added three rushing scores on 37 carries from QB position ... Led NWCC on seven-game win streak to open season before closing year with four-straight victories, including title winner ... Surpassed 300 passing yards and contributed three or more TD strikes on five occasions ... Completed 70-plus percent of his throws four times with a season-best 80.0 clip against Coahoma (16-of-20) ... In addition to 421-yard effort vs. RCTC, other notable passing outings include 348 vs. Mississippi Delta, 332 vs. Jones County, 315 vs. Itawamba and 306 vs. Northeast ... Closed year with 10 scoring strikes in last three games - three vs. East Central, two vs. Gulf Coast and the aforementioned five against RCTC ... Mobility allowed for only one or fewer (zero) sacks in 10 of 12 contests ... Established season-highs in completions (28) and attempts (40) against Mississippi Delta during a 40-0 win on Oct. 10 ... Had five completions in excess of 50 yards, including a personal-long of 75 vs. Itawamba on Sept. 17 ... Directed NWCC to a 5-1 mark during Mississippi Association of Community & Junior Colleges (MACJC) action.

High School: An integral part of a Brandon (Miss.) High School program that rolled to a 12-2 record and advanced to the Class 6A South Half championship in 2014 ... Head coach was Brad Peterson ... Completed 243 passes for 3,541 yards and 31 touchdowns, while also rushing for 158 yards and two scores as a senior ... Threw for 450 yards and three TDs against Meridian in '14 ... Closed prep career as one of the metro area's most successful quarterbacks with 11,222 passing yards and 105 total touchdowns ... Earned selection to the all-state and all-metro squads ... Named the South's Offensive MVP in the 2014 Bernard Blackwell All-Star Game ... Prior to senior campaign, was chosen as the MVP at the Birmingham Nike Football Camp (March, 2014) ... Tabbed as the player-of-the-year in 2012 by the Jackson Touchdown Club ... Off the field, was inducted into the Brandon High School Hall of Fame and graduated with a 4.0 GPA ... Recruited by Troy, Southern Miss and Wake Forest out of high school before initially signing with the Trojans.

Personal: Full name is Gardner Flint Minshew II … Son of Kim and Flint Minshew ... Father was a football letterman at Millsaps (Miss.) College who earned induction into the school's athletic hall of fame ... Has two younger sisters, Meredith and Callie ... Major is communications … Earned selection to the ECU Dean’s List for classroom excellence during the 2017 spring semester … Lists playing ping-pong and basketball as hobbies.