Monday, June 08, 2009

Who is David Shinskie?

The never ending offseason took another turn last night when David Shinskie became the latest member of the 2009 recruiting class. "2009?" you might wonder. "Didn't BC finish up recruiting for the '09 class in February?" Technically yes, but this late addition is headed to campus, and will enroll and practice with the team this summer. But his arrival is not the only unique aspect of the Shinskie story. Our new recruit also happens to be 25 years old and will compete for the starting QB spot this season!


Shinskie was originally a member of the 2003 recruiting class (the same one that gave us Paul Peterson and Matt Ryan). Although he had BCS offers, he signed with DIAA power Delaware. But before he even played a down with them he was selected in the fourth round of the MLB draft and signed with the Twins. After toiling in the minors for six years, he hung it up and decided to give football a try. His selection process this time around was pretty short and BC's offer and depth chart were inviting enough for him to commit shortly after visiting.


No one knows what we are getting in Shinskie. He hasn't played organized football in six years. The good news is that the track record of baseball washouts as QBs is decent. In addition to their physical maturity, the baseball guys often bring a work ethic and perspective that makes them that much better. Aside from taking up a scholarship for four years, there is really no downside to Shinskie.


Even before his time in baseball, Shinskie was a decent prospect. Here are his 2003 profiles in Rivals and Scout. He played in a lower level of PA football, but was prolific and winning.


Give credit to the staff. They are trying anything that works. With all that has happened and all the gloom and doom, we still might surprise people yet.

25 comments:

totheights said...

Not to mention he was an All-State punter. Can never have to many of those on the team.

Unknown said...

Is Shinskie defiantly taking up a scholarship? I think, if Shinskie had an agent that was any good, that the Twins are on the hook for this. I know the Red Sox prospect who just signed with the Vols is coming on as a walk on, as the Sox are paying for his education. If thats the case, no downside at all.I have a good feeling about this one.

Bird said...

P. Rivers, Drew Henson, and John Elway all played minor league before college fball

Lally said...

Drew Henson left college football for minor league baseball.

America said...

We're going, going, back, back to Tampa Tampa!!!

ACC CHAMPIONS THROUGH AND THROUGH!!

GordonsLeftFoot said...

Let's not forget about Paul Peterson, he did a two-year Mormon mission after college before enrolling at Snow College. And he is the best BC quarterback not named Matt Ryan to have played this decade.

GordonsLeftFoot said...

I meant high school, not college.

Bird, you can also add Chris Weinke to that list.

marcos said...

I heard he comes from a prestigious HS with a really good tradition in PA...anyone from the area know?

Lenny Sienko said...

The more things change, the more they stay the same:

Here is a piece about Quentin Porter (remember him?) poised to take over as the starter for the Hamilton TiCats of the CFL.

Quentin Porter in CFL

The article talks about his character. Who ever knows with quarterbacks?

Unknown said...

Prestigious is not exactly the word I would use, but they have a great football tradition at Mt. Carmel. Shinskie was a 4-year starter and won two state championships, in 2000 and 2002. They were an AA team which is a smaller PA classification, but also the one that produced Terrelle Pryor and Darrelle Revis. IIRC they also beat a solid quad-A team in Pottsville his senior year. In terms of a high school football career he left little to be accomplished.

AguilaFan said...

Can you believe HD hasn't said anything about Shinskie yet? Not even a headline, facts later?

eagleboston said...

Look, here is the deal with this. Shinskie may never play a down, but what I like about his signing is we now will have a highly competitive race to determine the starter. This will make the eventual starter that much better in game pressure situations since they will have already faced tremendous pressure just winning the starting job. It should also make the back-up more prepared which we all know from last year is critical.

Futher, I like Shinskie's moxie. He flat-out told Rivals he thinks he wil earn the job and he is willing to work hard to win the spot. If the starting QB is merely serviceable, I feel BC has a shot at 8-9 wins as he will have a platoon of running backs behind what should be a great line to open up the passing game. And I feel BC has the best receiving corps in years if we can just find a QB to feed them the ball.

Our offense is going to be vital in helping along a depleted defense. I think the D will give up more points than we are accustomed to, so the offense is going to have to put points on the board. This means BC also needs more production from the field goal kickers.

Bottom line, Spaz and Company are already impressing me with their recruiting and their creativity in filling critical needs. I love their outside-the-box mentality.

Big Jack Krack said...

There's no question that Quinton Porter had potential. I felt the same way about Chris Crane - and still feel as though we would have won the ACCCG with him at the helm.
I also know that I'm in the minority on that.

Crane was in complete control in the Wake Forest game, which we would have won probably 26 or 31 to 0. Sure, he made a few mistakes, but he was doing exactly what the coaches were telling him to do. I hope we hear his name in the future somewhere.

blockparty said...

big jack,

agree with you about crane. by the end of last season, each member of the team was comfortable with their role. crane still had those head-scratching moments, but he was for the most part very serviceable. i agree that bc wins the acccg with crane. unfortunately, thats not how it played out.

if this shinskie guy can compete for the starting job, as eagleboston points out, i think that benefits bc in all areas. gotta like what spaz is doing.

Unknown said...

not that rivals gets it right, but interesting to see him as the #37 ranked drop back QB in the 2003 class (right in the middle of great company with Matt Ryan at #25 and Joe Flacco at #39). no pressure David.

mmason said...

To quote George Clooney in "O Bro, Where Art Thou?": "Everybody's lookin' for answers." And I'm glad BC is lookin' at Shinskie as an answer--anybody mentioned in the same breath with Paul Peterson or Porter, and I'm a happy Eagle. Also--I love the positives coming from everyone's comments about this new QB who can kick and has MLB baseball in his blood. Damn, it makes me wanna spit some chaw and root for a guy who sees the Eagles as a chance for a shot at some glory. These are the kinda guys that bust in and beat ND and win 'ships because they're past the fear of rookies. We've had so much bad news lately, we needed some wacky, off-the-wall guy to come in and stir the pot. If it makes the rest of the QB hopefuls better and pushes up the intensity,that's a plus all the way 'round. ATL--thanks for bringing the good news--there's hope in Mudville.

Talons of...Fury? said...

sanchez just went 4th

E.A.G.L.E.S said...

I am from Mt. Carmel,PA and BC is getting a very good QB,I Watched him play for 4 years and have nothing ad to say about him.I would be surpised if he does not get the starting job

CT said...

Yea, he was a good QB in high school. Great. And that means what exactly?

Actually, nobody knows.

If only intrasquad competition made our QBs better...that'd be an easy formula for success. Sadly, it doesn't quite work that way.

This is an unknown. What we do know is that the three guys at the Spring game kinda sucked. One is gone and almost forgotten. The other two...really, who knows? Kinda like the new guy.

I'd have to disagree about winning the ACCCG with Crane. He was pretty awful against the Hokies at home and nearly cost us the game by himself. I'm not of the opinion that he would've won the championship merely by showing up in lieu of Davis. Granted, Davis was pretty horrendous, but the second half wasn't a close game.

Maybe I'm not in the majority on that one, I don't know.

What I do know is that no one knows. Especially about the minor league guy. Let's reserve judgment until he actually completes a pass...against his own team in August or against conference competition in September.

It's not like there's much room to go down, truth be told.

Darius said...

Even if Shinskie turns out to be pretty good, I fear we're still going to have problems on D that will be our undoing.

I have a suspicion that the drop off in our defense's performance is going to be dramatic this year. We just don't have the depth, the sheer numbers of highly talented guys who could step in, that many of the factories have. Recall how ugly it got in 2007 when we lost Dunbar. Specifically the Maryland game--the whole year could be like that.

I hope I'm wrong, I really do.

Hardcoal said...

A little more on Mt.Carmel Area. I don't know that prestigious is the word (it's right in the heart of Pennsylvania's anthracite coal fields), but's it's definitely a very storied program. It's the winningest high school football program in Pennsylvania (4th or 5th in the country, I believe), both in number of victories and winning percentage. It also has some close past ties to B.C. Longtime coach Joe "Jazz" Diminick, who was the winningest coach in Pennsylvania when he stepped down, was an All-American running back at B.C. in the 40's. Another MCA grad, John Halcovich, was a starting DE on some very good BC teams in the early 70's. Mt. Carmel won five state champioonships from 1994 to 2002, and was the runner-up in 1999. Dave Shinski was the starting QB on the runnerup team in 1999 (as a freshman) and the championship teams in 2000 and 2002. Mt. Carmels 2008 team was 13-1 and lost in the Eastern Quarterfinals. The starting QB on that team will play at Maine.

Unknown said...

I have to laugh at the comments about Mt Carmel not being either a prestigious school or that they are a lower level school. Mt Carmel is the winningest school in Pennsylvania all time and top 5 winningest high school football teams in the USA all time. Dont let the AA classification fool you, MCA played AAA ball for a long time.

Matt said...

Steve said it best. If you don't think Mt Carmel is prestigious than you don't know the meaning of the word. When Shinskie played, they played as an independent, scheduling a lot of schools above their AA classification. They are the winningest team in PA, 4th or 5th in the country and have 5 state titles. Dave also won the small school (AA and A) player of the year. I believe the 4th or 5th to earn that honor from Mt Carmel.

Unknown said...



خدمات النظافة بالدمام لابد ان تقدمها شركة لديها ثقة في اتمام خدمات النظافة المنزلية لان النظافة العاية لا تعطي النتيجة الفعالة التي تتم بواسطة شركة تنظيف بالدمام متخصصة لانها تهتم بكل شئ داخل المباني فلدينا شركة تنظيف فلل بالدمام تكون متخصصة في نظافة الفلل المفروشة والمستعملة واعطائها الرونق الجمالي الخاص بها لدينا شركة تنظيف شقق بالدمام متخصصة في اعمال نظافة الشقق المنزلية وشقق المكاتب والمعارض بواسطة الادوات والمواد اللازمة لعمل ذلك لدينا تخصصتنا في اعمالنا التي ترضي العميل وتخلصة من الحشرات الصغيرة التي تسبب ازعاج كبير للاسرة من خلال شركة مكافحة حشرات بالدمام التي لديها معدتها وموادها لعمل ذلك كما يوجد متخصص ايضا للقضاء علي الحشرات من خلال التواصل مع شركة رش مبيدات بالدمام التي تنتهيك من كل الحشرات المنزلية كما نعمل معا للواصل اليك كل الخدمات المنزلية من خلال خدمة الاثاث بواسطة افضل شركة نقل اثاث بالدمام والتعامل معها سوف يصل الي منزلك الجيد بدون اي تعب
كما يوجد خدمتنا الاخري التي يمكنك البحث عنها م والاستفادة منها
شركة تنظيف بالقطيف
شركة تنظيف بالجبيل
شركة تنظيف بالاحساء




Mai Helmy said...

نقدم لكم عملئنا الكرام افضل شركه تنظيف شركة تنظيف بابها شركة الشرق الاوسط لاعمال التنظيف ان عملية التنظيف تتطلب الجهد الكثير شركة تنظيف منازل بابها مع شركة الشرق الاوسط توفر لكل كل وسائل الراحه شركة تنظيف بخميس مشيط وايضا اسعار في منتهى الراحه كما ايضا تستخدم افضل انواع الالات والمعدات والعمالة المدربة فى اعمال التنظيف شركة تنظيف منازل بخميس مشيط مع شركة الشرق الاوسط نعم لبيت ومكتب وفيلا وشقه وغيرها نظيف تمام من الاوساخ شركة الشرق افضل شركة على الاطلاق فى اعمال التنظيف شركة تنظيف بنجران بجميع انواعه لا تقلق مع شركة الشرق الاوسط شركة نقل عقش ببيشة دائما فى راحة ان شاء الله خدمه 24 ساعه شركة تنظيف بحائل دون توقف