Easton Stick is getting his first chance at consistent playing time in the NFL as the Los Angeles Chargers‘ starting quarterback after Justin Herbert suffered a season-ending injury.
Stick hails from a humble collegiate background in FCS football but had plenty of success at the level.
What Is the FCS?
FCS, otherwise known as the Football Championship Subdivision, is a lower division of Division I college football that is one step below the FBS (Football Bowl Subdivision) that most fans of the sport interact with on a daily basis.
This season, 128 teams from across the country played at the FCS level, while 133 competed at the FBS level as a few began or continued making the transition from FCS to FBS. Some schools have found great success in that regard, most notably both James Madison (11-1) and Jacksonville State (8-4) this year.
Those programs demonstrate how there is not always such a wide gap between the FCS’ best teams and the Group of Five conferences at the FBS level.
Although no one would make the argument that FCS teams would win national championships at the FBS level, there is no doubt they have produced some strong NFL talent through the years. Stick, Carson Wentz, and Trey Lance all hail from the same FCS power, North Dakota State, while Jimmy Garoppolo, Joe Flacco, and Josh Johnson also came from FCS programs.
Easton Stick’s FCS Stardom
Stick had one of the more successful runs of any of those quarterbacks at the FCS level.
After redshirting in 2018, he won three national championships as NDSU’s starting quarterback (four overall, counting the redshirt season) and went 49-3 across 52 career college starts, making him the all-time winningest FCS quarterback. His exploits helped the Bison eventually take over as the all-time leader in FCS national titles with nine.
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Stick had his most successful season stats-wise as a senior, throwing for 2,752 yards and 28 touchdowns to just seven interceptions while adding 677 rushing yards for 17 more scores, leading NDSU to a national title.
Those exploits made him a fifth-round selection by the Chargers in the 2019 NFL Draft.
Stick then made one brief appearance in 2020 during a 39-29 Week 6 win over the Jacksonville Jaguars, completing one pass for four yards and rushing once for a loss. That was all the action he had seen at the NFL level up until the second quarter of Sunday’s 24-7 loss to the Denver Broncos as he entered in place of the injured Herbert.
It was an up-and-down day for Stick, who went 13 of 24 for 179 yards with no touchdowns or interceptions and took two sacks for a loss of 31 yards, losing one fumble.
Still, Stick gets to make his first career start on Thursday Night Football against the Las Vegas Raiders and could be in line for quite a bit of playing time down the stretch after Herbert was placed on injured reserve Tuesday and will miss the remainder of the season.
“I’m just going to go out there and play,” Stick told reporters earlier this week. “There’s going to be good, and there’s going to be bad. … That’s just part of it. It’s football. It’s not perfect. I’m just going to go out there and do my best.”
Although jumping from the FCS level to the NFL is no small feat, Stick has now had nearly five seasons to learn and grow around a bevy of uber-talented professional athletes. He’ll get a chance to show what he’s capable of on Thursday and potentially going forward.
“Ultimately, it’s football,” Stick told reporters. “Look, I understand North Dakota State is not the National Football League, but I’m used to winning. I only know one way. This is a production business, and I understand that.”
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