The Wolverine: Covering University of Michigan Football and Sports
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60 THE WOLVERINE ❱ OCTOBER 2024 BY ANTHONY BROOME D avid Cone's football and career paths share a common through- line of positioning himself for an oppor- tunity while busting through hurdles along the way. The 6-foot-7 quarterback prospect could have gone a lot of places to play his high school ball in Georgia but de- cided to take his chances at Statesboro High School, running a wishbone of- fense that did not always provide op- portunities to throw the ball. "My dad would get calls from the pri- vate school in town and private schools around the area saying, 'If you send Da- vid here, we'll throw the football every play,'" Cone said. "But when I was in middle school, our high school had just gone to back-to-back state champion- ships. They won the state championship when I was in eighth grade by like 50 points and there was just a lot of ex- citement around Statesboro football. I wanted to try my hand there, and if I can't end up being the starting quarter- back, then we'll figure something out." Cone played in a state championship game every year he was there, going up against some of the most talent-rich schools in the country, which put him on the radar of several notable college programs. a However, it was a bit of a game of mu- sical chairs to find a spot. Tim Tebow went to Florida. Georgia had its guy in Matthew Stafford. Florida State and Auburn had two quarterback commits each. It was a throwing session at Au- burn that put him on Michigan's radar while it put together its 2006 class. "I threw well at Auburn for Tommy Tuberville, and they called Michigan," Cone said. "They called [former QBs coach] Scot Loeffler and said, 'Hey, there's a tall quarterback down here whose high school doesn't throw the football a lot. Auburn's not going to of- fer him, but I think he'd be the type of player that you would like.' "We went up and did a Big Ten tour. We hit Michigan first, and I thought I threw decently, but Michigan really liked me right away. Lloyd Carr asked if I would stay the night, and we went around campus, and the next day he of- fered me a scholarship on the spot. "That really meant a lot to me be- cause so many other programs wanted to see how my senior year played out first. Michigan really committed to me right there on the spot, having seen me throw." Cone spent his first two seasons in a quarterback room that included Chad Henne before Carr's retirement after the 2007 season. That gave way to the Rich Rodriguez era at U-M, which was a complete 180-degree change from what had come before, especially offensively. Despite the change in system, Cone decided to stick it out and leaned on his past experience of playing in an offense that may not have suited him. "When that change happened, obvi- ously I thought every single day about transferring," Cone said. "It weighed on me heavily because I knew if I wanted to be the starting quarterback in college, A 6-foot-7 quarterback from Statesboro (Ga.) High, Cone appeared in four career games with the Wolverines, going 4-for-6 passing for 76 yards. PHOTO COURTESY MICHIGAN ATHLETICS ❱ Cone "I'm forever indebted to being able to be a part of that program. I'm doing what so many of us do now, which is trying to make Michigan proud of our professional lives." ❱ WHERE ARE THEY NOW? Former U-M QB David Cone Finds Voice In Media Space