John O'Korn

John O'Korn

O'Korn (left) and Wilton Speight were part of a preseason quarterback battle
Michigan Wolverines No. 8
Position Quarterback
Class Senior
Major American Culture
Career history
College
Bowl games
High school Fort Lauderdale (FL) St. Thomas Aquinas
Personal information
Date of birth (1994-11-22) November 22, 1994
Place of birth Huntingdon, Pennsylvania
Height 6 ft 4 in (1.93 m)
Weight 209 lb (95 kg)
Career highlights and awards
  • AAC Rookie of the Year (2013)

John August O'Korn (born November 22, 1994) is an American football quarterback for the Michigan Wolverines. After attending St. Thomas Aquinas High School in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, where he led his team to the 2012 FHSAA 7A state high school title, O'Korn chose to attend the University of Houston.[1] He began as the starting quarterback for Houston during the 2013 season as a true freshman after teammate David Piland suffered career-ending injuries.[2] After throwing 3,117 yards and 28 touchdowns as a freshman and honored with the American Athletic Conference Freshman Player of the Year, he lost his starting position after starting the first five games in the 2014 season. On February 5, 2015, he announced his plans to transfer to the University of Michigan. [3]

Early life

John O'Korn was born to Gary and Paula O'Korn in Huntingdon, Pennsylvania.[4] He attended Huntingdon Area High School, where he played quarterback, throwing for 1,018 yards and 10 TDs as a sophomore, starting 5 games. As a youth, John was an outstanding baseball and basketball player as well as wrestler, placing in several national tournaments. When his family moved to Fort Lauderdale, Florida, O'Korn attended St. Thomas Aquinas High School. In his first season at St. Thomas Aquinas, he threw for 377 yards, seven touchdowns and three interceptions. The next season, he led the team to the 2012 FHSAA 7A state title with an average of 43 points per game. Throwing for 22 TDs with just 4 INTs and over 2,500 yards, he set a school record most passing yards and touchdown passes in a single season.

He received scholarship offers from Wisconsin, Louisville, Syracuse, Mississippi State, North Carolina, South Florida, and UCF in addition to Houston.[5]

College career

Houston

2013 season

O'Korn earned the backup position for quarterback during preseason camp behind David Piland.[5] However, he made his first collegiate appearance during the first half of the season opener. He became the quarterback beginning with the 2013 Bayou Bucket Classic against Rice.[6] When Piland announced that he would end his career due to concussions, O'Korn was solidified in the role.[7]

2014 season

O'Korn was the starting quarterback for the first five games of the 2014 season before being benched in favor of Greg Ward Jr.[8]

Michigan

2015 season

On February 5, 2015, O'Korn announced that he would be transferring to the University of Michigan. Due to NCAA transfer rules, O'Korn sat out the 2015 season. He spent the 2015 season serving as the scout team quarterback.[8][9]

2016 season

2016 Spring practice began on February 29 with a highly anticipated quarterback battle between redshirt junior Shane Morris, O'Korn, redshirt sophomore Wilton Speight, true freshman Brandon Peters and redshirt freshman Alex Malzone.[10][11] As Spring practice wound down in late March, Speight, O'Korn and Morris seemed to be the leading three,[12] but in that order.[13] O'Korn and Speight were the starters in the April 1 Spring game.[14][15]

On September 3 before the opening game against Hawaii, Speight was named as the starting quarterback.[16] O'Korn made his Michigan debut in the third quarter after Michigan had built a 49–0 lead,[17] and he went 3–3 on a touchdown scoring drive.[18] When Speight was sidelined with an unspecified shoulder injury, O'Korn led the team to a 20–10 victory over Indiana on November 19. O'Korn posted 7 completions in 16 attempts for a total of 59 yards with no touchdowns or interceptions. The performance represented the lowest passing yardage total for Michigan since John Navarre posted 58 in a November 17, 2001 victory for the 2001 Wolverines against Wisconsin.[19][20]

Statistics

Through Week 15 of the 2016 season, O'Korn's statistics are as follows:[21]

NCAA Collegiate Career statistics
Houston Cougars
Season Passing Rushing
Comp Att Yards Pct. TD Int QB Rating Att Yards Avg TD
2013 259 446 3,117 58.1 28 10 133.0 77 104 1.4 1
2014 90 173 951 52.0 6 8 100.4 32 18 0.6 1
Michigan Wolverines
2015
Redshirt
2016 20 34 173 58.8 2 0 121.0 12 31 2.6 0
NCAA Career Totals 369 653 4,241 56.5 36 18 123.7 121 153 1.3 2

References

  1. ↑ Sonnone, Brendan (June 22, 2012). "St. Thomas Aquinas QB John O'Korn commits to Houston". Orlando Sentinel. Retrieved October 10, 2013.
  2. ↑ Huguenin, Mike (September 19, 2013). "John O'Korn, a true freshman, will make first start for Houston". National Football League (NFL). Retrieved October 9, 2013.
  3. ↑ Murphy, Dan (February 5, 2015). "John O'Korn transfers to Michigan". ESPN.com. Retrieved February 6, 2015.
  4. ↑ "John O’Korn signs to play at Houston". The Daily News. February 7, 2013. Retrieved October 9, 2013.
  5. 1 2 Duarte, Joseph (September 25, 2013). "UH's O'Korn no stranger to pressure". Houston Chronicle. Retrieved October 9, 2013.
  6. ↑ Price, Tim (September 27, 2013). "Houston tries to remain unbeaten against UTSA". San Francisco Chronicle. Retrieved October 9, 2013.
  7. ↑ "QB David Piland cites concussions". ESPN. October 8, 2013. Retrieved October 9, 2013.
  8. 1 2 Murphy, Dan (February 5, 2015). "John O'Korn transfers to Michigan". ESPN.com. Retrieved June 18, 2016.
  9. ↑ Baumgardner, Nick (March 30, 2016). "Michigan QB John O'Korn getting his feet back under him after a year off". MLive.com. Retrieved June 18, 2016.
  10. ↑ Kercheval, Ben (2016-02-24). "Who Has the Edge in Michigan's Quarterback Battle?". Bleacher Report. Retrieved 2016-04-14.
  11. ↑ Baumgardner, Nick (2016-02-22). "John O'Korn, Shane Morris, someone else? Michigan's QB 'cage match' set to begin". MLive.com. Retrieved 2016-04-14.
  12. ↑ Baumgardner, Nick (2016-03-26). "Wilton Speight, John O'Korn, Shane Morris are Michigan's top QBs, but no one has pulled away". MLive.com. Retrieved 2016-04-14.
  13. ↑ Baumgardner, Nick (2016-03-29). "Michigan's top three QBs all want to start, but say the competition is far from over". MLive.com. Retrieved 2016-04-14.
  14. ↑ "Spring Fling". MLive.com. Retrieved 2016-04-14.
  15. ↑ Snyder, Mark (2016-04-02). "Wilton Speight best of QBs, leads 2 TD drives in Michigan spring game". Detroit Free Press. Retrieved 2016-04-14.
  16. ↑ Foltin, Lindsey (2016-09-03). "Jim Harbaugh had a strange way of pumping up Michigan's new QB". FOX Sports. Retrieved 2016-09-04.
  17. ↑ Burchfield, Will (2016-09-04). "The Michigan QB Battle That Never Was". WWJ-TV. Retrieved 2016-09-05.
  18. ↑ Robinson, Geoff (2016-09-03). "Michigan blog recap: Wolverines rout Hawaii, 63-3". Detroit News. Retrieved 2016-09-05.
  19. ↑ "Boxscore: #7 Michigan 63, Hawaii 3". MGoBlue.com. CBS Interactive. September 3, 2016. Retrieved September 3, 2016.
  20. ↑ "Without Speight, No. 3 Michigan shakes off Indiana, 20-10". ESPN. Associated Press. November 19, 2016. Retrieved November 30, 2016.
  21. ↑ "John O'Korn". www.sports-reference.com. USA TODAY Sports Digital Properties. Archived from the original on September 15, 2016. Retrieved September 21, 2016.
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