Billy Maples finds a home at Rochester
ROCHESTER, Minn. — Billy Maples has gone through a lot in his college football career so far and it is just the beginning.
Coming out of high school, Maples was a good quarterback prospect. In the Class of 2018, Maples made the team with Kansas University to play quarterback for them as a walk-on. After a redshirt season where he saw no action on the field, Maples then transferred to Drake University which is a non-scholarship school and part of the Pioneer League. Two seasons had now passed where Maples didn鈥檛 play, including in 2020 in the spring games that were rescheduled by the Pioneer League.
Now, Maples is part of the Rochester Yellowjackets where he played his first football in 2021 after graduating from high school in 2018. This is quite the adventure for Maples after being one of the best quarterbacks in all of Missouri, including a game where he threw eight touchdowns in the first half of a game which is a national record. Maples also threw for 3,130 yards and 41 touchdowns in a single high school season and was a first team All-State and Blue-Grey All-American game MVP as a senior.
His high school head coach Josh Hood had a lot of good things to say about Maples.
“Billy’s a key component of our team. He does a wonderful job of setting our offense and putting the kids in the right position each week,” Hood . “I think we do a great job here at Park Hill building the offense around the pieces that we have. And, when we saw Billy come in a couple, three years ago, we felt like this was something that we could do with him.”
Maples looks like a Division I quarterback out on the field for the Yellowjackets. He has the size and the arm of a Division I quarterback but even at Rochester, Maples wasn鈥檛 the clear cut starter. It was hard to put him in the lead role after last season when Yellowjackets quarterback Justin Lynn had an incredible year with 1,764 yards and 21 touchdowns in just nine games.
Maples split time during the year with Lynn and both had success. In his first season with the Yellowjackets, Maples threw nine touchdowns to just three interceptions and had his team in a position to win their last game to continue their season. He had the Yellowjackets up by 20 points in the game. He had two touchdowns, one throwing and one running, before the collapse. A fourth quarter interception from Maples was returned for a touchdown with under seven minutes left in the game to give their opponent the lead that they could not overcome.
鈥淭hat鈥檚 the name of the game, there鈥檚 winners and there鈥檚 losers,鈥� sophomore offensive lineman Tristan Bryant . 鈥淣ot everyone can be the champion.鈥�
That may be the last game Maples plays for the Yellowjackets as he will look to transfer yet again. He could be a Division I player but will likely choose to go somewhere where he can play immediately.
This is an unedited user writing submission. The views, information, or opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of Best Version Media or its employees.