North Carolina State University Athletics
TIM PEELER: Stone Adapts to New Position
4/12/2007 12:00:00 AM | Football
RALEIGH – Marcus Stone never worried about his ability to catch passes. He grew up catching heaters in the backyard from his brother, David, who preceded him as the starting quarterback at Bishop McDevitt High School in Harrisburg, Pa.
In fact, even as a middle-school ballboy for the high school team, Marcus was often the only person on the sidelines willing to catch passes from David as he revved up his arm in pre-game warm-ups.
“His receivers would have trouble catching his heaters,” Marcus Stone said. “I think that is a big part of why I catch the ball pretty well, because of my brother. We would always throw and catch in the backyard. That’s where I learned to run routes. And whenever I wasn’t working on my technique, I was catching his heaters.”
Marcus is convinced his brother could have been a big-time Division I-A recruit had he not had a severe hearing impairment since he caught a life-threatening fever at the age of 2. Doctors used a strong antibiotic to fight the fever, but David had an allergic reaction that blew out his left eardrum and partially ruptured his right.
He communicates well with a hearing aid in his right ear and his ability to read lips, but it made playing quarterback on the college level difficult. He played briefly at
“He had some struggles with his hearing impairment,” Marcus Stone said. “But I have always thought that I got to be here because he worked with me growing up. I pretty much owe where I am now to him.”
Stone still catches those “heaters” from his brother now that David moved with Stone’s father, , to Clayton last summer to be closer to Marcus. David just got a job as a Johnston County parole officer.
“He’s doing really well,” Stone said.
As is Marcus, from all accounts coming out of NC State’s spring drills, which come to an end on Saturday with the annual Red & White Spring Game at Carter-Finley Stadium. The real-game scrimmage kicks off at 1 p.m. and can be seen exclusively on the Pack Pass premium portion of GoPack.com.
The former starting quarterback moved to tight end at the end of last season and has been working this spring with senior Anthony Hill, who started all 12 games last year at that position. He’s definitely caught the eyes of new Wolfpack head coach Tom O’Brien and his staff.
“I really like Marcus Stone,” O’Brien said. “He has embraced the move to tight end. He has worked really hard and he is really talented. He can be a contributor at tight end. He and Anthony Hill give us a pretty good combination of two guys who can be in the game at the same time.
“I like everything I have seen from Marcus. I love his attitude. He doesn’t care about anything except winning, and that is the kind of player we need here at NC State.”
Stone admits that the transition from protected to protector, from being in the trenches instead of in the pocket, hasn’t exactly been easy. He’s learned some tough lessons trying to block the Wolfpack’s corps of talented defensive linemen.
“I went from not being touched at all in practice to banging heads every day,” Stone said. “But my teammates have helped me push through it. The new coaches are really working with me on fundamentals and techniques, with all the steps and learning to get my hips into blocks.”
Stone, a former prep All-America quarterback who started nine games and played in 19 as a sophomore and junior for the Wolfpack, has gotten plenty of help from Hill “If he sees me doing something wrong, he whispers in my ear,” he said.
Even with all the aching muscles from the physical workouts, Stone said the mental adjustment has been more difficult than the physical challenges. But he’s heading into the off-season excited about his possibilities of contributing this fall.
“I am really looking forward to the season and to the off-season, so I can take what I have learned in spring practice and polish and refine it,” Stone said.
You may contact Tim Peeler at tim_peeler@ncsu.edu.
