JCSU QB McQuarrie ‘definitely prepared’ for opportunity

TROY HULL | THE CHARLOTTE POST

Johnson C. Smith quarterback Parker McQuarrie is determined to reward the Golden Bulls – and himself – for taking a chance on his potential to lead the offense.

Parker McQuarrie was looking for an opportunity to prove himself.

Maurice Flowers was looking for a quarterback.

Email brought them together. 

McQuarrie, a four-star recruit at St. Paul’s (New Hampshire) High in 2019, was out of football for a year when he reached out to Flowers for a chance at Johnson C. Smith, which was coming off a school-best 10-2 season, CIAA title and Division II playoff berth. The message languished in Flowers’ inbox until necessity stepped in.

Two quarterbacks transferred after spring practice, leaving Josh Jackson, a transfer from Central Connecticut State as the presumptive starter. The answer was sitting in Flowers’ email.

“Parker really recruited us,” he said. “I remember looking in my inbox one time. I’m like, ‘OK, Parker McQuarrie,’ and I looked, and I saw it was a quarterback and we’re going to be in the market for a quarterback. I think it was January or February when he first reached out. He had just been sitting in my inbox. We didn’t make contact ‘til like May or June when I really started looking for a quarterback.”

McQuarrie had his opportunity. After two years at UCLA, a season at Independence (Kansas) Community College and backup duty at New Haven (Conn.), the Golden Bulls represented a chance to make good. It’s been a winding road, but McQuarrie’s bringing valuable football and life lessons to JCSU.  

“I’d say it’s definitely taught me that no matter where you go, people are always people,” he said. “Obviously, the names are different. The names of the places you go are different. Obviously, the cultures of places are different, but at the end of the day, it’s just people trying to play. We’re trying to be the best football team that we can be.”

Flowers, who has built a reputation for developing quarterbacks of varying skill sets into standouts, believes McQuarrie, who has two years of eligibility remaining, has the temperament, experience and assets to succeed.

“As I look at him, what I see is he’s chasing an opportunity to show everybody – most important himself – that I am that four-star to five-star guy that everybody saw out of high school,” Flowers said. “Everything that I have seen from him is a guy that is hungry. That's the best word I could say for him – he’s a guy that was chasing an opportunity, and he's really hungry to be the starter and show what type of daggone quarterback he can be, and then the quarterback that he is.”

McQuarrie understands what this chance represents. Although he’s never been a collegiate starter, McQuarrie will lead the Golden Bulls into their Aug. 29 season opener at Benedict. He’s ready for the moment.

“I’m definitely prepared,” McQuarrie said. “I’m confident in my preparation. I’ve done what I’ve had to do to know what my job is. Obviously, going out there actually executing it is a different story in terms of knowing you’re prepared versus actually doing it, and I believe I’m ready to go do it. I’m going to put my best foot forward. I know I’m ready for the opportunity, and that’s really what it is. It’s an opportunity, and I’m just happy to get one.”

McQuarrie is taking a more mature approach to football and learning. At 23, he’s gone from following and playing behind older players to mentoring as an elder.

“You can feel the transition,” he said. “Obviously, when you’re younger, you’re kind of just soaking up everything and you’re seeing how college football flows, how it goes, how the older guys handle themselves. You kind of have to learn how the system runs, how it works, how players mesh with other players, how coaches mesh with other players, and what’s expected of you, especially in a winning program like coach Flowers’.”
Part of McQuarrie’s growth includes learning the nuances of college offenses. As a high school standout, he could dominate on physical tools alone. That doesn’t apply on the collegiate level where scheme also plays a role.

“I had to learn how to play football going into college,” he said. “Coming out of high school, being from New Hampshire, football is not how it is down here. [There] you really kind of get the ball and drop back and hope somebody gets open. We weren’t really thinking about coverages or studying tendencies of defenses. 

“All I knew when I got to college was get the ball and just find an open receiver, so I had to learn how to play the game of football. … There's coverages, and you’ve got to look at this guy and it took a little bit, obviously, because you’ve got to learn it. You’ve got to understand the rhythm of how it’s played, and then you’re like, ‘Oh, I can do this.’ You’ve just got to put a lot of work in and repetition.”

Said Flowers, who is also JCSU’s offensive coordinator: “We have an advantage at our place that a lot of places don't have. The first advantage is Parker’s quarterback coach [Tyrell Jackson] played in this offense and knows every expectation there is, and then his offensive coordinator is a guy that invented the offense. Those are positives, but the next one is he goes against a defense that is one of the top defenses in D2 every single day. To me as a coach, I don’t worry that he hasn't had a lot of game experience because he’s getting those reps in practice.” 

McQuarrie also benefits from an offense that returns nine starters from a unit that averaged 33.5 points per game in 2025. Three linemen are preseason All-CIAA picks and Bobby Smith (running back) and Brian Lane (receiver) are in the fold after all-conference campaigns. The skill positions are stacked with experienced playmakers. No one has to shoulder the production alone.

“We have great running backs, great receivers, and a great line,” McQuarrie said. “We’re just going to do whatever we have to do to win – whether we’ve got to run the ball, and in certain situations, we’ve got to pass the ball. We just we have to use what we have, and we have a lot of good pieces.”

Said Flowers: “When he got here and you just go through the process of winning the job, he could see that his two new best friends were a good running game and a really good defense, so what that really equates to is he doesn't have to be a hero.”

McQuarrie is ready to do his share, especially with an ascendant program. JCSU opens the season ranked No. 23 in the Division II national coaches’ poll and No. 1 among D2 HBCUs. There’ll be scrutiny, but that’s incentive to exceed last year’s lofty heights. After all, it’s an opportunity.

“There’s always going to be expectation, especially if you had a good previous year or a couple previous years,” he said. “You’re going to be expected to do well, but it’s not something that you don’t want because obviously if you want to play on a good team, there’s things that are going to be expected of you, and I don't think those are things to shy away from.”

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