University of South Alabama senior quarterback Cole Garvin has been around the game of football, well... since birth. It was born and bred in him as the son of a coach.
For his entire life, Cole's dad, Brett, has been a high school football coach in Georgia. When Cole was five, the family moved to Tyrone, Ga., where Brett has been a coach a Sandy Creek High School ever since.
The situation at SCHS provided an uncommon situation for Cole and his brother (Till) to predominantly be around the game with their father.
"We have a unique situation here, which a lot of other coaches don't have access to, but our schools are built on pod systems which means the elementary school was right across from the high school and the same with the middle school," the elder Garvin said. "Instead of having the bus take my sons to a daycare after school, teachers at the high school who had a planning period during their seventh periods would just walk over to the elementary school and pick up all of the teachers' kids and bring them back to the high school.
"From the time Cole was basically able to walk he would come to the field house and do his homework while we finished up practice. Not every coach's kid has that luxury, but I think that had something to do with him and his brother being pretty good in sports. It was almost like they didn't have a choice."
That unintended benefit helped Cole gain a better understanding of the game of football since he was immersed in it from such a young age.
However, even with his foundation deeply rooted in the game of football, Cole actually didn't start out in the sport and it looked as if he were going to take a different path, at least to his father.
"Cole first started off playing baseball; he was a really good baseball player," the elder Garvin said. "For a long time, I thought his sport was going to be baseball because of how good he was at it. His baseball coach one day mentioned to me about letting him play football with his Pop Warner team."
So with that, Cole transitioned to the new sport, but he didn't excel initially at the quarterback position or even on the offensive side of the ball, but instead on defense at linebacker.
Cole's success on that side of the ball early on in his playing career could possibly be correlated with the fact that his dad played safety at Presbyterian College and was a defensive coach at SCHS.
However, when he entered middle school, things changed as he moved to quarterback. All those hours hanging around with his dad at work seemed to pay off for Cole as he picked up on the new position with ease.
"Growing up, [Cole] had always hung out with me at the football field house throwing the ball, and when he started middle school it just kind of took off for him," his father noted. "During his seventh-grade season, I believe they only played five games, but he threw for about 700 or 800 yards and about 10 touchdowns."
So what was it like for Cole, being the son of a football coach?
"I liked it and I think it helped me a lot," Cole said. "Being a coach's son helped me grasp the game and understand it better, and it also created a natural love for the game of football since I was always around the sport."
Being the son of a coach can sometimes bring on extra pressures, especially ones at the quarterback position. Cole, however, didn't really see it that way.
"A lot of people think there was extra pressure being a quarterback because I was a coach's son, but there really wasn't," Cole said.
Brett, though, says that there was an extra element for Cole.
"I think when all kids start out, especially a coach's kid, there's always going to be speculation that the only reason he played was because his daddy was the coach. What you hope for as the daddy and the coach is that your kid is able to separate themselves or that people eventually see that he's good and earned the spot. I've been very fortunate that both my kids were able to do that."
Cole would prove his worth and earn the job at Sandy Creek where over the course of his prep career he would post a 39-2-1 record as a starter for the Fighting Patriots and lead the team to the state AAA championship as a freshman and the state AAAA title his junior season. In his three seasons as a starter, Cole completed 417-of-639 passes (65.3 percent) for 7,004 yards and 63 touchdowns.
His earlier experience of playing on the defense coupled with his dad's coaching background on that side of the ball would aid Cole in his development offensively.
"Having played on that side of the ball and learning the game from my dad helped because I can almost see what the defense is going to do before they do it," Cole said. "I know what they are wanting to do and have a better understanding of how they are going to try to play it. I really feel that I'm more of a defensive player, and if I could go back and do it all over, I would probably play defense. That's just how I grew up, with my dad as a defensive coach. Being a quarterback and my background, the defensive part of the game translates pretty well to me."
Cole's father also agrees with his sentiment.
"It helped him a lot," Brett stated. "I coach the secondary and by nature, that's what I am. It was easy for me to sit down with him when it was just the two of us and go over those concepts. As a secondary coach, I would tell him what I thought the defensive player was thinking when we were watching game film. It would make sense to him when I ran through the secondary, because I would be looking at it from the other side of the ball, compared to what he was looking at all the time. I could tell him that if he saw this outside linebacker or this strong safety doing this, this is why he's doing that. I was able to give him a better understanding of what the defense was doing in reaction to what the offense was doing."
Cole initially began his collegiate career at Marshall University in Huntington, W.Va., where he redshirted his only season with the Thundering Herd, but things didn't work out there and after a year-and-a-half, he transferred to South Alabama.
After sitting out the 2015 season due to NCAA transfer rules, Cole would again battle for playing time over the next two seasons with two other quarterbacks in his same class. During that time, he appeared in 13 contests and started 10 games for the Jaguars.
Last season, Cole started seven of the eight contests in which he played, while earning the Sun Belt Offensive Player of the Week award after recording career highs in completions (25), pass attempts (45), yards passing (343) and total offense (323), throwing for two scores in a win over Arkansas State on Senior Day.
The honor marked the second weekly league award for Cole as he was also named the Sun Belt Conference Offensive Player of the Week after going 16-of-21 passing for 242 yards and three touchdowns in his collegiate debut, leading South to a win over nationally-ranked San Diego State during his sophomore season.
Following the 2017 season, Cole would face a new challenge as he would again have to prove himself, but this time with a new coaching staff and a new offensive scheme – his third different one since beginning his collegiate career.
"It was a little different at first, but at the end of the day, it's the same concepts and schemes" said Cole of the new offensive system. "We just had to learn the new terminology and the way Coach [Kenny] Edenfield teaches things and wants things done. The coaching change was difficult at first with it being my senior year, but the new coaching staff provided us with a good atmosphere from the get-go. As soon as Coach [Steve] Campbell and the rest of the staff got here, I felt good about everything."
Both his head coach and offensive coordinator agree that the Jaguar senior has handled the new situation well.
"I've seen Cole get better and better," first-year head coach Steve Campbell said. "It's hard when you're a fifth-year senior and you've had at least three offensive coordinators during your career, but he has taken to Coach Edenfield and our coaching really well. He's been very responsive of everything that we've asked him to do. We put him in an adverse situation for a fifth-year guy during the spring, but he didn't blink, he did what you're supposed to do, which is come to work every day and be the best that you can be, regardless of what's happening around you. He's put himself in position to have a great senior year."
Despite having coached against him the past two seasons at Sun Belt rival Troy, his new offensive coordinator wiped the slate clean for Cole during the spring.
"To be honest, I didn't really watch a lot of tape on Cole from last season when I got here," Jaguar offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach Kenny Edenfield said. "I wanted to make my own evaluation of him. I thought during the spring that he held the ball a little bit long on some things. Ever since the spring he's worked on getting better at that, and he's improved 100 percent. He's trying to do the things I want him to do and that's all I can ask of him. I've told him that he's going to make some mistakes out there because he has some habits that he's trying to break. He just has to be patient. One thing about Cole though is he's very coachable. He doesn't get upset if I get after him a little bit, he knows I care for him."
Along with picking up the new concepts of the new offense, Cole also wanted to work on another element of his game – leadership.
"Leadership is one of the things I worked on after last season; I wanted to be a better leader," Cole said. "Being a leader of the team is kind of thrown onto you as a quarterback; that's the way that position goes. Any good leader wants to be in that position and I really enjoy being in that position. My teammates look up to me and I enjoy being able to help the team accomplish its goals."
In addition to a new offensive system and scheme, there also came an open competition for the starting job over the spring and entering the fall. Being in a quarterback competition again wasn't anything new for Cole – he had seemingly been in one pretty much every season during his college career, but unlike previous seasons when he had been battling for the job, the 2018 competition presented a different dynamic. Along with fellow senior Evan Orth, redshirt freshman Cephus Johnson has also been in the competition to gain the starting nod. This competition presented a unique dynamic for Cole as he was also in the position to serve as a mentor for Johnson, a candidate to be the signal caller in the years to come for the Jags.
How has Cole handled the unique position?
"It's just competition out there and it's nothing personal between any of us. We all understand that it's just a coach's decision at the end of the day," Cole stated. "As a fifth-year player on the team, I'd like to think that I'm the leader of the group and I have to take it on as my responsibility to not just mentor Cephus, but also help Evan [Orth] out every chance I get. I enjoy being a mentor to Cephus, because I've had mentors in the past who have helped me out; I wish I had had more of them. I look at it as a way to help him avoid obstacles that I've had to overcome. Mentoring someone is looking at them as yourself and helping them become a better you."
The competition has been beneficial to both Cole and Johnson, along with Orth as all three have improved since the spring.
"It's been like a give-and-take relationship," Cole said. "I give [Cephus] as much info as I can to help him, because I don't want to see him do bad out there, and the same goes for me with him. Whoever wins the competition and is the guy, we want to do well so that the best situation can work out for the whole team."
Johnson has appreciated both the competition and the mentoring.
"Even with the competition, Cole and Evan have both been like big brothers to me," Johnson said. "Even when I first arrived here, they took me under their wing and showed me the ropes, and what I had to do to become a Division I quarterback. Last year when I redshirted, I was able to watch [Cole] take reps and ask him questions about the game. He is a great leader and has the team behind him."
The mentoring relationship has also been noticed by the coaching staff.
"He's handled it well," Campbell said speaking of the competition for the starting role. "Cole is an unselfish guy and he pulls for everyone in that quarterback room. They all want each other to do well, and the thing with our entire team is that they are a hungry group, which starts with your older guys. Cole is one of those guys and he's a very hungry guy; he wants to see the team do well."
"Ever since I've been here, Cole has done everything I've asked him to do," Edenfield noted. "He's been a really good mentor to Cephus because I see him give Cephus that little bit of insight. He tries to help him out on the field and also in the meeting room. Right now, they both want to win and compete and play, but they understand that there's a possibility that any of them can play."
Whether or not he is named the starter for the season opener, the goal remains the same for Cole and the rest of the seniors.
"The first goal of mine is for us to win every game we play," Cole said. "I understand that we will face some adversity this season, but I want us to win as many games as we can, play in the Sun Belt Championship game and go to a bowl game and win it. I just want to help the senior class go out with a bang."
The first step in achieving that goal for Cole and the rest of the Jaguars comes against Louisiana Tech when the season opens Saturday at 6 p.m. at Ladd-Peebles Stadium.
For more information about South Alabama athletics, check back with www.usajaguars.com, and follow the Jaguars at www.twitter.com/USAJaguarSports. Season tickets for all Jaguar athletic events can be purchased by calling (251) 461-1USA (1872).
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