Kevin Brockway is a veteran quarterback for Illinois State. Really, he is.

He's a 22-year-old, fifth-year senior who has been around the block. He has been an integral part of the Redbirds' offense, and no doubt knows the team playbook up and down, backward and forward.

He has accompanied his team in hostile environments such as Kansas State and Missouri. So when he takes the team into the season opener Saturday at Marshall, he'll know what to expect.

But for all that experience, he has thrown exactly five college passes.

F-i-v-e. That's it.

Brockway has spent three seasons as the understudy to former all-conference performer Luke Drone. As the solid No. 2 man, one would expect he would get some quality time due to injury, or at least get some snaps in mop-up duty.

But in Brockway's case, that wasn't the case. Whether the Redbirds were good, as they were in advancing to the NCAA quarterfinals in 2006, or not so good, as their 4-7 record indicated last season, there wasn't much mopping up.

So Brockway, a 6-foot-4, 225-pound native of Crystal Lake, Ill., has seen a lot of video and carried a lot of clipboards. He has thrown a lot of footballs, too, but just not in games.

"We've been in tight games most of the time," Brockway said. "That's the way things went. I'm not too concerned about throwing five passes. I've had a couple of springs where I was rolling with the 'ones,' but I just didn't get to run a lot of games."

That brings him to his first college start this Saturday, as the Redbirds play at Marshall. Game time is 4:30 p.m. at Joan C. Edwards Stadium, with the game airing on WOWK, Channel 13 in Charleston-Huntington.

In one way, it puts Brockway in the same boat with Marshall quarterback Mark Cann, who is starting his first game for the Thundering Herd. But Cann has just turned 20, is still a freshman by football eligibility and is entering just his second year with the MU program.

As you might guess, Brockway's coaches and teammates don't treat him like a first-game starter. Redbirds coach Denver Johnson said Wednesday he wishes he had used Brockway a little more.

"When they first got here, Luke got out to a pretty wide gap, as far as being the first guy," Johnson said. "And I think Kevin steadily closed that gap, but to unseat a starter you have to be demonstrably better, and I'm not sure that Kevin ever got to that point while Luke was with us.

Kevin Brockway is a veteran quarterback for Illinois State. Really, he is.

He's a 22-year-old, fifth-year senior who has been around the block. He has been an integral part of the Redbirds' offense, and no doubt knows the team playbook up and down, backward and forward.

He has accompanied his team in hostile environments such as Kansas State and Missouri. So when he takes the team into the season opener Saturday at Marshall, he'll know what to expect.

But for all that experience, he has thrown exactly five college passes.

F-i-v-e. That's it.

Brockway has spent three seasons as the understudy to former all-conference performer Luke Drone. As the solid No. 2 man, one would expect he would get some quality time due to injury, or at least get some snaps in mop-up duty.

But in Brockway's case, that wasn't the case. Whether the Redbirds were good, as they were in advancing to the NCAA quarterfinals in 2006, or not so good, as their 4-7 record indicated last season, there wasn't much mopping up.

So Brockway, a 6-foot-4, 225-pound native of Crystal Lake, Ill., has seen a lot of video and carried a lot of clipboards. He has thrown a lot of footballs, too, but just not in games.

"We've been in tight games most of the time," Brockway said. "That's the way things went. I'm not too concerned about throwing five passes. I've had a couple of springs where I was rolling with the 'ones,' but I just didn't get to run a lot of games."

That brings him to his first college start this Saturday, as the Redbirds play at Marshall. Game time is 4:30 p.m. at Joan C. Edwards Stadium, with the game airing on WOWK, Channel 13 in Charleston-Huntington.

In one way, it puts Brockway in the same boat with Marshall quarterback Mark Cann, who is starting his first game for the Thundering Herd. But Cann has just turned 20, is still a freshman by football eligibility and is entering just his second year with the MU program.

As you might guess, Brockway's coaches and teammates don't treat him like a first-game starter. Redbirds coach Denver Johnson said Wednesday he wishes he had used Brockway a little more.

"When they first got here, Luke got out to a pretty wide gap, as far as being the first guy," Johnson said. "And I think Kevin steadily closed that gap, but to unseat a starter you have to be demonstrably better, and I'm not sure that Kevin ever got to that point while Luke was with us.

"Now looking back last year, we struggled last year and struggled some offensively, and I'm not sure we might not have made an error, as coaches, in turning to Brockway to see if he could make a difference for us. Nonetheless, he's been in the program for four years and he is a great kid. But he hasn't started, doesn't have time on the job.

"But we have confidence in Brockway and I think he'll go out there and play well. I'm sure there'll be some miscues, but I don't think they'll be freshman mistakes. I think they'll be mistakes from someone who doesn't have time on the job."

Brockway has some experienced players in front of him, and behind him. On the line, the inside three players are seniors, including center Jonathan St-Pierre.

Junior Geno Blow heads an interesting stable of running backs. Blow rushed for 776 yards last season and had a string of five 100-yard games before he injured his hand in the Redbirds' ninth game.

"He can certainly take it the distance," Brockway said. "He's a fast, elusive guy, but he can pack a punch a little bit."

Blow has been pushed by two transfers, Parrish Fisher from Kansas State and Walter Mendenhall from Illinois. Take double extra credit if you knew Fisher played in K-State's 2005 game at Marshall, though he compiled no statistics.

Also, redshirt freshman Clifton Gordon has shown promise. The Redbirds have a Big Ten-like fullback in 5-11, 255-pound junior Garin Harcar.

Junior Eyad Salem is the Redbirds' top returning receiver, with 31 catches for 460 yards and four touchdowns last year. Jake Rourke (9-112, one TD) has some experience at slot receiver, and 6-3, 270-pound senior Kedric Meredith (16-179, two TDs) is a veteran at tight end.

Brockway is plenty familiar with those weapons. The big question is how he'll perform in his first extended action, against a higher-level opponent and in a hostile atmosphere.

"I think Kevin might give us a little more, as far as scrambling around a little, if protection does break down," Johnson said. "I think he's a threat with the ball in his hands. And we always want to introduce an element of option in our offense, and I think Kevin could lead us down that path a little more as we go.

"Right now, we want to open up the year with 'Chapter 1' of our playbook. Kevin's been in our program but he's a first-year starter, so we don't want to throw too much on him too soon. But we don't want to wait too long - we only have one season with him."

Reach Doug Smock at 348-5130 or dougsm...@wvgazette.com.