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Great Scott: Sacramento State braces for top QB in FCS, Incarnate Word’s Lindsey Scott Jr.

Troy Taylor can appreciate good quarterback play because he’s played the position and coached the position for decades as something of an expert on the subject.

Now the Sacramento State coach prepares for the most dynamic quarterback perhaps in all of college football, and he sizes up the challenge with equal parts admiration and concern.

Lindsey Scott Jr. is the focal point for the University of the Incarnate Word — or UIW for short — as the senior has led the San Antonio-based school to an 11-1 record by passing for 4,185 yards and 55 touchdowns. The Cardinals average an FCS-leading 51.9 points and nearly 585 passing yards per game, and they bound into Hornet Stadium on Friday night in an FCS quarterfinal with the aim of derailing Sacramento State’s 12-0 season with an all-out aerial attack.

And it’s this simple in boiling this game down: If Scott does Scott things, UIW wins. The Hornets cannot afford to let Scott stretch and buckle their defense, so say Taylor and defensive leaders such as Big Sky Conference Defensive Player of the Year Marte Mapu.

“Oh, man, he’s dynamic, just so electric,” Taylor said of Scott. “He can do it with his legs. He’s got great arm strength. He’s got great instinct. He’s got good skill guys to throw to.”

Scott is also a shining example of opportunity.

“There are good quarterbacks in the FCS everywhere,” Taylor said. “They just need an opportunity, and this guy’s a perfect example that he found the right fit and the right team.”

Scott is the very definition of a journeyman. The 5-foot-11, 215-pounder is 24 years old, a graduate transfer to UIW working on a master’s degree. He was a three-star recruit and Mr. Football in Louisiana in the fall of 2015, and then he didn’t unpack for years.

His stops:

He did not play at LSU in 2016 as a redshirt.

He transferred to East Mississippi Community College and led the team to a national Juco championship in 2017 while passing for 3,481 yards and 29 touchdowns and rushing for six more.

He transferred to Missouri of the SEC, where he was the scout-team quarterback, and was awarded a medical redshirt after suffering a torn knee ligament.

He transferred to FCS Nichols State and sat out the 2019 season per NCAA transfer rules.

He passed for 1,684 yards and 18 touchdowns in the spring 2021 season for Nichols State.

He passed for 2,083 yards and 16 touchdowns and rushed for 990 and nine scores in the fall of 2021 for Nichols State.

He utilized his extra year of eligibility and landed at UIW before the 2022 season.

Home at last with UIW, Scott earned Southland Conference Player of the Year honors after setting a number of FCS single-season records, including total touchdowns (62). He has been invited to the FCS awards banquet on Jan. 7 in Frisco, Texas, home of the FCS national championship game, as one of three finalists for the Walter Payton Award, the Heisman Trophy for FCS players.

In last week’s playoff win over Furman, Scott passed for 394 yards and five touchdowns and rushed 24 times for 124 more yards. His most remarkable play was, as he said later, “ill-advised” — a 30-yard touchdown into the end zone while falling down backwards.

All of this for a Cardinals program that is relatively new to all of this. UIW is the largest Catholic university in Texas. The school started its football program in 2009 as a Division II program and moved up to the FCS in 2013. The Cardinals reached the playoffs in 2018, 2021 and this season, sporting a 2-2 playoff mark. Sacramento State has defeated UIW twice in nonconference games, winning by an average of five touchdowns.

Coaches have come and gone at UIW, including G.J. Kinne, who lasted just this season before accepting the head-coaching gig at Texas State. He will coach UIW throughout this postseason.

Sacramento State’s goal is to make this UIW’s last stand. Mapu, Sacramento State’s stout linebacker leader, said he’s impressed with Scott, but his defense will continue to do what it always does: attack.

“He’s a very dynamic player,” Mapu said. “It’ll be a little bit more fun, and I just like feeling the tension and the weight of it on our shoulders as well. We play so well as a unit.”

Incarnate Word (11-1) at Sacramento State (12-0)

When: Friday, 7:30 p.m.

Where: Hornet Stadium

On air: ESPN1320 radio; ESPN+

Of note: Sac State pushed to have a Friday night game after it was initially believed this would be a Saturday contest. ... It will not rain on Friday, unlike the deluge last week when the Hornets outslogged Richmond, 38-31, in outscoring the Spiders of Virginia 21-0 in the second half for the program’s first FCS playoff victory and first of any sort since the 1988 D-II playoffs. ... UIW has two top receiver targets in Daron Chafin (60 catches, 1,155 yards, 16 touchdowns) and Taylor Grimes (70 catches, 1,091 yards, 14 touchdowns). ... UIW linebacker Kelechi Anyalebechi is a finalist for the Buck Buchanan Award for the top defender in the FCS, having recorded 96 tackles. ... Last week was the only time Sac State did not have its usual starting offensive line intact as tackle Troy Stiefel sat out with a knee strain, allowing Kendall Riley to start his first game. Stiefel expects to play this week. ... Hornets quarterback Asher O’Hara tossed the game-winner to Pierre Williams against Richmond and rushed for 53 yards, but he was held out of the end zone as a rusher for the first time this season. He has rushed for 19 touchdowns this season, the most for a quarterback in program history.