6 years. 5 coaches. 3 schools. 1 degree. Birdville alum is the modern college QB
Stone Earle will soon turn 24, is married and has a degree from the University of North Texas, and the starting quarterback at Abilene Christian is not the oldest QB on its roster.
That distinction belongs to Cade Fennegan, who is 26, also married, and played at Boise State and BYU before transferring to ACU.
This is the modern depth chart for a college football team.
Earle, who is an alum of North Richland Hills’ Birdville High School, is a redshirt senior and in the final year of his NCAA eligibility. Or, he’s pretty sure this is it.
“This is my sixth year, so I think this is my last year,” Earle said in a phone interview. “I don’t think I have any eligibility left.”
These days, who knows?
Earle and ACU come to Fort Worth to play TCU in its home opener Saturday night.
Earle is working on his master’s degree and hopes to one day go into coaching. He could offer a lecture series to high school students, and their parents, on the realities of playing college sports.
You want to play college sports, and get on the field. How bad do you want it?
The vast majority of NCAA student-athletes aren’t collecting six-figure NIL checks and playing on nationally televised games in front of tens of thousands of people. The vast majority of NCAA student-athletes want to earn their degree while playing ball.
Earle began his career at Abilene Christian, transferred and played at North Texas, transferred and played at Marshall, transferred and now is playing, again, at ACU.
In between he has started, been benched and suffered a season-ending injury. He and the transfer portal exchange Christmas cards. He has seen multiple coaching staffs fired.
“Go somewhere where you feel like you are wanted,” Earle said. “Get a crazy feeling that the coaches you are going to play for are going to play you, and grow you as a person. That is the main thing.
“This is fifth different coaching staff I have played for, and I have seen all of it.”
Stone Earle’s journey from Abilene to Denton to West Virginia
Earle played in two games at ACU as a freshman during the 2020 season, which consisted of just six games because of COVID restrictions.
In 2021, he started eight games but suffered a broken right fibula that ended his season. Then the coaching staff was fired.
When new coach Keith Patterson arrived, he sent out a Google form for players to set a time to meet with him about their future. Earle took the first slot, at 6 a.m.
He enjoyed the meeting with Patterson, but he had the itch to play at the FBS level. The transfer portal has created this sort of opportunity, and players routinely put their name in the portal to see if they can “play up.”
“North Texas reached out, and it was close to home, and a no-brainer,” Earle said.
One silent element to the transfer portal that is seldom discussed, but important to the athletes, is those pesky classes. Credit hours. And specifically if those hours will transfer from one school to the next. It can make transferring sometimes a deterrent, and always a challenge.
“All of my credit hours transferred. I was lucky,” Earle said. “I had taken Bible courses that UNT accepted as history credits.”
(There’s probably a joke in there but ... why bother?)
In 2022, Earle was the backup quarterback for then-UNT coach Seth Littrell, and appeared in four games. Littrell was fired after the season, meaning Earle had a new coaching staff to impress.
Earle started two games in 2023, but when he learned that TCU quarterback Chandler Morris was transferring to UNT, he knew the score.
“I just got the vibe they wanted to keep me as the backup,” Earle said, “and I wanted to play.”
By the time he put his name in the transfer portal again, he had earned his undergraduate degree from UNT.
Marshall University had a spot. Marshall, which is 1,000 miles from Fort Worth and located in Huntington, West Virginia, is not like Abilene or Denton.
Earle arrived in June 2024 and earned the starting job. He started five times in ‘24, including at Ohio State. He was eventually replaced by Braylon Braxton, the Thundering Herd finished 10-3, and then-coach Charles Huff left the program over a contract dispute to accept the job at Southern Miss.
“I was there for one semester and I liked it, but the coaching staff left,” Earle said, “and I caught that vibe I was going to be the backup.”
He wanted to play. Back to the portal.
Stone Earle’s return to Abilene
At no point in this voyage did Earle contemplate quitting, retiring or accept standing on the sidelines. His dad was an NFL offensive lineman from 1992 to ‘96. His uncle was an NFL lineman from ‘93 to ‘96.
Earle knows when football is over, it’s over. There is no rec football. No beer league football. No pickup football.
“I could not throw this away over coaches,” he said.
After one semester at Marshall where he took some graduate level classes that will now apply to nothing, he put his name back in the portal.
Patterson still had a spot for him, and Earle returned to the place where his career began.
“At first it was different to be back here, but there are a lot of familiar faces I see,” he said. “It’s close to home for me. Our schedule is great. We got two meals a day, which is unheard of in the summertime. They really take care of us well here.”
He’s the starter now, his team is ranked 13th in the latest FCS Top 25 poll, and he’s working toward a master’s degree.
Six years, five coaching staffs, three transfers later, Stone Earle’s perspective about football is far broader than the average student-athlete.
He may never be an NFL quarterback, but he is an expert of what it can take to be a starting quarterback in college.
This story was originally published September 9, 2025 at 2:27 PM.
