Blake Frohnapfel

Blake Frohnapfel
No. 15, 7[1]
PositionQuarterback
Personal information
Born (1992-10-19) October 19, 1992
Listed height6 ft 5 in (1.96 m)
Listed weight230 lb (104 kg)
Career information
High schoolColonial Forge (Stafford, Virginia)
CollegeMarshall (2011–2013)
UMass (2014–2015)
Awards and highlights
  • First-team All-MAC (2014)
Stats at Pro Football Reference

Blake Frohnapfel (born October 19, 1992) is an American former college football quarterback who played for the Marshall Thundering Herd and UMass Minutemen.

Early life

Blake Frohnapfel was born on October 19, 1992.[2] He played high school football at Colonial Forge High School in Stafford, Virginia.[3] As a senior, he completed 95 of 159 passes for 1,733 yards while also rushing for 257 yards.[3] He threw for more than 4,000 yards and 50 touchdowns overall in high school.[3] Frohnapfel was a two-time Commonwealth Player of the Year and also earned all-region and all-area honors.[3]

College career

Frohnapfel first played college football for the Marshall Thundering Herd of Marshall University.[3] He redshirted the 2011 season.[3] He was the backup to Rakeem Cato from 2012 to 2013.[4] Frohnapfel finished his Marshall career with totals of 35 completions on 45 passing attempts (77.8%) for 386 yards, five touchdowns, and two interceptions.[1] He also rushed for 164 yards and two touchdowns.[1] He graduated from Marshall in May 2014.[3]

Frohnapfel transferred to play for the UMass Minutemen of the University of Massachusetts Amherst from 2014 to 2015.[3] He played in ten games, all starts, in 2014, completing 241 of 437 passes (55.1%) for 3,345 yards, 23 touchdowns, and ten interceptions.[3][1] He had two games of over 500 yards passing.[3] Frohnapfel missed the final two games of the year with a broken leg.[4] He earned first-team All-Mid-American Conference honors for his performance during the 2014 season.[3] Going into the 2015 season, he was named to the watchlists for the Manning Award and Davey O'Brien Award.[3] He was also named an NFF National Scholar-Athlete.[5] Frohnapfel played in all 12 games in 2015, recording 266 completions on 472 attempts (56.4%) for 2,919 yards, 16 touchdowns, and 13 interceptions while also scoring a rushing touchdown.[1] He was named to the 2016 East–West Shrine Game.[6]

Professional career

In July 2015, USA Today called Frohnapfel "the best QB you've never heard of".[4] However, his production dropped during the 2015 season.[7][8] He was ultimately ranked the 22nd best quarterback in the 2016 NFL draft by NFLDraftScout.com.[9] The company, Sage, produced several draft prospect football cards of Frohnapfel.[10] Lance Zierlein of NFL.com said "Frohnapfel might have NFL size, but he doesn't have enough arm to overcome the turnovers that could plague him thanks to his slow release and penchant for looking down targets."[7] Frohnapfel went undrafted, and attended rookie minicamp on a tryout basis with the Indianapolis Colts.[8]

Personal life

Frohnapfel's twin brother, tight end Eric Frohnapfel, played football with Blake at Marshall.[11] Eric later played for the San Diego Chargers during the 2015 preseason.[12][13][14] As of 2015, Blake and Eric were one of only two sets of twins in NCAA Division I history to connect on a touchdown together.[4]

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 "Blake Frohnapfel College Stats, School, Draft, Gamelog, Splits". Sports Reference. Retrieved May 6, 2026.
  2. ↑ "2016 SAGE HIT #35 Blake Frohnapfel". TCDb.com. Retrieved May 6, 2026.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 "Blake Frohnapfel". University of Massachusetts Amherst. Retrieved May 6, 2026.
  4. 1 2 3 4 Ahern, Gerry (July 29, 2015). "UMass's Blake Frohnapfel is the best QB you've never heard of". USA Today. Retrieved May 6, 2026.
  5. ↑ "Blake Frohnapfel". National Football Foundation. Retrieved May 6, 2026.
  6. ↑ "East Team Roster" (PDF). East–West Shrine Game. Archived from the original on January 18, 2018. Retrieved May 6, 2026.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)
  7. 1 2 "Blake Frohnapfel". NFL.com. Archived from the original on January 26, 2016. Retrieved May 6, 2026.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)
  8. 1 2 Malone, Daniel (May 1, 2016). "UMass quarterback Blake Frohnapfel invited to Indianapolis Colts rookie camp for tryout". The Republican. Retrieved May 6, 2026.
  9. ↑ "2016 NFL Draft Scout QB Rankings". NFLDraftScout.com. Archived from the original on May 12, 2016. Retrieved May 5, 2026.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)
  10. ↑ "Blake Frohnapfel". TCDb.com. Retrieved May 6, 2026.
  11. ↑ "Eric Frohnapfel". Marshall University. Retrieved May 6, 2026.
  12. ↑ "Eric Frohnapfel". Sports Reference. Retrieved May 6, 2026.
  13. ↑ "Eric Frohnapfel". FootballDB.com. Retrieved May 6, 2026.
  14. ↑ "Eric Frohnapfel". FootballDB.com. Retrieved May 6, 2026.