LAS VEGAS — Quinn McQueary’s football career lives on.
The former Manhattan and Montana Tech quarterback was selected by the Arizona Hotshots with the No. 6 pick in the third round, 22nd overall, during Tuesday evening’s Alliance of American Football (AAF) “Protect or Pick” quarterback draft.
The #AZHotshots have selected to pick Quinn McQueary #JoinTheCrew pic.twitter.com/Rz2e33Pqy6
— Arizona Hotshots (@aafhotshots) November 28, 2018
The AAF is a professional American football league founded by longtime NFL executive Bill Polian and television producer and director Charlie Ebersol in March of 2018. The league is set to begin play in February 2019, one week after the Super Bowl.
McQueary was an all-state performer at Manhattan, earning all-state quarterback honors four times for the Tigers. The MVP of Montana’s East-West Shrine Game, he committed to Montana State University, redshirting in 2013 and playing minimally the following season.
He then joined Montana Tech, starting five games for the Orediggers in 2015. McQueary started 11 games in 2016, throwing for 3,021 yards and 26 touchdowns while leading Tech to the Frontier Conference championship. McQueary set a program record with 414 passing yards against MSU-Northern, then tied the single-game record with five touchdown passes against Rocky Mountain College. After suffering an injury in the opening round of the NAIA playoffs, a 28-21 win over Dickinson State, McQueary sat out the Orediggers’ second-round loss at Reinhardt University.
McQueary threw for 2,887 yards and 23 touchdowns in 2017, while rushing for eight more touchdowns. He finished his Oredigger career with 508 completions, 6,682 passing yards and 52 touchdowns.
He joins an Arizona Hotshots program coached by former NCAA and NFL coach Rick Neuheisel, who was the head coach at UCLA from 2008 to 2011. The Hotshots are one of eight teams in the AAF — the Atlanta Legends, Birmingham Iron, Orlando Apollos, Memphis Express, Salt Lake Stallions, San Antonio Commanders and San Diego Fleet — which will partner with CBS and CBS Sports Networks.
Tuesday’s “Protect or Pick” quarterback draft gave teams the opportunity to claim or protect a player “for whom that team had first dibs based on geographic proximity. The alternative is to “pick” a player from another region,” according to the AAF website.
Other quarterbacks selected Tuesday included former NFL second round pick Christian Hackenberg, sixth round pick Zach Mettenberger and Texas A&M University-Commerce QB Luis Perez, who was the first quarterback drafted on the evening, taken by the Birmingham Iron.
Executives in the league include former NFL Pro Bowl players Troy Polamalu and Hines Ward of the Pittsburgh Steelers, as well as former NFL defensive standouts Jared Allen and Justin Tuck. Coaches include Neuheisel, Mike Martz, Brad Childress and Dennis Erickson.
