William Mason Furrer (born February 5, 1968) is a former

American football American football (referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada), also known as gridiron, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular field with goalposts at each end. The offense, the team wi ...

quarterback The quarterback (commonly abbreviated "QB"), colloquially known as the "signal caller", is a position in gridiron football. Quarterbacks are members of the offensive platoon and mostly line up directly behind the offensive line. In modern Am ...

in the

National Football League The National Football League (NFL) is a professional American football league that consists of 32 teams, divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC). The NFL is one of the majo ...

for the

Chicago Bears The Chicago Bears are a professional American football team based in Chicago. The Bears compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) North division. The Bears have won nine ...

, Phoenix Cardinals,

Denver Broncos The Denver Broncos are a professional American football franchise based in Denver. The Broncos compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's American Football Conference (AFC) West division. The team is headquar ...

Houston Oilers The Houston Oilers were a professional American football team that played in Houston from its founding in 1960 to 1996 before relocating to Memphis, and later Nashville, Tennessee becoming the Tennessee Titans. The Oilers began play in 1960 a ...

, St. Louis Rams, and

Jacksonville Jaguars The Jacksonville Jaguars are a professional American football team based in Jacksonville, Florida. The Jaguars compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the American Football Conference (AFC) South division. The team pla ...

High school

Furrer attended

Pullman High School Pullman High School is a public secondary school in the city of Pullman, Washington, the home of Washington State University. It is the only traditional public high school in the city and in the Pullman School District (#267). A four-year hi ...

, on the

Palouse The Palouse ( ) is a distinct geographic region of the northwestern United States, encompassing parts of north central Idaho, southeastern Washington, and, by some definitions, parts of northeast Oregon. It is a major agricultural area, primar ...

in southeastern

Washington Washington commonly refers to: * Washington (state), United States * Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States ** A metonym for the federal government of the United States ** Washington metropolitan area, the metropolitan area centered o ...

, and graduated in 1986. A

baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each, taking turns batting and fielding. The game occurs over the course of several plays, with each play generally beginning when a player on the fielding t ...

player, he did not play organized football until his sophomore year, and was the quarterback on the junior varsity. The next year he was a backup to senior

Timm Rosenbach Timm Lane Rosenbach (born October 27, 1966) is an American college football coach and former professional gridiron football player. Rosenbach was the head football coach at Adams State University in Alamosa, Colorado, taking the position at th ...

, another future NFL quarterback, and became the starter for the Greyhounds as a senior in the fall of 1985.

College career

As a quarterback with

Virginia Tech Virginia Tech (formally the Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University and informally VT, or VPI) is a public land-grant research university with its main campus in Blacksburg, Virginia. It also has educational facilities in six re ...

, Furrer became one of the top quarterbacks in school history and he is currently ranked third on its list of all-time career passing leaders. Finishing with a career record of , Furrer is, as of 2013, the last full-time starting quarterback to have a losing record for Virginia Tech, however his accomplishments at the

university A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United Stat ...

led to his induction into its sports hall of fame in 2015. Furrer was one of only eight to be named a national recipient of the National Football Foundation and College Hall of Fame Scholar Athlete Award in 1991, his senior year.

NFL Europa career

NFL career

Furrer was selected by the

in the fourth round of the

1992 NFL Draft The 1992 NFL draft was the procedure by which National Football League teams selected amateur college football players. It is officially known as the NFL Annual Player Selection Meeting. The draft was held April 26–27, 1992, at the Marriott M ...

, the fifth quarterback taken and 107th overall pick. When he was drafted he was quoted as saying "One of my biggest problems will be trying to figure out whether to call

Mike Singletary Michael Singletary (born October 9, 1958), also known by his nickname Samurai Mike, is an American professional football coach and former middle linebacker. After playing college football for the Baylor Bears, Singletary was drafted by the C ...

mister or sir."

After football

Furrer was a partner with Tony Boselli and Jeff Novak in IF Marketing & Advertising with offices in

Georgetown, Texas Georgetown is a city in Texas and the county seat of Williamson County, Texas, United States. The population was 67,176 at the 2020 census. It is 30 miles (48 km) north of Austin. Founded in 1875 from four existing colleges, the oldest ...

and

Jacksonville, Florida Jacksonville is a city located on the Atlantic coast of northeast Florida, the most populous city proper in the state and is the largest city by area in the contiguous United States as of 2020. It is the seat of Duval County, with which th ...

. Prior to founding IF marketing & advertising, he was Director of Web Technologies for S1 Corporation. Since 2013 Will has held numerous roles (SVP Product, Marketing, and CMO) at Q2, a financial experience company dedicated to providing digital banking and lending solutions to banks, credit unions, alternative finance, and fintech companies in the U.S. and internationally. Beginning in 2016 Will has served as Q2’s Chief Strategy Officer sharing corporate strategy with customers, prospects, and employees as well as collaborating with a small team on M&A activities. In his nine years at Q2 Will has played a key role in the company’s IPO process, branding, messaging, product strategy, and M&A. Will is a member of the Virginia Tech Hall of Fame, Fork Union Military Academy Hall of Fame, and currently sits on the board for Virginia Tech’s Apex Center for Entrepreneurship. Will holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in English from Virginia Tech and has served the university in the past in roles on the Alumni Association Board of Directors and Distinguished Alumni Board for English.

Awards

* 2015 Virginia Tech Sports Hall of Fame. * 2006, inducted into the

Fork Union Military Academy Fork Union Military Academy (abbreviated as FUMA) is a private, all-male, college preparatory military boarding school located in Fork Union, Virginia. Founded in 1898, Fork Union is considered one of the premier military boarding academies in th ...

Hall of Fame.
Hokie Sports website, June 13, 2006, "Will Furrer to Be Honored by Fork Union" * 1987, Pullman High School (Washington): All-league Honors * 1991, National Recipient of the National Football Foundation and College Hall of Fame Scholar Athlete Award, * 1991, one of seven finalists for the

Johnny Unitas John Constantine Unitas (; May 7, 1933 – September 11, 2002) was an American football quarterback who played in the National Football League (NFL) for 18 seasons, primarily with the Baltimore Colts. Following a career that spanned from 1956 ...

Golden Arm Award * 1991, All-Big East Conference Second-team Selection

Records

* Virginia Tech: Most Pass Completions – 494 * Amsterdam Admirals: Most Passes Attempted in a Season – 368 in 1996

References

External links

IF marketing & advertising
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Furrer, Will 1968 births American football quarterbacks Amsterdam Admirals players Chicago Bears players Denver Broncos players Houston Oilers players Jacksonville Jaguars players Living people People from Danville, Pennsylvania People from Pullman, Washington Phoenix Cardinals players St. Louis Rams players Virginia Tech Hokies football players Players of American football from Pennsylvania