Cole Pennington is an

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

quarterback The quarterback (QB) is a position in gridiron football who are members of the offensive side of the ball and mostly line up directly behind the Lineman (football), offensive line. In modern American football, the quarterback is usually consider ...

for the Gardner–Webb Runnin' Bulldogs. He previously played for the

Marshall Thundering Herd The Marshall Thundering Herd is the intercollegiate athletic collection of teams that collectively represent the Marshall University in Huntington, West Virginia. Thundering Herd athletic teams compete in the Sun Belt Conference, which are memb ...

Early life and high school

Pennington grew up in

Versailles, Kentucky Versailles is a home rule-class city in Woodford County, Kentucky, United States. It lies by road west of Lexington and is part of the Lexington-Fayette Metropolitan Statistical Area. Versailles has a population of 10,534 according to 2024 ce ...

and attended Sayre School where he lettered in football and basketball. During his high school career, he led the Spartans with a 16-4 all-time record and threw for over 4,000 yards and scored 56 total touchdowns with a 70% completion percentage. He was a three-star rated recruit and committed to play college football at

Marshall University Marshall University is a public university, public research university in Huntington, West Virginia, United States. It was founded in 1837 and is named after John Marshall, the fourth Chief Justice of the United States, chief justice of the Uni ...

over offers from Akron, Ball State, Eastern Kentucky and UT Martin.

College career

Marshall

Pennington was redshirted during his true freshman season in 2022, as he only saw action in two games. During the 2023 season, he played in four games and started three of them, finishing the season with completing 64 out of 112 passing attempts for 695 yards. He became the starting quarterback during a game against Coastal Carolina after an injury from

Cam Fancher Cameron Fancher is an American college football quarterback for the UCF Knights. He previously played for the Marshall Thundering Herd and the Florida Atlantic Owls. Early life Fancher grew up in Huber Heights, Ohio and attended Wayne Hig ...

, where Pennington completed 12 out of 23 passing attempts for 77 yards and two interceptions. During the 2023 Frisco Bowl, he completed 15 out 33 passing attempts for 258 yards as the starting quarterback.

Gardner–Webb

On January 8, 2025, Pennington transferred to Gardner–Webb.

Statistics

Personal life

Pennington is a Christian. He is the son of former NFL and Marshall quarterback

Chad Pennington James Chadwick Pennington (born June 26, 1976) is an American former professional football quarterback who played in the National Football League (NFL) for 11 seasons. He is currently the head football coach of the Sayre School in Lexington, Ke ...

, who has been Sayre's head football coach since the school restarted its football program in 2018.

References

External links

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Marshall Thundering Herd bio
{{DEFAULTSORT:Pennington, Cole Living people Year of birth missing (living people) American football quarterbacks Gardner–Webb Runnin' Bulldogs football players Marshall Thundering Herd football players People from Woodford County, Kentucky Players of American football from Kentucky Sayre School alumni