Middle Tennessee State football coach Rick Stockstill is hoping his starting quarterback gets medically cleared to return against the Rainbow Warriors for the Hawaii Bowl — and not just for the reasons you might think.

Yes, Brent Stockstill is his son. And, yes, he’s one of the most prolific passers in the nation.

But, as his father is learning, it is vastly preferable to have the kid wearing out opposing defenses on the field rather than the patience of the head coach and medical staff on the sidelines.

Last year as a redshirt freshman Brent passed for 4,005 yards — 53 short of Jameis Winston’s NCAA freshman passing record — and 30 touchdowns. His 327 completions was an NCAA freshman record.

In the first eight games this season Brent guided the Blue Raiders to a 6-2 record and ranked in the upper echelon of passers, completing 63.9 percent of his passes for 2,801 yards, and 27 touchdowns against just five interceptions.

But then a 6-foot, 4-inch, 285-pound defensive tackle from Texas-San Antonio drove a helmet into Brent’s right (non-throwing) shoulder Nov. 5, resulting in a broken collarbone.

Not that it initially stopped Brent, who still completed the scoring drive two plays later. But when doctors examined him and determined the extent of the injuries they were hard pressed to keep him off the field.

“He asked the doctors, ‘Can I go back and play?’” Rick said. “They said, ‘No, it could kill you. You could puncture some internal organs.’ He asked, ‘Has anybody ever played with it?’ They said, ‘No.’

“Then he said, ‘Well, can I be the first?’”

Eventually, Rick said, “He came to the realization that he wasn’t going back in.”

Just when they started to believe that Brent was resigning himself to the six- to eight-week healing process, his backup, John Urzua “got dinged up” in the first quarter against Florida Atlantic last week, Rick said.

“So (Brent) started going crazy on the sidelines saying, ‘Let me get dressed … let me go in,’” Rick said. “They told him he couldn’t and he was going, ‘Tell them to let me go in’ and all that. I told him, ‘They are not going to let you go in, so just relax.’ Eventually he gave up on that.”

Rick’s admiration for his son’s competitiveness in a heart-to-heart talk three years ago was apparently one of the reasons Brent chose to give up a scholarship to Cincinnati to stay home and play for his father.

As much as they had talked about being together someday on the same team, by the time Brent was a senior in high school it was pretty much mutually agreed that Brent would blaze his own path elsewhere beyond Murfeesboro, Tenn.

One night coming home from Brent’s high school baseball game, “I told him, ‘Brent this is a coach speaking, not your father. You’re everything a coach could ask for. You’re tough, competitive, talented and a leader. You’ll have a great career.’”

Then, Rick, a former Florida State quarterback under Bobby Bowden, recalls, “He looked up at me and said, ‘Dad, all I ever wanted to do was play for you.’”

They talked about it and finally decided to ask the Bearcats to let Brent out of his scholarship commitment. “I talked to Tubbs (Cincinnati coach Tommy Tubberville) and he asked for a day to think it over,” Rick said.

“When I called him back a day later, he said, ‘Stock, if it were my son, I’d hope you’d release him, too.’ So they did.”

Now, he’d just like to get the kid on the field and let him bug the ’Bows.

Reach Ferd Lewis at flewis@staradvertiser.com or 529-4820.