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Ian Woodworth is not your prototypical quarterback. He doesn’t have great height or size but he has never let that get in his way.

The Marist signal caller is in his second season as the starter and has led the undefeated RedHawks to the No. 8 ranking in the Sun-Times Super 25.

‘‘People look at his measurables but you can’t measure the heart,’’ Marist coach Pat Dunne said. ‘‘He has a huge heart and he’s just a really highly competitive athlete. He is always pushing himself. He is a great, great teammate. He has real high expectations for himself.’’

Woodworth came into his own last year, leading the RedHawks to a 7-2 record, while the offense averaged nearly 44 points per game. For his part, the 5-11 senior threw for over 2,800 yards and 30 touchdowns. He is on a similar pace this season with 632 yards and five touchdowns to his credit.

‘‘Last year, I gained a lot of confidence starting,’’ Woodworth said. ‘‘It showed that my teammates and my coaches had confidence in me.

‘‘I came out every day just knowing my teammates were behind me and put a chip on my shoulder and was ready to play everyday.’’

Out of the spread offense, Woodworth throws to several different receivers with Nic Weishar being the most widely known. But Woodworth has as much confidence in Peter Andreotti, Flynn Nagel, Jack Barry, Bryan Polack, Morty Berglind and Jimmy Smith. That diversity of talent was evident in the RedHawks’ season-opening 35-25 win against St. Rita.

‘‘We got a lot of playmakers around the ball,’’ Woodworth said. ‘‘Our receivers are very talented and I wouldn’t want anybody over them. I have the utmost confidence in every single one of them. I know that every one of them can make the play.’’

Dunne cites Woodworth’s competitiveness as his greatest attribute. In comeback victories against Carmel and Joliet Catholic last year, Woodworth led his offense to 64 and 56 points in those games and every one of them was needed against the porous RedHawks defense.

The defense has improved this season, but the ability of Woodworth to provide comebacks remains unchanged. Against Nazareth, Woodworth connected on a touchdown with Weishar that brought Marist back from a 14-point halftime deficit to an eventual 24-21 victory.

‘‘I think his poise sticks out,’’ Dunne said. ‘‘Last year and this year, we’ve been in some games where we’ve been down and he kept his poise, in regards to bringing us back and just being a leader out there.’’

Woodworth hopes to play college football and has garnered interest from Division III and Division II schools thus far.

‘‘My individual goals are to play well [every] week, get a good education and see if I can play college football,’’ Woodworth said. ‘‘Between football, baseball and school, I have very little down time. I like being busy it keeps me going.’’