Thursday, September 25, 2008
Timing right for possible QB transfer
Track record hasn’t been great
Doug Doughty
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Just as Oregon State seemingly was a perfect match for dismissed Virginia quarterback Peter Lalich, Lalich’s departure has increased UVa attractiveness for a potential transfer quarterback.
“We’d probably be open to at least considering any interest,” said Groh in his weekly Thursday teleconference with beat reporters.
The Cavaliers typically take one pure quarterback in each signing class and generally have at least four scholarship QBs in the program, depending on whether they’ve all been redshirted.
As originally put together, Virginia could have had five scholarship quarterbacks this year: fifth-year senior Scott Deke, fourth-year junior Jameel Sewell, third-year sophomore Marc Verica, second-year sophomore Lalich and true freshman Riko Smalls.
The Cavaliers had such a glut of quarterbacks that they originally weren’t going to add a QB in the 2008 class. Then, Sewell flunked out of school and Smalls became the object of a whirlwind courtship.
Also, Deke decided to come back, which hadn’t necessarily been his intention.
Deke figured to be the only quarterback leaving this year, with spring recruit Ross Metheny from Sherando High School taking his place in the pecking order. Sewell is expected back for 2009, but now Lalich is gone, which would leave the Cavs with four scholarship QBs (Sewell, Verica, Smalls and Metheny) for next season.
Four is enough and a transfer quarterback wouldn’t be eligible for 2009 anyway. But, what about 2010? Sewell will be gone and Verica would be a fifth-year senior, not that he’s a proven commodity yet.
There could be worse opportunities for a transfer candidate.
Virginia traditionally has not fared well with transfer quarterbacks. Maybe the best was Wayne Schuchts, who left Cornell for UVa and led the Cavaliers to a 6-5 record in 1983, one of only winning seasons for the program in a 15-year span. Other transfer quarterbacks were Drew Schuett from Notre Dame, Lindsay Delaney from Pittsburgh and B.J. Hawkins from Notre Dame.
Schuett eventually moved to safety and was a three-year UVa letterman from 1976-1978 (I also believe he rescued a drowning swimmer at some beach, but that’s another story). Delaney lettered in 1980 and 1981, and Hawkins never lettered before being suspended for the 1993 season.
It’s coincidental that three of Virginia’s quarterbacks transferred from Notre Dame – Schuett, Hawkins and Christian Olsen, who backed up Matt Schaub and Marques Hagans before getting a starting shot that lasted two games in 2006. Olsen, who lettered twice, was the Cavaliers’ only scholarship QB transfer under Groh.
“We had a similar situation but not for the same reasons,” Groh said. “We had a situation that wasn’t working out and we were probably going to have to go back and get a player who could take the place of the player with whom it wasn’t working out.”
It was unclear if Groh was referring to Anthony Martinez or Billy Schweitzer or both, although Martinez was on the roster when Olsen enrolled at UVa in 2003 and Schweitzer was not, having transferred to Division III Trinity (Conn.). At the time of Olsen’s transfer, the only scholarship quarterbacks in the UVa program were Schaub; Hagans, who actually was a wide receiver at that point; Martinez and recruit Kevin McCabe.
(That was the first of McCabe’s six college seasons, including the current one, in which he’s thrown for 901 yards in leading California of Pennsylvania to a 3-1 record and a spot in the Division II Top 25.) If most Division I-A programs carry 4-5 quarterbacks and can only play one, there are going to be a lot of disgruntled quarterbacks every year and the trick is to get a good one, maybe a Peter Lalich without all the the youthful indiscretions.
The trend toward quarterbacks transferring “is probably similar to the basketball world,” Groh said. “That is one of the positions that does transfer the most, particularly the circumstance where a player who feels he’s pretty talented is behind another player who looks like he’s going to play for quite some time.
“We do get that often. Probably the two positions where we hear the most from people interested in transferring are kicker and quarterback. We certainly would not be close-minded to it. We’d have to see what the circumstances were, time frame of eligibility [etc.]. We’d always try to go back to where the player came from and get the whole story.”
There has been no indication that Virginia will now add another quarterback to its class, particularly since spring recruit Quintin Hunter plays QB for Orange County. Hunter, who has been recruited as an “athlete” with the likelihood he will play wide receiver or defensive back, probably is going to get at least a short look at quarterback.
IF YOU WANT A parallel for Verica, who assumed the starting quarterback job when Lalich left the program, it would be UVa offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach Mike Groh.
Groh was a back-up to Bobby Goodman in 1992 and Symmion Willis in 1993 and actually might have been No. 3 on the depth chart for a time behind Willis and Tim Sherman. He didn’t get the first start of his career until the second game of his redshirt junior season in 1994 and didn’t get his second start until the sixth game that year.
Groh was buried for a lot longer than Verica was and all he did was post a 15-6 record as the Cavaliers’ starter and finish his career as the No. 3 passer in school history (he’s since been passed by Schaub, Hagans and Aaron Brooks).
“I know that Michael spoke about those circumstances to Marc not long ago,” Al Groh said.
As usual, there were a lot of “circumstances” in Thursday’s conference call.
I DON’T KNOW IF this is the last UVa Insider to appear in this format, but preparations are almost complete for a new Virginia and Virginia Tech Insider blog.
My plans are to continue the UVa Insider as a Thursday blog and post shorter blogs throughout the week. Randy King is disconnecting his Virginia Tech Insider for more frequent, quick-hit blogs. So, there more be more Virginia Tech entries but not necessarily a higher word count.
Our editor, Jim Ellison, is still working on a format for the weekly poll in the blog. In last week’s UVa Insider poll, 71.2 percent of the 805 respondents picked Duke to end its 25-game ACC losing streak this Saturday against visiting Virginia.
This week’s poll question:
