CHARLOTTESVILLE — By the time Christian Olsen left Notre Dame on the eve of the 2003 season, he had come to the conclusion that he wasn’t the Irish’s “quarterback of the future.”

For college kids, four years isn’t the future. It’s an eternity.

Olsen would have been delighted to take over the Virginia job as soon as he became eligible, but fate and Marques Hagans intervened and here he is, in 2006, finally getting his big chance.

This will be his only opportunity to leave his mark as a college player.

Olsen has a lot to prove, if that’s the way he chooses to look at it.

“That’s one of the things Coach [Al] Groh and I have talked about,” said Olsen, who turned 23 in April. “I’m not going out there and trying to make up for three years of not playing. I’m just going out there game by game and trying to get as many wins as we can.”

Olsen has been saying all the right things, but is it an act? After all, Olsen’s degree is in drama.

“Let’s hope he’s a drama major and not a drama queen,” Groh said.

Groh was on his way to Jacksonville, Fla., for the ACC Football Kickoff when he was struck by an article on golfer Tiger Woods’ victory in the British Open.

“With the father’s illness, he knew that the Masters would be the last major that his father would ever watch,” Groh said. “He tried too hard to win it. In this particular case, he felt a sense of calmness throughout the entire British Open.

“That’s really the essence of how to compete. It doesn’t mean a guy is laid back, OK? That means a guy is very intense about competition, but he’s also got a sense of calmness about him. Those are the guys who perform the best.”

The word on Olsen is that he’s a little bit hyper.

“Maybe that’s why we had the conversation,” Groh said.

Olsen visited Virginia in the summer before his senior year in high school, when he was thought to be leaning to Miami. Most people thought that’s where he was going before he committed to Notre Dame and then-coach Bob Davie.

“I kind of got wrapped up in the Notre Dame, Touchdown Jesus and all that,” said Olsen, whose family is not Catholic. “I liked Virginia a lot. Part of it was, I didn’t have as good a feel for the situation because Coach Groh had just come in.”

Olsen was redshirted as a freshman at Notre Dame in 2002 and in April was named most valuable offensive player in the Irish’s spring game. He knew he would be playing behind Carlyle Holiday, but new coach Tyrone Willingham had recruited Brady Quinn and would not commit to Olsen as the No. 2 QB.

“Obviously, now looking back it was a good move [to transfer] or else I never would have played,” Olsen said. “Brady’s the best quarterback in college football. But, it was more than that. The school atmosphere wasn’t for me; it wasn’t a football thing.”

Apparently, it wasn’t the Notre Dame players either. Earlier this summer, former Notre Dame tight end Anthony Fasano called Olsen and invited him to watch Irish defensive back Tom Zbikowski in a boxing match at Madison Square Garden.

“All those receivers that I came in with, all those guys that I played with, there had to be 65 Notre Dame guys there and me,” Olsen said. “It was a little bit awkward at first because I never really told anybody I was leaving. I hadn’t talked to Brady for about a year and a half, but I got to hang out with him all night.”

Virginia does not get many Division I-A transfers, but Olsen fit in from the start.

“He’s got a very good likability with the team, so the players started out very positive toward him,” Groh said. “Throughout the spring, as they could see his performance, they could anticipate a certain level of dependability, too. They were rooting for him to do well.”

Players voted Olsen as one of the co-captains on the final day of spring practice, “which, on the first day of [spring] practice, he likely would not have been,” Groh said.

When roommates uncovered modeling photos of Olsen that were taken on a trip to New York City, they were delivered to Groh, who, unannounced, flashed them on the screen at a team meeting.

“It was Bart,” said Olsen, referring to his fun-loving former roommate Brian Barthelmes. “Who else but Bart would have gone on my computer like this. It wasn’t anything I was serious about. I wouldn’t say I’m the last person who would do something like that, but I’m not the first, either.”

Remember, the guy is a drama major.

“There were a lot of majors I could have taken, but I just felt that acting was something I wanted to know more about,” he said. “We have to do monologues in front of maybe 30 kids who are going to critique you on everything you do. It’s really nerve-wracking because you’re out there by yourself.”

In football, he’ll be surrounded by 10 teammates, but, in front of crowds of 60,000 or so, that can be nerve-wracking, too.

“He sees the same situation we see,” Groh said. “This team has had four years of quarterback-driven play [with] two of the better quarterbacks who have ever played at Virginia. Now, he’s supposed to go in there and he’s never played before.

“He’s got to move on from being the understudy and knowing the lines but not having to recite them,” Groh said. “Now, he’s got to get on the stage and be 'the guy,’ I can’t tell you how it’s going to go. All I can say is, to this point, he’s done all the right things.”