It’s deja vu for Virginia’s new starter

The situation must feel eerily similar for Virginia quarterback Marc Verica.
As a sophomore in high school in Pennsylvania, Verica and a teammate were locked in a heated battle to become Monsignor Bonner’s top signal-calling option.
After an injury to his competition, Verica was awarded the starting nod.
“The other quarterback ended up blowing out his knee, so I got to start and I never gave the spot back,” Verica told The Daily Progress in March 2007. “It’s not great when you lose the job like that, but sometimes things like that happen.
“Guys come out of nowhere all the time and they just don’t give the jobs back.”
Now a sophomore at Virginia, Verica may have that
opportunity again. On Wednesday, UVa coach Al Groh announced that starting quarterback Pete Lalich would not make the trip to Connecticut on Saturday for the Cavaliers’ first road game.
Verica, having played only one series during his career, will be given the nod Groh said.
“That’s a little bit too much ‘what if.’ Right now, we’re just trying to get through Saturday,” Groh said. “But I think it would be pretty clear that if we go on a nine-game winning streak and we suddenly decide to change quarterbacks, it would probably add to the impression that the coach is a dope.”
When asked about Verica’s
progression on Thursday, the coach said “development is the appropriate word” and that early indications were that Verica “would be a developmental quarterback.”
The process picked up steam in training camp as Verica battled senior Scott Deke and Lalich for starting status.
“The devotement has been consistent all the way through,” Groh said. “Actually when we did our post-training camp player evaluations, the evaluation at that time was that his development was ahead of what had been projected for him. So it’s been positive.
“It probably would continue to be positive with another season’s worth of practice, but probably is also a case where development would have only been so much with much more practice. For the development to accelerate, it will take game playing, which was our insight for all of the players coming into the season, that there might be some games where it would take more than one quarterback to get the performance out of the position that we needed.”
While Verica will be backed up by Deke in the contest, the emergency quarterback remains unknown. When asked about the position’s depth, Groh said true freshman Riko Smalls would not make the trip before trying to change topics.
“Can we get on to a little bit more upbeat possibility here?” Groh said with a laugh.
For most, the intriguing aspect from the mid-week announcement regarded its odd timing. Groh defended Lalich publicly on Saturday, Monday and Tuesday.
“I’m sure that [the public is wondering about the timing], but as we evaluated a number of circumstances and talked together and had a sense on a number of different things, everything changes on a day-to-day basis. It’s not about any one particular thing,” Groh said. “It just seemed like the appropriate thing to do at this time.
“There’s no hidden statement about what we feel about any alleged or reported incidents or any date coming up or whatnot, it’s just the whole thing has taken on legs, we decided to cut the legs off it.”
Groh was also asked about the origin of the decision and if university officials had forced him to make the move. In the school-issued press release, Groh said that he and Lalich made the decision in unison.
“I think one of the reasons we made the statement that we did [Wednesday] was to cut off all commentary on it,” Groh said, “and to really focus our team and our players and our coaches on what it needs to do to beat Connecticut.”
Lalich, originally given a summons for possession or purchase of alcohol while being underage on July 13, now faces charges of failure to obey a court order while on probation for the previous offense. Records filed in Charlottesville General District Court indicate that Lalich will have a hearing on the latest charge on Sept. 26 at 11 a.m.
Virginia (1-1) has a bye week after playing at Connecticut, which should help the program sort out the matter said Groh, who wouldn’t specify if Lalich would practice with the team.
“It certainly will be helpful,” he said.
Groh did not rule out playing Deke against the Huskies, but said Verica has looked sharp in practice the past two weeks. During that timeframe, Virginia’s team-issued depth chart did not specify who the back-up quarterback was.
“The reason it said [Deke] ‘or’ [Verica] is that we were going to keep it highly competitive on a week-to-week basis so that one, if the players were competing through their practice pefromance earch week for that spot we would continue to get the best reading on the players and two, that would be the best way for them to continue to develop their game,” Groh said. “Marc’s had two very good weeks in practice and has made some real good throws, so it’s about time to find out what he might be able to do for us in a game.”
After redshirting in 2006, Verica benefitted from extra practice snaps the following spring when former quarterback Jameel Sewell was limited following wrist surgery. But last year, Verica fell behind Lalich on the depth chart and did not appear in a game.
“You definitely have to be patient. Redshirting [in ‘06] taught me that because I didn’t get any reps at all,” Verica said 17 months ago.
“Quarterback is a tough position because there’s only one guy and it is hard to spread the reps around, but I’m just trying to take advantage of any reps that I get now. We will just have to see what happens here.”
It is happening sooner rather than later.
Extra points
Virginia target Anthony LaLota will announce his college decision on Sept. 13 at 8 p.m. on CBS College Sports. The defensive end from Princeton, N.J., has narrowed his suitors to Boston College, Florida, Michigan, Notre Dame, Penn State, Rutgers and UVa. … On the Cavaliers’ injury report, Virginia running back Cedric Peerman (leg) was listed as questionable to play against on Thursday’s school-issued injury report. Four other starters — B.J. Cabbell (foot), Maurice Covington (foot), Eugene Monroe (leg) and Jack Shields (back) — are listed as probable.