The man on fans’ minds

GREENSBORO, N.C. - Vic Hall showed up at the ACC football kickoff on Sunday and was immediately smothered by inquiring minds that wanted to know if he would be Virginia’s starting quarterback come Sept. 5.

Well, at least the Cavalier quarterback wasn’t asked if he was still a virgin, as was the case with Florida’s Tim Tebow during the SEC football meetings earlier in the week.

Hall, who hasn’t a hint of ego, humbly replied that he was practicing at quarterback and not cornerback — a position he played his first three years at UVa — and that he is one of three candidates for the starting QB job.

“Will you be taking the first snap?” one scribe questioned.

“We’ll see,” Hall said.

“Could you end up playing cornerback?”

“Right now, I’m really focusing on offense,” Hall said politely.

Hall will battle Jameel Sewell and Marc Verica, both of whom have more starting experience at quarterback, for the starting job. The smart money, however, is on Hall, who brought some hope, some excitement back into Virginia’s offense for a few fleeting moments against Virginia Tech last November.

Coaches don’t send second-team players to the ACC football kickoff to handle the media horde. Hall was accompanied to the interviews by four-year starting offensive tackle Will Barker.

Sewell and Verica were nowhere in sight.

While the other two QBs have some advantage over Hall in their starting experience on offense, that was somewhat evened up when coach Al Groh hired Gregg Brandon as the new offensive coordinator. Brandon brought with him from Bowling Green, where he had been head coach for six seasons, a no huddle, spread offense, which all the quarterbacks had to become familiar.

All things being equal, Hall wins this horserace — perhaps not by a staggering difference in skill, but with his heart.

One gets the impression from chatting with insiders that Hall’s teammates would follow him through Hell in a gas truck. That’s how much they love this guy and believe in him.

Now, if they can just win with him.

That’s the hard part.

Remember back to that gray day in Lane Stadium last fall when Virginia was reeling and had small chance of upsetting the Hokies on their turf, or any turf for that matter.

Hall gave the Cavaliers hope. He gave them a chance. His teammates believed in him because Hall believes in himself.

Recently he said that he has confidence that if Virginia needs a first down, if it needs him to complete a pass, if it needs a touchdown drive, if he needs to gain five yards to keep a drive going, then he is supremely confident that he can get the job done. That type of confidence is rare and from which leaders are born.

No wonder that former UVa quarterback Marques Hagans, who was about the same height as Hall — 5-foot-9 — is one of Hall’s heroes.

Critics said Hagans was too small to play quarterback in major college football, that he was too short to see over the line and spot receivers downfield, that he was just too small.

All Hagans did his senior year (2005) was put up 2,802 yards of total offense, the third-highest in UVa history (All but 310 yards of that was passing).

All Hagans did was bewilder No. 4 Florida State’s defense to the point that Coach Bobby Bowden kept referring to “that dadgum No. 18” all night long in a stunning, 26-21 upset.

That’s when Hall, then a redshirt freshman, first noticed Hagans.

“Marques had more heart than anyone I have ever been around,” Hall said Sunday. “He was like a big brother to me and Jameel.”

Some of UVa’s holdover coaches from that era see the same heart in Hall that they saw in Hagans.

Hall, a brilliant, record-setting quarterback at Gretna High School, was recruited to Virginia at that position but was shifted to defensive back due to a lack of talent in the Cavaliers’ secondary.

Now, he’s back where he belongs.

“It’s just like riding a bike,” Hall chuckled about switching to quarterback. “I have dreamed about playing quarterback a lot.”

It’s no longer a fantasy.