Who’s your quarterback, Mike London? We’re five springs into London’s tenure as UVa. football coach, and we still don’t know.
For the third time in four years, David Watford is in the mix to be starting quarterback. Greyson Lambert is in year two of his battle for the job, and appears to be the frontrunner coming out of the spring.
That Lambert hasn’t already been named the starter after his performance this spring, which was capped by a strong effort in the spring game last week, throwing for 220 yards and leading his team on a geme-winning touchdown drive in the final minutes, is reflective of why London hasn’t had success in his tenure in Charlottesville.
In the one season where there was a semblance of order at the QB position, 2011, which saw michael rocco start all 13 games, complete 60.7 percent of his passes, throw for 2,671 yards and 13 touchdowns, Virginia went 8-5.
But then for some reason, the next year London opened up the competition for the starting job to Alabama transfer Phillip Sims, who started four games in splitting time with Rocco, and the team slipped to 4-8.
And then Rocco was exiled to Richmond in 2013 to clear the way for Watford, whose underwhelming 12-start season deepened the regression from eight wins to four wins to two.
By the end of 2013, Lambert was getting more snaps at quarterback, including playing the entire fourth quarter with the game on the line against Virginia Tech in the season finale.
It’s not that there hasn’t been talent for London to choose from. Watford, Lambert and Sims all were top recruits, and Rocco, while under the radar, put up big numbers in his year and a half running the team.
The issue is that he hasn’t been able to make the right choice since giving the ball to Rocco in 2011 and letting him do what he could with it.
The Sims experiment was bound to go awry once he transferred after spring practice at ‘Bama and then a brief introduction to the Virginia offense and personnel groupings in August. Watford was clearly in over his head early in 2013, and took several steps back as summer turned to fall.
And now Lambert looks like the guy, and yet we’re still left to wonder who London is going to go with for the season opener at home against UCLA on Aug. 30.
Why not name a guy and let the team coalesce around the chosen one, and let … OK, Lambert … emerge as the leader of the team and the face of the program?
This is likely London’s last season as a head coach, not just at UVa., but anywhere. The only way he makes it to year six in Charlottesville is if he can capture lightning in a bottle six or seven times this fall, and the only way that’s going to happen is if he can get his starting quarterback to play like Rocco did back in 2011.
We know that Watford isn’t the guy to get the job done. Lambert, based on his spring, looks like a guy who might be able to get it done.
Pick your horse, Mike, and ride him. That’s all you can do at this point.
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Chris Graham
