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Mike London on starting QB: Matt Johns. Or Greyson Lambert. Maybe both

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mike londonUVA football coach Mike London enters this week still not having made a decision on who his starting quarterback will be for the Cavs’ Week 2 matchup with Richmond.

“Tomorrow’s our first day of practice. As I said, we’ll continue to keep evaluating where we are and what we’re doing at that position,” London told reporters at his weekly press conference on Monday, otherwise not answering the question as to who will be the starter.

Matt Johns, who was third on the depth chart heading into the season opener last week against seventh-ranked UCLA, replaced starter Greyson Lambert on the final series of the first half after Lambert threw the second of two pick-sixes that gave the Bruins a 21-3 lead. Johns threw two touchdown passes in getting Virginia back into the game, cutting the deficit to 21-17 at one point before the ‘Hoos fell 28-20.

Lambert finished 16-of-23 passing for 112 yards and the two INTs and produced just three points on his eight drives at quarterback. Johns was 13-of-22 passing for 154 yards and two touchdowns, and the Cavs scored 17 points on his seven drives, and had a chance at another scoring drive end on downs in the UCLA red zone.

Johns looked much more comfortable in his game action, throwing the ball downfield much better than Lambert, who went to his checkdowns almost exclusively. As to why that was, London was evasive.

“I can’t speak to or I won’t speak to why Greyson didn’t throw the ball downfield. But as Matt had the opportunities that were presented, he did,” London said. “Again, you evaluate players on what they do and how they do and how they execute what’s being asked. That’s the basic premise on what we talk about in terms of players who will play and how they’ll play and when they’ll play.”

A decision on that now isn’t likely until Saturday, London seemed to indicate in the press conference.

“We’ll make the decision on Saturday as to who will be the starter, but both of them are going to play, and we’re going to try ‑ in fact, we’re going to try to play as many players as possible as this game kind of precluded us from doing that, but it’s about trying to get players developed and we’ll continue to keep trying to do that,” London said.

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