Virginia starting QB Tony Muskett is day-to-day, the problem there being, there aren’t as many days this week, what they call a short week, with the ‘Hoos playing at #11 Louisville on Thursday.
“We’ll keep evaluating him,” a second Tony, Tony Elliott, the Virginia head coach, told reporters on Monday, his weekly press conference among the things moved up a day because of the short week.
The third Tony in this story, Anthony Colandrea, the backup QB, has three starts this season, and went most of the way after Muskett went down in the first quarter of Saturday’s 45-17 loss to Georgia Tech.
If there’s any good news, it’s that the true freshman has gotten plenty of run – Colandrea has played nearly as many offensive snaps (292) as Muskett (357) this season.
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Their passing numbers are also comparable – Muskett has completed 62.7 percent of his pass attempts (94-for-150) for 1,036 yards, six TDs and five INTs, for an 82.5 NFL passer rating; Colandrea has completed 60.0 percent of his attempts (84-for-140) for 1,124 yards, seven TDs and seven INTs, with an 81.4 NFL passer rating.
In a perfect world, though, you’d have the veteran, Muskett, as the starter in the short week, given the challenges with the compressed schedule.
“The thing that you lose the most is the players’ recovery,” Elliott told reporters at his presser, “because typically they’re off on Sunday, and then Monday is a lighter practice, and then they get back to banging on Tuesday, where we had practice this morning (Monday morning, as he was talking), and we’re already back in pads, so it’s a Wednesday-type practice.
“Yesterday, you’re right back on the field, the day after, less than 24 hours, and it’s an hour and a half-type practice where you’ve got full speed activities. So, I think the biggest thing you lose is the guys’ ability to recover, and they have to turn it around very, very quickly.”
Then in terms of game prep, film study is compressed, and game planning and installation is put on fast forward.
Doing all of that with a true freshman at quarterback is a challenge.
“It’s a challenge to prepare anybody in a short week, to be honest with you,” Elliott said, noting that whether it’s Colandrea or Muskett behind center, “the thing is this late in the season, you play a decent amount of ball, and you’ll carry it up until game time.”
“Some of the veteran guys, you don’t want to make a living doing that, but there are some situations that you feel that you could take it up to a game time to make that decision,” Elliott said.
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