Ratcliffe: UVa QB situation still unsettled

Mike London left Scott Stadium on Saturday night with a win in his hip pocket and a plan for what his Virginia football team needs to get accomplished during the upcoming bye week.

“We’re going to look at everything we’re doing and who’s doing it,” London said about the bye week, which be believes comes at a perfect time for his 3-2 Cavaliers.

One of the things he’s sure to take an extra long look at is Virginia’s quarterback situation. Michael Rocco has started all five games but David Watford has finished them of late in an unpredictable game of quarterback musical chairs.

For instance, in the second half of Saturday night’s 21-20 overtime victory over visiting Idaho, Rocco was in for the first three series, Watford the next three, then Rocco for one series and Watford for the next as the teams were tied 14-all at the end of regulation. Watford started the overtime and won the game on a 27-yard screen pass to fellow true freshman Dominique Terrell for a touchdown.

“We’re trying to find a rhythm with David and with Michael,” London said after the win, the Cavaliers’ first overtime game since losing to Miami in 2008. “We’re going to take a long look at [Saturday’s] game with the open week that’s coming up, to solidify whether it’s positions or the type of plays that we have to run or the type of plays we have to get rid of.”

It’s a second-guesser’s paradise, especially for those who subscribe to the age-old axiom, “if you have two quarterbacks, you have none.”

However the two young UVa signal callers present quite a dilemma for their coaches.

For the last two weeks, sophomore Rocco has started and led the Cavaliers to touchdowns on impressive scoring drives on two of the first three possessions. In each case, it was scripted that freshman Watford would enter the game on the fourth possession.

One asks if bringing in Watford on a scripted basis rather than a gut feeling might disrupt Rocco’s rhythm. Another might point to Watford’s late game heroics and mobility, which certainly helped against Idaho’s blitz-happy defense in this case, or to the fact that Rocco came into this game sharing the nation’s lead in interceptions with seven.

Regardless, Rocco put up some good numbers against the Vandals, hitting 20 of 30 attempts for 240 yards, a TD, and no interceptions. Watford was 10 of 20 for 95 yards, one pick and the winning TD. The less-mobile Rocco was kind of a sitting duck for Idaho’s blitzes and went down three times.

Virginia offensive coordinator Bill Lazor, who came to UVa after a lengthy career in the NFL, has never been in a situation where he’s rotated quarterbacks like this before.

He did remember that when he worked under Dan Reeves in Atlanta that Reeves once rotated quarterbacks for every play in an East-West Shrine Game.

“I’m hoping not to get to that,” Lazor cracked.

When questioned about whether he’d like to settle on one guy and stick with him, the offensive coordinator wouldn’t divulge his thoughts.

“Neither of the quarterbacks are perfect but I really feel we’re on track,” Lazor said.

He explained that because the plan was to insert Watford for at least two series against Idaho, he didn’t want the freshman to stand on the sidelines for 25 minutes and then all of a sudden come in and be expected to perform.

Give credit to Lazor though, for staying cool with his play-calling against a much-anticipated blitz by Idaho. He knew it was coming. That’s what the Vandals do. That’s how they make their living on defense.

Against a blitzing team, it’s a case of either they get you or you get them. Yardage, big plays can come in chunks if you guess right against the blitz. Guess wrong and you’re done.

That’s one reason Lazor felt good about going into overtime. Virginia’s running plays were generally going well and so were the play-action passes, which usually come wide open because of the successful running plays.

“I felt really good about the plays we had on our menu down there, both run and play-action,” he said about the overtime. “And then that flag knocked us back.”

Perry Jones had advanced the ball on two running plays from the 25 in overtime to the 18 and then 16 before freshman Clifton Richardson gained a first down on a nine-yard run to the left side of the line. First-and-goal at the 7 and things were looking bright.

The flag Lazor referred to, came on the next play, a toss to the right. But a facemask call against Zachary Swanson, lined up as a blocking back, put Virginia back at the 27.

On the next play, against a heavy blitz, Watford was chased from the pocket, and as Lazor pointed out, showed maturity in throwing the ball away, setting up the dramatic score.

“As a play-caller, you have to discipline yourself not to get frustrated (against a blitzing team),” Lazor said. “First-and-goal from the 27 and they chased us out of the pocket. So, call another play that would be good against the blitz.”

That play was one Virginia had rehearsed a lot in practice all week, a screen to the right to a wide receiver. Earlier in the game, during UVa’s two-minute drill that fizzled as the half ended, the same screen was thrown to Tim Smith for an eight-yard gain.

This time, the designated receiver was Terrell, who had been spectacular in training camp but hasn’t managed to make the same magic happen this season. Until Saturday.

“I was expecting the blitz and the play would have been fine without a blitz, but with the blitz, it had a chance to be a huge play,” Lazor said. “Knowing [Idaho’s] tendencies, on all fourth-down plays, they blitz you. On high percentage plays inside the 15, they blitz you. Overtime, second and 27, and they just chased you out of the pocket, what are they going to do? They’re going to blitz you.”

Terrell took the pass and bolted 27 yards for the touchdown behind two key blocks by Jones and by right tackle Morgan Moses, who took out the defender covering Terrell. If Moses misses that block, it’s a dead play.

Instead, Terrell zoomed down the sidelines what turned out to be the winning play, followed by the PAT. Idaho’s gutsy but questionable decision to go for a two-point conversion and win the game right then and there, was thwarted by Virginia’s pass coverage.

Lazor believes successes like Terrell’s will speed up his development and make him more confident and more reliable in the future, just as it has for Watford, and should for another freshman wide receiver, Darius Jennings, as the season moves along. You can’t have enough playmakers.

Until Virginia takes the field again, in two weeks in a home game against Georgia Tech, we’ll all be guessing about the quarterback issue.

“It’s hard to find play calls when you’re dealing with two personalities,” Lazor said.

Making it more difficult was the Idaho blitzes, which by nature, disrupts any kind of offensive rhythm anyhow.

The biggest misperception about the whole thing is that Lazor must call different styles of plays for each quarterback, which isn’t really that varied.