3 vying for UVa starting QB

GREENSBORO, Ga. — When the Cavaliers begin fall practice on Aug. 4, their quarterback situation will be just the way they left it at the end of spring — up for grabs.

Fifth-year senior Scott Deke and sophomores Peter Lalich and Marc Verica will vie for the job, which was vacated after two-year starter Jameel Sewell received a one-year academic suspension from the school last winter.

“What counts is what happens in competitive practice, and that’s just a small window of competition compared to games or anything else,” Virginia coach Al Groh said at the ACC Kickoff on Monday. “You have to have some criteria from which to make judgments and therefore slot the players, so whatever goes on the practice field is the only vehicle to do that.”

For what it’s worth (and Groh would say not much), the preseason media guide depth chart lists the quarterbacks in this order: Deke, Verica, Lalich.

That’s a bit of a surprise. Many fans figured the 6-foot-5 Lalich, a prototype pocket passer and the prized recruit in Virginia’s 2007 class out of West Springfield High, would slide into the starting job after throwing for 321 yards and two touchdowns to one interception as Sewell’s backup last year.

Not so fast.

Deke, who decided to return for his fifth year after Sewell’s suspension was announced, shined in the spring game, completing 17 of 23 passes for 160 yards and two touchdowns. Verica, who has never taken a snap in a game, was 17-for-25 for 110 yards and a touchdown.

Lalich, meanwhile, struggled, completing just 6 of 18 passes for 72 yards. He also threw three interceptions.

Still, Groh has been impressed with Lalich’s maturation now that he has a full year under his belt at the school.

“It’s progressing,” Groh said. “It’s certainly isn’t full-term, but there’s nobody in our operation who expected in this short time frame that it would be full-term. It hasn’t ever been for any of his predecessors. In fact, almost all the quarterbacks over the last 15 years who preceded him had not even been in the game until this point.

“So there’s a lot of development and a lot of growth from him and a lot of that will be necessary for him to take the skills that he brought and turn him into the kind of quarterback that we hope he can be.”

Groh didn’t rule out the possibility of playing two quarterbacks, which Virginia did early last season, before Sewell established himself at the position.

“If your one quarterback is Tom Brady or Peyton Manning, then there’s a great need to have him in the game all the time and a significant comfort level with that,” Groh said. “If that’s not the case, then the real need is that the quarterback position plays in each game to a standard that’s high enough for us to win, however many quarterbacks it takes to do that.

“If it takes one, then that’d be great. If it takes two, then that’s what we’ll do.”