Morehead Embracing Unexpected Start to His Collegiate Career
Andy Backstrom (@andybackstrom)Publisher
Boston College quarterback Emmett Morehead played only two years of varsity high school football at Episcopal (Alexandria, Va.) His senior season was wiped out because of COVID-19.
Episcopal wouldn’t let him mid-year. So he left the school and returned home to Woodside, California, where he began preparing for a January start at BC, which was coming off a season in which it found a star in Notre Dame transfer quarterback Phil Jurkovec and was third in the ACC in passing offense.
“Getting here early was a huge difference for me,” Morehead said Tuesday.
At the time, there were several quarterbacks ahead of Morehead on the roster: Jurkovec, Dennis Grosel, Matt Valecce, Sam Johnson III, Daelen Menard and Matthew Rueve. But Valecce and Johnson transferred this summer, Jurkovec suffered a season-ending fracture to his throwing hand at UMass in Week 2 and Grosel struggled mightily in ACC play.
Menard was listed behind Grosel on the depth chart most of the season, however, when it came to making a change, Morehead was the next man up.
“I think it’s great,” Morehead said. “I had a meeting with my head strength coach who said, ‘You learn the fastest when you’re forced to do it on the spot.’ And that’s kind of what’s happening.”
BC head coach Jeff Hafley and offensive coordinator Frank Cignetti Jr. decided to rotate both Morehead and Grosel last week at Syracuse. Grosel got the start, the 14th of his career and sixth of the season, but Morehead made his debut on the Eagles’ third offensive series.
When all was said and done, Morehead took 43 snaps while Grosel was in for 29. Morehead completed 6-of-15 passes for 87 yards, and Grosel was 9-of-17 for 93 yards.
“It’s the first live bullets he’s had,” Hafley said of Morehead’s performance. “He didn’t have a senior year in high school. … It’s not like he’s a kid who grew up playing football since second grade. … For him to go in with limited practice reps and play the way he did, I think he’ll just get better.”
Grosel’s biggest weakness in 2021 has been his inability to connect on the deep ball. Coming into last weekend, the redshirt senior was just 3-of-22 on passes traveling 20 or more yards downfield, according to Pro Football Focus.
Morehead hit one of those on the third play of his collegiate career. He took a five-step drop and uncorked a 44-yard dot for Zay Flowers, who has often had a step on ACC secondaries this season but has somersaulted and held his helmet in his hands more than he has come down with receptions on passes that have been consistently overthrown.
Morehead said that Flowers is “a lot of fun to throw to.” He noted that, as soon as he saw his speedy wideout was in man-to-man coverage before the snap, he got excited.
“And then you connect on that, and you kind of immediately feel like, you know, the linemen turn to you like, ‘Ok, that’s good momentum, we’re moving.’”
Just as Morehead felt like he was finding a groove, though, he got his “head rattled a little bit” on a sack toward the end of the second quarter that took him out of the game until the third frame, when BC was on the brink of giving up its third straight backbreaking Syracuse touchdown.
The 6-foot-5, 229-pound Morehead was brought down four times. Granted, the Orange leads the ACC in sacks per game, but Morehead knows that he needs to be better in the pocket. He explained that, after he started getting hit, he felt like the pocket was “being compressed.” As a result, he shifted out of his throwing base and into a running position.
“I need to remain a passer first and foremost,” Morehead said. “I’m practicing that a lot this week, going through progressions and stuff. So I can be a little quicker and a little more calm.”
Morehead also pointed out that him scrambling unexpectedly whenever he feels pressure could just lead to unnecessary holding calls.
Since the former three-star recruit hasn’t played a whole lot of football, he’s still getting used to calling out protections. Luckily, he has 2020 All-ACC first-team center Alec Lindstrom in front of him.
“He’s amazing,” Morehead said. “He reads coverages as well, which I think is pretty rare for a college center. I know they do that in the NFL, but he’s great because the MIKE IDs for me, like MIKE linebacker IDs and stuff, can be complicated.”
Morehead said that BC changed its game plan in order to slow things down on offense. He said that the Eagles went to a spread offense, which was easier for him to process.
Hafley discussed Tuesday how he needs to be more cognizant of managing game flow with a true freshman under center, especially when it comes to using timeouts.
“There were definitely times when I [was like], ‘Hey, Frank, if you need one, let me know.’ I watch the clock the whole game. And I think about the time and the timeouts the whole game. But there are certain situations where you gotta forget about that and make sure that we’re ok. And I’m learning from that.”
Of course, there’s a steep learning curve for Morehead, too. But he said that he’s been pleased with the reps he’s gotten the past two weeks as well as his film studies with Cignetti.
It’s a tough situation for the first-year quarterback yet arguably even more difficult for Grosel, a former preferred walk-on whose storybook career at BC took a turn for the worse this season. After guiding the Eagles to their first 4-0 start since 2007, Grosel and the Eagles have fallen flat.
BC has yet to announce if Morehead or Grosel will get the nod against Virginia Tech Friday night. If Morehead does indeed make his first career start, he’ll have Grosel in his ear.
“Dennis has been probably the best mentor I could ask for,” Morehead said. “He’s helped me so much with everything from the playbook to navigating Boston College and just college in general.
“Obviously, this is his season to shine and to play, and it hasn’t gone the way he’s wanted, but you would never know it. He’s been really calm, really humble. Someone I really look up to.”
