Hafley Keeping QB Decision Under Wraps Ahead of Syracuse Trip
Andy Backstrom (@andybackstrom)Staff Writer
Jeff Hafley never envisioned he’d be making a quarterback decision midseason. Not this year, at least. The Eagles were supposed to have one of the best signal callers in the ACC.
“I thought Phil [Jurkovec] would have thrown for, maybe, 20,000 yards by this point in the season,” the second-year Eagles head coach said Tuesday.
But Jurkovec fractured his throwing hand the second week of the year, and Dennis Grosel has been piloting the offense ever since. It hasn’t been pretty of late as the Eagles have combined for a meager 34 points in their first three ACC games. Hafley was faced with a decision: stick with the fifth-year redshirt senior or bench him for a younger, untested quarterback.
He has made up his mind and told the team. He is not, however, announcing who will be under center.
“I watched a lot of tape myself and then obviously with the staff,” Hafley said. “And we’ve made a decision. We feel really good about it, and the team knows about it. I think, for obvious reasons, I’m going to keep that at that until we get on the field and play.”
Hafley was asked about how challenging of a decision it was to make. His answer was simple.
“Not hard once I really dove in hard and kinda unpeeled things,” he said. “I thought it would be a lot harder than it actually was, to be honest with you. So, not very hard.”
Grosel replaced Jurkovec at UMass and guided the Eagles to their first 4-0 start since 2007, albeit with a favorable schedule. Grosel’s three wins came against teams that are a combined 7-14 this year and all rank in the bottom 20 in scoring defense. His three losses haven’t been pretty.
While Grosel threw for 311 yards and completed 12-of-16 passes in the fourth quarter against Clemson, he tossed two interceptions and dropped a snap at the Tigers’ 11-yard line with less than a minute remaining and BC down, 19-13. The last two games, he has hit on approximately 53% of his passes and committed four turnovers.
He has routinely missed wide receiver Zay Flowers deep and, of late, has struggled to make the play-action, medium-ranged throws that were previously his bread and butter. Grosel is 3-of-22 on passes traveling 20 or more yards through the air this year, according to Pro Football Focus.
The three quarterbacks (redshirt sophomore Daelen Menard, redshirt freshman Matthew Rueve and true freshman Emmett Morehead) below Grosel on the depth chart, though, haven’t thrown a pass in their collegiate careers.
Hafley noted that offensive coordinator Frank Cignetti Jr., who Hafley says knows quarterbacks “a lot better than I do,” had input on the decision. Hafley said that he delivered the news the same way he always talks to his team: with transparency.
“Just be honest, explain things,” Hafley said. “I’m very honest with the team, whether a guy comes into my office 1-on-1, I’m very honest in front of the team. Just tell the guys the truth.”
