Splitting QB Reps Nothing New for Diaco, Not Unique to UCONN in 2014

@MattSchonvisky

UCONN head coach Bob Diaco stated yesterday evening that both Casey Cochran and Chandler Whitmer will play, despite Cochran being named the starter.

As rare as it may seem, all of the staffs Diaco has been a part of since he was at Virginia in 2006, have had more than one quarterback play meaningful time, some of which, was caused by injuries and inconsistent play. During Diaco’s first year at Notre Dame, Dayne Crist and Tommy Rees both played significant time for the Irish. Rees again, split duties with Everett Gholson early on during Notre Dame’s run to the BCS title game in 2012.

At Cincinnati, in 2009, a team that UCONN fans remember well, the staff played five quarterbacks en route to a 12-0 regular season and an appearance in the Sugar Bowl.

The move makes sense for a number of reasons, but none better than the following.

“Defenses will have to defend Chandler different than they do Casey,” a spokesman for the program said this morning. “Every second they prepare to defend Chandler is a second they are not preparing for Casey and vice versa. They each do different things that cannot be defended. When they are in the games, they will be asked to do those jobs that make them uniquely exceptional. The combination of those pluses are going to outweigh the single sum of either of them by a great deal.”

Diaco expanded on just that during yesterday’s meeting with the media.

“The staff, led by me, feels strongly that they both have pluses in their game. The dynamic of starting Casey, with Chandler coming into play, utilizes both of them as a plus for our sum total to add up to more. Rather than putting a plus on the shelf, the intangible piece for Casey and just adding one plus to the element, we feel that the sum total would have been less in that dynamic.” 

The stigma surrounding two quarterbacks is always one of skepticism, but ask Urban Meyer how his 2006 BCS Championship Ring is shining; he played both Chris Leak and Tim Tebow in their run to the title.

This season, UCONN is not alone in airing that they will play two quarterbacks. Nick Saban (Alabama), Les Miles (LSU) and Bill Snyder (Kansas State) are all considering running out of the tunnel opening weekend by playing two QB’s.

Last season, Northwestern’s Pat Fitzgerald told ESPN the following on this same subject.

“The bottom line is we want to win and we’re going to do what’s best for the team first. Fans want to say this and that, keep talking all you want, but the bottom line is we won the game. It’s one of those situations where you want to play to guys’ strengths, but you also don’t want to be predictable. That’s where the balancing act is.”

Bill Snyder responded to the common belief fans have when their team plays two quarterbacks with the following, as reported by ‘The Wichita Eagle.’

“It has worked reasonably well for us. Both guys work hard, are good players and deserve the opportunity to play. That’s what has happened. A lot of people say when you have two quarterbacks, you don’t have one. I don’t think that is the case for us. We legitimately have two good quarterbacks.”

The fact of the matter is this, Bob Diaco really has three, if not four guys on the roster that can step in and win games, so much so, that in an ideal scenario, they will red-shirt Tim Boyle to give him another year of eligibility, while creating separation among him and Cochran.

“We feel like this is the best combination,” Diaco said yesterday. “We’re going to put the games together to utilize everyone’s assets. There’s not a player, coach or support staff in our organization that wasn’t made for success. Not anyone here was created for failure. Everyone here was created for success, at something. We don’t mind finding out what that is and asking the people to do those things, when they arise.”

“That’s what we do at all positions, it’s no different than at defensive end, it’s not different than at outside linebacker and it’s no different than at quarterback. The mis-perception in the country is that you declare a starting quarterback and he’s a key starter. Well that’s not the case, it won’t be the case for us this fall. And football is a fluid situation, so they know what we have to do to win and they are going to work towards that.”

Below are the passing statistics for the teams Diaco has been on the staff of since 2006, keeping in mind Diaco’s responsibilities resided solely with the defense at each stop, minus 2013:

PASSING STATISTICS – Virginia 2006
NAME	CMP	ATT	YDS	CMP%	YDS/A	TD	INT	RAT
Jameel Sewell	143	247	1342	57.9	5.43	5	6	105.4
Christian Olsen	35	64	280	54.7	4.38	0	2	85.2
Kevin McCabe	23	32	222	71.9	6.94	1	3	121.7
Emmanuel Byers	2	2	43	100.0	21.50	2	0	610.6
Totals	203	345	1887	58.8	5.47	8	11	106.1

PASSING STATISTICS – Virginia 2007
NAME	CMP	ATT	YDS	CMP%	YDS/A	TD	INT	RAT
Jameel Sewell	214	364	2176	58.8	5.98	12	9	114.9
Peter Lalich	35	61	321	57.4	5.26	2	1	109.1
Vic Hall	1	1	35	100.0	35.00	0	0	394.0
Totals	250	428	2532	58.4	5.92	14	10	114.2

PASSING STATISTICS – Virginia 2008
NAME	CMP	ATT	YDS	CMP%	YDS/A	TD	INT	RAT
Marc Verica	226	354	2037	63.8	5.75	8	16	110.6
Peter Lalich	39	74	359	52.7	4.85	0	3	85.3
Scott Deke	4	9	42	44.4	4.67	1	1	98.1
Totals	269	439	2438	61.3	5.55	9	20	105.6

PASSING STATISTICS – Cincinnati 2009
NAME	CMP	ATT	YDS	CMP%	YDS/A	TD	INT	RAT
Tony Pike	211	338	2520	62.4	7.46	29	6	149.8
Zach Collaros	93	124	1434	75.0	11.57	10	2	195.5
Chazz Anderson	5	6	33	83.3	5.50	0	0	129.5
Brendon Kay	2	2	27	100.0	13.50	0	0	213.4
Totals	311	472	4014	65.9	8.50	39	8	161.2

PASSING STATISTICS – Notre Dame 2010
NAME	CMP	ATT	YDS	CMP%	YDS/A	TD	INT	RAT
Dayne Crist	174	294	2033	59.2	6.92	15	7	129.3
Thomas Rees	100	164	1106	61.0	6.74	12	8	132.0
Nate Montana	9	18	116	50.0	6.44	0	1	93.0
John Goodman	1	2	32	50.0	16.00	1	0	349.4
Armando Allen Jr.	1	1	3	100.0	3.00	0	0	125.2
Totals	285	481	3290	59.3	6.84	28	16	129.3

PASSING STATISTICS – Notre Dame 2011
NAME	CMP	ATT	YDS	CMP%	YDS/A	TD	INT	RAT
Thomas Rees	269	411	2871	65.5	6.99	20	14	133.4
Andrew Hendrix	18	37	249	48.6	6.73	1	2	103.3
Dayne Crist	15	24	164	62.5	6.83	0	1	111.6
Totals	302	473	3284	63.8	6.94	21	17	129.6

PASSING STATISTICS – Notre Dame 2012
NAME	CMP	ATT	YDS	CMP%	YDS/A	TD	INT	RAT
Everett Golson	187	318	2405	58.8	7.56	12	6	131.0
Thomas Rees	34	59	436	57.6	7.39	2	2	124.1
Andrew Hendrix	5	7	55	71.4	7.86	0	0	137.4
John Goodman	0	1	0	0.0	0.00	0	0	0.0
Totals	226	388	2896	58.2	7.46	14	8	128.7

PASSING STATISTICS – Notre Dame 2013 (w/expelled Golson)
NAME	CMP	ATT	YDS	CMP%	YDS/A	TD	INT	RAT
Thomas Rees	224	414	3257	54.1	7.87	27	13	135.4
Andrew Hendrix	2	14	56	14.3	4.00	0	0	47.9
Totals	226	429	3313	52.7	7.72	27	13	132.3

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