North Carolina State University Athletics
Wolfpack Football Springing Forward
3/25/2004 12:00:00 AM | Football
March 25, 2004
By Tony Haynes
Raleigh, N.C. - As had been the case for four previous springs, Philip Rivers' presence was hard not to notice when NC State continued spring football practice on Thursday morning. There was, of course, one major difference. Instead of wearing his now familiar No. 17 jersey, Rivers, the ACC's all-time leading passer, donned a sweatshirt, jeans and baseball cap. Relegated to now being nothing more than just an interested spectator as he awaits next month's NFL Draft, Rivers was curiously taking in the battle between Jay Davis and Marcus Stone, the two players that are competing for the quarterback job he monopolized for the last four years.
With just one week of spring ball now in the books, Wolfpack coach Chuck Amato is no closer to naming Rivers' successor than he was two months ago. In fact, he says, there's really no reason to be in a hurry.
"That's no different than any other position," Amato said. "I know it's the focal point of every football team, but we've got 15 days of spring practice and we've got 29 opportunities in the fall. We've got 40 opportunities before we have to make any decisions and let that competition go as long as possible. I think it's good for both of them. They both have their pluses and minuses and it's shown here as far as the competition every day. They're probably the best of friends off the field and on the field they're just going to compete like mad. We've got a lot of time before we have to decide what we're going to do there."
Playing behind Rivers certainly had its pluses and minuses for both Davis and Stone. On the positive side, they had a chance to watch perhaps the greatest quarterback in league history operate on a daily basis. On the flip side, there was very little playing time available for anyone else, especially last season when NC State was involved in a number of close games. Davis, a rising redshirt junior from Clearwater, Fla, certainly knows the routine after playing behind Rivers for three years. In those three seasons, he's briefly appeared in just 10 games and attempted all of 29 passes.
Stone has even less experience after being redshirted in his freshman season last fall. The popular opinion is that Davis has an edge in experience and familiarity with the system, while Stone possesses more overall physical ability, including superior arm strength, size and foot speed.
In the spirit of fairness, the offensive staff has set up a spring schedule that allows both players to get an equal number of reps with the first-team offense.
When we do 11 on 11, if we script 10 plays, one has the first five, the other the next five," Amato explained. "We've got to make sure they're behind the same people because that's how you evaluate them. The last two practices, we've had 32 snaps where they were live with a very, very fast whistle. We need to see what they're going to do when they know they might get hit and we need to see what these young guys up front defensively might do when they don't have to pull off. In the scrimmage on Saturday, they had the exact same number of plays on the field with the [first team offense] and they had the exact number of passes."
It's been proven time and time again in athletics that filling the shoes of a legend is no easy task. Chances are, NC State and the ACC won't see another quarterback as good as Rivers for quite some time. For Davis and Stone to be successful, Amato says they must play to their own individual strengths, while trying to duplicate Rivers' mastery of some of the more underestimated intangibles that the very good ones possess.
"The thing that both of them have learned from Philip are presence in the huddle, leadership, poise and the control of the rest of the offensive players," Amato said. "They both have their own individual God-given abilities that are different than what Philip's are."
Position Changes: Unlike springs past, there have been very few position changes through the first week of workouts. Rising junior Manny Lawson, who spent most of his first two years at outside linebacker before getting some snaps at defensive late last season, will be moved to end on a permanent basis. After sitting out last fall to deal with some off-the-field issues, Marcus Hudson has switched from cornerback to free safety. Amato likes his rotating depth at the cornerback spots featuring players like Lamont Reid, A.J. Davis and Dovonte Edwards.
"The corners are good," Amato said. "I think Dovonte Edwards has had his best spring thus far. There's a lot of competition when you have [Davis] and Reid in there. That's a good nucleus."
O-line Concerns: With versatile guard/tackle Sean Locklear now on his way to the next level, the Wolfpack can't afford any setbacks on the offensive line. But to this point, the future of tackle Chris Colmer (Parsonage Turner Syndrome) and guard Ricky Fowler remains uncertain.
"We've got to assume that Colmer and Fowler aren't going to be with us next year," said Amato. "Fowler had a real serious ACL operation and he's working hard and he's probably ahead of schedule. Colmer hasn't done anything since the end of the first week of two-a-days (last fall). He isn't doing much more now. We've got to find about seven or eight offensive linemen that we can trust because offensive line is a position that those five guys, if they stay healthy, they usually play every snap of every game. That's just the way it is with that position."
