UConn football coach Randy Edsall has said on a number of occasions that there’ll be a great deal of competition for starting roles and playing time on this year’s team in the final weeks of preseason practice.
There may not be a more open position that’s critical to team success than quarterback.
Five players will vie for the lead gig: redshirt sophomore Steven Krajewski, sophomore Jack Zergiotis, redshirt junior Micah Leone, freshman Tyler Phommachanh and redshirt freshman Miles Foerster. Edsall said in the spring that the group may not know the starter until opening week (Aug. 28 at Fresno State). At media day Thursday, coaches doubled down on that.
“Hopefully, it plays out, and during training camp. You get to see what can they do, what can’t they do,” offensive coordinator Frank Giufre said. “What are their traits, what are their positives and what they need to work on. Who is the guy? Who is the guy who’s going to come out and take it and be able to get 10 other guys to rally around them, and lead.”
Edsall said Thursday that all five candidates will compete in the first week of practice, which began Friday, and the coaching staff will review film and determine “maybe two guys” who will emerge and get the majority of repetitions at QB1, while the three others fight for the third-string position.
Here’s a look at the five players the Huskies have to choose from:
Jack Zergiotis
Quarterbacks coach Mike Moyseenko pointed out that Zergiotis was at UConn for just about six weeks before he began playing in 2019, and said that he was raw as a freshman; he flashed at times (418 yards and 3 touchdowns against ECU) and struggled at others (two picks and no touchdowns in a season-opening loss to Illinois).
“For Jack, it was really taking the natural talent and really doing a deep dive on the mental game,” Moyseenko said. “He was out there playing the game, but he didn’t know what he was doing. With all this time we had, he got to really dive into the playbook. He got to understand the how and the why.”
Zergiotis broke a leg shortly after committing to UConn and wasn’t in the best shape when he arrived in Storrs, Moyseenko said. He’s since slimmed down, from 222 pounds to 212, added some mobility to his game and spent 2020 learning the offense.
Zergiotis understands progress comes with consistency. He completed 60% of his passes or better four times in 2019, but also played three games in which he completed under 50%. Moyseenko said that Zergiotis’ “gunslinger” mentality is valuable, but if unmanaged, can be detrimental.
“It’s all about studying film and getting into the playbook,” Zergiotis said. “And reps. Reps, reps, reps. … At this point, it’s not just about athletic ability or arm talent or everything like that. It’s knowing what to do in different types of situations and just being a student of the game.”
“I think the QB competition is going to push us to the best of our abilities.”
Steven Krajewski
A 6-foot-4 native of Michigan, Krajewski has only thrown 15 passes in his college career, but he is confident that he can win the starting job.
“I’m a competitor. I like to compete,” Krajewski said. “I hope Coach Edsall sees me as the guy at the end of the day, and I’ll be ready to take over that position and play to the best of my ability.”
Like Zergiotis, Krajewski hit the playbook hard in 2020.
“Steven has grown tremendously in terms of mental,” Moyseenko said. “There’s not an aspect of this offense that Steven doesn’t understand. Through this time, I think Steven has started to gain a lot of confidence in his arm and his ability to make throws, throw the ball on time and all that good stuff. Steven is a really, really competitive kid. This past spring, we were going live with the quarterbacks, and Steven absolutely loved running over everybody and all those kind of things.”
Micah Leon
Leon is the mystery man among the returners from the 2019 team. The 6-5 signal caller spent his first two seasons at N.C. State — one a redshirt year, and another where he didn’t see the field — before transferring to UConn in 2019. An injury kept him on the sideline for the entire season.
“Micah is incredibly intelligent,” Moyseenko said. “He’s a big, strong kid. He’s got the arm talent to make every throw out here. For Micah, it’s going to be, can he take all the traits that he has and lead a group? We haven’t had a ton of time seeing him do that with some of the stuff he’s had to deal with injury-wise.”
By the time UConn’s season kicks off, it will have been five years since Leon played in a sanctioned game. He passed for 1,085 yards with 11 touchdowns and rushed 555 yards and 11 touchdowns as a senior at Boca Raton High in Florida, and started in the 2016 Senior All-American Game in Dallas.
“I think it’s definitely made me more grateful for the times I was on the field,” Leon said. “I’m excited to be back out there. … [To win the job] it’s just making the right decisions and being consistent.”
There is some precedent for Leon: Bryant Shireffs, who transferred to UConn from N.C. State in 2014, started three seasons at quarterback for the Huskies from 2015-17.
Tyler Phommachanh and Miles Foerster
Phommachanh and Foerster are likely the dark horse candidates, given their age and lack of experience. Foerster is a 6-2 native of Amherst and redshirted in 2019 after joining UConn as a priority walk-on.
Phommachanh, a true freshman, was a three-star recruit according to 247, and played prep football at Avon Old Farms. His older brother, Taisun, is a backup quarterback at Clemson, which will play the Huskies on Nov. 13.
“It’s amazing,” Phommachanh said of walking into a quarterback competition. “It definitely elevates all of our games together, and makes us want to compete with each other. … I think we need leadership and consistency out of us. When we’re on, the whole offense is on, and we’re balling and rolling.”
Shawn McFarland can be reached at smcfarland@courant.com.
