With Grosel Struggling, Hafley Discusses Future of Quarterback Position
One of the biggest stories to come from the last three weeks has been quarterback Dennis Grosel's inconsistent to poor play over the past three games. Tasked with the unenviable job of replacing injured quarterback Phil Jurkovec, the hope was that Grosel would be able to slide in and keep the offense afloat. The staff and players clearly had a lot of respect for Grosel, who was a leader in the locker room, and had started a number of games over the past two years. But things have not gone to plan for the Eagles. Now straddled with a three game losing streak, the offense seems completely askew, and the play of the quarterback is getting questioned. Head coach Jeff Hafley addressed his quarterback situation on Sunday.
"Now I know Dennis knows he needs to play better." Hafley stated. "I think we need to help him play better and coach better." The coach continued by talking about whether he is ready to make a change at the quarterback position. "Truthfully I got off a plane at 12:30, I literally just had a team meeting….I think there are a lot of things we need to talk through….And we need to score points, so we need to figure what gives us the best opportunity to do that."
Grosel has fallen near the bottom of the ACC in almost every imaginable category for a quarterback, including passer rating, yards per attempt, and has a 6/7 TD to interception ratio, not including four fumbles in the past three games. He has struggled to get the ball deep, according to ProFootball Focus he has the lowest big time throw (0.5%) percentage in the ACC, and second highest turnover worthy play percentage (4.3%). And Hafley's comments on scoring especially stick out, since BC started ACC play, the Eagles have averaged 11.33 points per game. Clearly the offense has been completely out of sync the past three weeks.
There are a trio of potential replacements if Hafley decides to try something different at quarterback. Daelen Menard is a junior, who played one snap this season, the handoff that ended up with a safety against NC State. "Daelen is a guy who knows the scheme really well. Moves well in the pocket." Matthew Rueve, a 6-4 redshirt freshman from St. Xavier, is another option. "He processes really quickly. He's good on the run, he's good outside the pocket." The most tantalizing option could be true freshman Emmett Morehead, a 6-6 three star from Virginia (originally from California) with a huge arm, and oozing with potential. However, Morehead did not play at all in high school in 2020, due to COVID-19 cancelling the season.
If Hafley decides to move on from Grosel, don't expect an announcement during the week. When the staff were deciding between Grosel and Jurkovec in 2020, the decision wasn't made public until fifteen minutes before kickoff in the season opener. Stay tuned to BC Bulletin for updates on Boston College's quarterback situation moving forward.
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