Revisiting the Duke Quarterback Battle: Chris Katrenick
Three weeks after choosing a starting quarterback, it may be time for Duke to rethink the decision. After winning the starting job at the end of fall camp, Chase Brice has struggled in Duke’s 0-3 start. Brice has been responsible for seven turnovers in the last two games.
While David Cutcliffe wouldn’t commit to a change, he said after Saturday’s loss to Virginia that the position would be evaluated along with every other spot on the field.
In the preseason, we took an in depth look at each candidate. Now, with three games in the book, we revisit each of them to see what’s changed and who offers Duke the best chance of turning around its season.
In part one, we looked at the incumbent, Chase Brice.
In part two, we looked at Gunnar Holmberg.
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That was then: Katrenick entered the abbreviated spring practice as the top quarterback, based on his experience last year as backup to Quentin Harris. He entered preseason camp the same way. In Duke’s only full scrimmage, Katrenick was the only quarterback not to throw a touchdown, passing four-of-eight for 49 yards. He and Holmberg were named co-backups after Brice won the job.
This is now: After Brice and the offense struggled to finish drives in the opener, settling for threes instead of sixes in the loss at Notre Dame, coach David Cutcliffe blamed a lack of live scrimmage time in the pandemic-shortened preseason and Brice’s lack of time running the offense. If that’s the case, it would seem that Katrenick’s experience could pay an immediate dividend.
Katrenick got in for one garbage time series at the end of Saturday’s game. Surrounded by backups on both sides of the ball, he got a total of seven snaps. After handing off once, he completed two of three passes for 40 yards. He was then tackled at or behind the line of scrimmage on second, third and fourth down to turn the ball over on downs. Inexplicably, two of those plays were called runs by the stat crew instead of back-to-back-to-back sacks.
Can he be the answer? It’s doubtful that Katrenick’s backup reps last season would give him a significant experience edge over Brice or Holmberg at this point. His passing looked crisp in the stint at UVA, and it’s tough to give him a negative for the sacks behind a backup line. If Brice gets pulled, he could likely manage the team for a stretch of games, and maybe a different voice would spark the team.
