Coming into 2013, there are two different
perspectives you can take in evaluating Nova going forward. You can view him as
a talented passer who took major strides forward between his freshman and
sophomore campaigns, or you can view him as the guy who really regressed during
the second half of last season. As a more optimistic fan and a big believer in
Nova, I tend to view him as the former.
Playing as a true sophomore last season,
Nova was still pretty young for a starting quarterback. In a lot of situations,
quarterbacks don't take the reigns as a starter until their third year on
campus, and in a perfect world, that would have been the case for Nova (with
Tom Savage starting the last two years for Rutgers in this perfect world).
Considering this, his performance was......I wouldn't say par for the course,
but it was pretty normal. He displayed a lot of positive signs, especially
early on, but he still made a lot of mistakes because of his youth, leading to
an overall uneven performance on the year. Even through it wasn't always pretty,
I think there has been a lot more good than bad. That, along with all of that
experience (18 career starts) he has under his belt, is encouraging going into
his junior season. This is when we should start seeing the growing pains pay
off.
When you compare Nova's sophomore season
to Mike Teel --the last quarterback to stabilize the position at Rutgers— Nova
was a bit better. Nova had a much better touchdown to interception ratio, while
the two Don Bosco alumni had similar completion percentages and yards per
attempt as second year signal callers. Teel took his biggest strides between
his sophomore and junior seasons, and I expect Nova to do the same. He appears
to have worked extra hard this offseason to make sure that happens, as evidenced
by his weight loss. Even though I don't think his weight was really a problem
last year, it does at least give us some tangible evidence of the work he put
in during the offseason.
Nova will be playing under his third
offensive coordinator in as many years this season, and I don't think that's
necessarily a bad thing. He and Dave Brock never really seemed to be in the
same page last season, so hopefully Ron Prince will be able to get a better
read on him. Second year QB coach Robb Spence could do a better job this year
as well. He seemed to leave Nova unprepared for some games (it’s like they didn’t
expect to see any zone blitzing against Kent State!) last season, and that needs to
not happen anymore. Even with the coordinator change, Rutgers will still have
the same philosophy offensively, with a run first, pro-style attack (the only
difference may be terminology, but I don't know if that was changed or not).
Nova is a good fit for this style of play.
His greatest attribute is his strong arm, and he can use that to push the ball
down field to the big play receivers he will have at his disposal. In the pocket, he has good awareness
of his surroundings, and he generally gets rid of the ball quickly, sometimes
to a fault. One area where he could improve is by throwing the ball away (or
simply just taking a sack) rather than forcing it and turning the ball over when under pressure. He
was able to fit passes through tight windows over the middle last season, and
hopefully we will see more of that this season. His accuracy sometimes suffers
from his poor mechanics on such passes, but when he just lets it fly, he can put it on the
spot. If Rutgers
is able to establish a strong run game, I think the play action could be
another great weapon at Nova’s disposal. Nova was athletic enough to escape pressure or throw passes outside of
the pocket before, and now that he dropped some weight, I expect that to improve.
Backing Nova up is senior Chas Dodd. Dodd
has plenty of starting experience, and he's not someone you would have to worry
too much about taking the field if Nova were to get hurt. Dodd has proved
himself to be a very competent quarterback, but he is not an ideal fit in a pro-style
offense, taking snaps under center and standing in the pocket. Remember, he was
recruited to play in a spread offense, and he is at his best slinging short
passes around out of the shot gun.
Waiting in the wings as Rutgers
"quarterbacks of the future" are red shirt sophomore Mike Bimonte,
red shirt freshman Blake Rankin and true freshman Chris Laviano. Bimonte has
good size and a strong arm, but he was raw coming out of high school. Rankin is
an interesting duel threat quarterback with explosive tools, and Laviano is a
polished quarterback with a solid all-around game. These three will share
practice squad duties before competing for the backup job next season and the
starting job in 2015. I am a big Laviano fan, for what it's worth.
Gary Nova is going to need to take on a
much bigger role if Rutgers wants to be successful this season. He was
relegated to being a game manager last season, and I think it's time to finally
set him loose. He has the tools needed to be a very good quarterback in a pro-style
offense at the college level, and now that he has a lot of experience and
hopefully receives better coaching, he is ready to take that next step and
become a guy they can rely on to win games for them week in and week out. He
must take on a bigger leadership role this year as well, especially since he
was named a captain. Behind him, Chas Dodd is a very good back up, and
Bimonte, Laviano and Rankin have talent and will compete for the starting job
after Nova graduates.
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