Colandrea said he was last to know he won starting job

By Jerry Ratcliffe

As things turned out, most of Wahoo Nation knew that Anthony Colandrea would be Virginia’s starting quarterback before he got the news.

Colandrea said after practice on Tuesday that he didn’t learn he won the starting job until Saturday night, hours after the school released the announcement that the sophomore would be the Cavaliers’ starter against Richmond.

Colandrea was selected as the starter over fifth-year Tony Muskett, the incumbent first-teamer. Both quarterbacks could play against the visiting Spiders on Saturday night (6 p.m. kickoff, ACC Network Extra/ESPN+).

“I’ve always wanted to play at a high level, and being able to start is a huge blessing,” Colandrea said.

He played in eight games as a true freshman (seven full games) after Muskett went down with injuries twice. Even without previous college experience, Colandrea obliterated Virginia’s freshman passing records.

The St. Petersburg, Fla., native has come a long way from high school. He had committed to Middle Tennessee before Virginia came knocking. UVA quarterbacks coach Taylor Lamb came to a practice at Colandrea’s high school a week after the QB had committed, and everything changed.

While serving as offensive coordinator at Clemson, part of Tony Elliott’s recruiting territory was the St. Petersburg-Tampa area, so he was familiar with the talent that came from that area of Florida.

“[Colandrea] commanded that locker room and that environment, then we saw him compete against some of the best players in the state of Florida and you could see he has a lot of confidence about himself,” Elliott said at his weekly press conference on Tuesday. “When you watch him — and, again, you’re still trying to figure out is it going to translate — but once he came to camp and just started throwing the football, you saw it.”

Still, Colandrea was largely ignored by then-Power 5 schools, most likely because of his size (he’s listed as 6-foot, which might be a stretch). Elliott and his coaches were more concerned with other aspects. They saw things in Colandrea that apparently other major college coaches didn’t.

“What other people were missing is they put a lot of stock in measurements in terms of height and weight,” Elliott said. “We saw a very fluid passer with a lot of arm talent, and you could also see through some of the things we do in camp, the competitor he was.”

Combined with the fact Colandrea came from a hotbed of football talent, how he rose in the high school ranks, that convinced the Virginia staff to go after him.

“We said, ‘Hey, man,’ we’re not going to put too much stock in measurables,” Elliott said. “This kid is a football player. He loves to compete. He has the arm talent. So too bad for everybody else that missed. We’re happy that we were able to end up with him.”

Assuming things go as planned, Virginia could have Colandrea as a three-year starter, although Elliott chuckled that it’s difficult to plan three weeks ahead in college football, let alone three years.

“Three years, that’s an eternity, so we’re just happy that right now we’re able to focus on him being the guy,” the coach said. “A.C., he’s not going to back down from anything. He’s going to be up for any challenge. As a staff, it’s our job to go out and recruit somebody to beat him out.”

Colandrea isn’t taking anything for granted. He realizes that if he doesn’t continue to deliver, Muskett is right on his heels. The two battled throughout training camp with coaches putting their games under a microscope.

“They track everything,” Colandrea said. “They track your completions, your incompletions, your big-time plays, your bad plays, everything.”

His main focus in camp was making better decisions, not making as many risky throws as a year ago when he was picked off nine times.

“My biggest thing was, don’t do that in fall camp,” Colandrea said. “I did a great job in camp, just not turning the football over and being smart with the football.”

Virginia returns loads of experience with its offense and has added some talented players via the transfer portal that the QB believes will make a difference.

“Coach (Des) Kitchings (offensive coordinator) adjusted our offense to our personnel, the guys that we got from the transfer portal, and I think we’re going to do a great job Saturday,” Colandrea said.

If you think that’s brash, then get used to Colandrea’s style. He’s not shy, although his comments seemed a little more subdued than many of his remarks last season. He claims he wasn’t cautioned about saying too much, that he just learned from experience.

“I remember last year I said something after the [Virginia Tech] game and I understand that won’t happen again,” Colandrea said with a grin.

While he won the QB competition, he said his relationship with Muskett hasn’t changed, that they remain close friends and supportive of one another, and that he and all the other quarterbacks in the program need each other for the duration of the season.

Not only has Colandrea grown as a more mature quarterback in his decision-making, but also in how he conducts himself, and that can only be a good thing for the Cavaliers.