“The Bullet” Would’ve Been A Huge Perkins Fan

By Jerry Ratcliffe

It was no surprise that Virginia quarterback Bryce Perkins won the Dudley Award this week, an award named for arguably the greatest football player that ever came from the state.

I knew Bill Dudley well, spent a lot of time with him over the years, and I’m confident that “The Bullet” would have loved Perkins. Because Dudley was a multi-dimensional player who could run, throw, receive, kick (yes, kick), play defensive back, and return kicks, he would have loved watching the dual-threat Perkins help the Cavaliers to a 7-5 season heading into the bowl game.

One thing, though. Dudley would have been really envious of Perkins’ speed.

“The Bullet” once told me about his speed — or lack thereof: “I was very slow,” he laughed. “My best time in the 100 was about 11.2. I had a good start. For 40 yards I could keep up with anybody. In fact, I could lead a lot of people at 40 yards. After that I kind of wore down.”

Maybe so, but not many people caught him in a career that put him in both the College Football Hall of Fame and the Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton.

Perkins seemingly dropped out of the sky for Virginia. Pennies from heaven, perhaps.

Actually, it was UVa quarterbacks coach Jason Beck who stumbled upon Perkins through an old contact at one of Bronco Mendenhall’s alma maters, Snow Junior College in Utah.

With two-year starter Kurt Benkert having finished at UVa, Mendenhall sent Beck out to find someone who could come in and start at quarterback. Certainly the ideal guy was a dual-threat QB, someone kind of like BYU’s Taysom Hill.

Beck scoured the land for possibilities and heard about a guy at Snow. That quarterback was good, but he wasn’t Perkins, who had made a huge impression on Snow’s head coach when Perkins’ Arizona Western Community College team came to Utah for a big showdown game late in the 2017 season.

When Snow coach Paul Petersen — a former Boston College quarterback under Tom O’Brien — told Beck about Perkins, Beck was immediately intrigued and wanted to see more.

Later on, this columnist was intrigued about Perkins when he first arrived in Charlottesville about a year ago, and I called Petersen to find out more. Perkins had put on a show in that game, which Arizona Western pulled out a close win. Perkins had told me that was his best game, and I wanted to ask Petersen about his impressions.

This is what Petersen told me:

“There are guys who can avoid the rush and there are guys who have abilities to make plays with their feet, and then there are guys that when they make those plays, instead of going eight or nine yards, they’re going to get 20 or 30 … the Lamar Jackson type,” Petersen said.

He immediately had my attention.

“I don’t know if [Perkins] is quite the athlete as Lamar, but he has ability to get to that next level as far as running the ball goes,” Petersen said.

We all saw that athletic ability this season when Perkins hurdled a couple of players, one particularly memorable in the Louisville game against Jackson’s old teammates. We saw Perkins’ speed and his ability to take it to the house in an instant.

Remember that this was Perkins’ first year playing FBS football, even though he is a junior. A lot of this stuff was new to him, not to mention a new team, a new coach, and new conference, a new part of the country.

Petersen wasn’t finished, by the way.

“Man, he can sling it,” he said of Perkins. “I thought he wasn’t as polished throwing the football as some guys I’ve seen at the level he’s playing, but he had all the ability. He’s got some strong form in making all the throws on the field.”

When UVa offered Perkins a scholarship and flew him and his family to Charlottesville, they fell in love with the place and with Mendenhall and his staff. When Bronco showed Perkins film of Taysom Hill as an example of what they wanted him to do as a Cavalier, Perkins was sold.

Once I started snooping around and found out Perkins’ bloodline, I believed Virginia had itself someone special. I talked to his dad, who was an NFL running back, and I talked to his brother, who is an NFL running back (Paul Perkins of the NY Giants). Then I found out another relative was Don Perkins, who is in the Dallas Cowboys’ Ring of Honor from back in the day when they truly were America’s Team.

I asked Mendenhall who Perkins most reminded him of out of all the QBs he had coached and he didn’t blink. It was BYU’s Hill.

“The closest comparison, and it’s far from identical, would be Taysom Hill in terms of athleticism, the leadership, the competitive spirit,” Mendenhall said. “It’s too early to say yet in terms of the yield and the outcome that he’s able to produce, or the durability. But in terms of athleticism, and style of play, that’s probably the closest comparison.”

The competitive spirit?

Remember the Louisville game, when Perkins went out on a pass pattern and dislocated his pinkie? He came out for a series or two, then returned and didn’t skip a beat.

Remember Georgia Tech? He was sacked in the end zone and was injured. It looked bad. Even Mendenhall figured his QB was probably done for the rest of the season, only to discover that two series later, Perkins was out of the medical tent, testing his ankle on the sidelines, throwing the ball and ready to return.

This guy just doesn’t quit and he won’t allow his teammates to quit either, the sign of a true leader.

Oh, and that statement from Bronco about being too early to say about the yield and production? That was before the season.

I decided to look up Hill’s senior season at BYU, a program he had been in for his entire career, and compare his numbers to Perkins’ junior year in Charlottesville.

As far as rushing, Hill had 137 rushing attempts compared to Perkins’ 197. Hill gained a net 603 yards compared to Perkins’ 842. Perkins actually gained 1,095 but in college football, sack yardage is subtracted from a players’ rushing yards.

Hill had a 4.4 yards-per-carry average to Perkins’ 4.3. Perkins had nine rushing TDs to Hill’s eight.

In terms of passing, Hill connected on 222 of 372 attempts for 2,323 yards, completed 60 percent of his passes for 12 TDs and threw 11 interceptions.

Perkins was 203 of 318 for 2,472 yards, completed 64 percent of his attempts for 22 TDs and nine interceptions.

Having watched Perkins closely, analyzing what people said about him, I predicted before the season that if Virginia could keep the QB healthy, the Cavaliers would win six or seven games and get to a second consecutive bowl.

Well, as good as I thought Perkins would be, he was even better. In fact, there was a conversation with some knowledgeable TV people in the Georgia Tech press box a few weeks ago that went like this:

“Heck if y’all (Virginia) had won another game or two, Perkins is looking at ACC Player of the Year,” a veteran TV guy said.

He was right. The award was there for the taking with a bunch of really good players lumped together. Makes one wonder what might have been had UVa won both of its two regular-season ending overtime losses to the two Techs, both on the road.

Wahoo fans are just hoping that the nagging ankle that occurred that night in Atlanta continues to heal, and that Perkins will be close to 100 percent when the Belk Bowl showdown with South Carolina rolls around in a couple of weeks.

Perkins, raised in Arizona, of course had no clue who Bill “The Bullet” Dudley was up until a few days ago. When he learned that he was a finalist for the award, he brushed up on the Bullet rather quickly and was very respectful to the Dudley family (which made the presentation) upon his acceptance speech.

The great Shawn Moore, who is arguably the greatest QB in UVa history, raved about Perkins before the season began and made some interesting comparisons about Perkins making a similar impact on Virginia’s program as Michael Vick made on Virginia Tech’s.

Moore hasn’t backed off that statement. Without Perkins, I don’t know where this program would be, but it wouldn’t be going to a bowl game, pretty certain about that. And wouldn’t be as fun to watch.

While I’m at it, I have to take a poke at the people who organize the Dudley Award, who generally do a great job with the entire program.

I think it was a big mistake not to invite Shawn Moore to the festivities this past week, a great oversight on someone’s part. Moore, who lives in Richmond, was the award’s first recipient and was very, very close to Bill Dudley.

Hey, maybe next year. Hoo knows what Perkins might accomplish by then.