QB Garrett Anderson impressed after a shaky start during Saturday’s spring game

Heading into Saturday’s spring game, starting QB Bryant Shirreffs and WR Noel Thomas had been battling the flu all week. The bug has been running through the team and with both Shirreffs and Thomas, who missed practice on Wednesday, being under the weather, head coach Bob Diaco decided to keep their leash short.

“We got a couple of guys in and out right away because it was necessary,” Diaco said after the game on Saturday. “Specifically, just to go out in front of it, Bryant and Noel, they got to feeling better obviously and were cleared for participation and were fine, but I just didn’t feel comfortable really pushing the envelop there from a fluid and energy standpoint. They came in, they did a little, got a little taste, led their team, led their unit down for a first score drive and then we wanted to get them out. Discretion is a better part of valor there.”

Shirreffs’ quick hook allowed QB Garrett Anderson to see extended time with the first team offense. After throwing two second quarter interceptions, the senior settled down and performed rather nicely. However, after the game, Anderson reflected on the two picks.

“The first interception I threw, Tre’ [Bell] made a hell of a play,” he said after the game. “I probably held on to it a little too long and I should have come off that out route. He made a great read, knew that thing was coming, sat on it, so that was a great play.”

The second pick, Anderson threw into traffic and LB Jalen Stevens came down with the interception.

“That was just not a smart play, that’s not who I am,” Anderson said. “I was scrambling out, trying to make a play on third and long, but you can’t force it. You have to live to play another down. I could have tucked and ran it, just got a few yards, punt it and give us some field position. You can’t give them the ball on our side of the fifty. That’s a huge issue.”

Diaco attributed the mistakes to the former JUCO transfer trying to do too much.

“You could see offensively, when you’re in the game and you’re in the stadium and there’s a crowd there and there are officials, it just takes a little bit of extra focus, a calming confidence,” Diaco said. “Once Garrett settled into that, he looked really good, much better to finish.It was just talking to him. He’s such a great, you can’t say young man, this is a grown man, he’s married, grown man, who’s on his way. You go in and you’re trying to win the job, you’re trying to do too much, you’re trying to get this done, it’s like standing over a golf ball thinking you’re going to really try to get it in the fairway and guaranteed it’s going to snap hook into the woods.”

“So, that was the thing,” Diaco continued. “He was forcing it, pushing it, then when I talked to him, I said, ‘Garrett here, everyone knows what you’re about, your position on this team is cemented, you’re respected, just do what you have done for the last fourteen practices, that’s who you are’ and he went right out there, put it behind him and managed the offense. We don’t run an offense, our team isn’t designed to have to force the ball here and there. We aren’t looking to run 105 plays, so he needs to be a manager and he needs to protect the football, that’s paramount. If you don’t protect the football, you can’t play, so once he refocused on that, he locked back in and did a great job. I’m proud of him.”

Those two plays, however, were only part of the story of Saturday for Anderson, who finished 12-21 for 191 yards in his time with both the Blue and White offense. He led three scoring drives that all resulted in touchdowns, including one, which he finished off on his own, a 6-yard scamper for a score. Anderson, like Shirreffs, can make plays with his legs, but he knows well that running is a last resort.

“For me, obviously I try to make everything happen with my mind and my arm first and then if you see something, if you think the option is covered, then you run,” he said after the game. “That’s the biggest thing as a quarterback, you can’t be a runner first because you won’t be able to mentally approach the game in the right way and go through your reads, so you have to do that first. [On the TD] that play worked really well because you are kind of feeling the pressure and looking down field. People were covered and then, split second there’s nobody there, so it worked out nice, I got a nice little valley for the score.”

Anderson had a number of impressive throws, some that were complete and others that fell incomplete, but one thing was clear, he throws a very nice deep ball. He connected with sophomore receiver Hergy Mayala for a 48 yard gain in the third quarter. There were two other deep throws that were placed where only the receiver could catch it, but the ball fell incomplete. Anderson credits the work that him and his receivers put in for the accuracy.

“Timing is everything and repetitions of it are huge,” he said. “Different guys are going to be in a different place on the field, but I know I had a few in spring practice that were overthrown. Especially when you have a guy, like today, who had his man beat, you want to make sure you get that complete with a big play instead of trying to huck and show off your arm. The timing though, it all comes with the receivers and us doing a great job working together. I think that comes to working on the weekends and doing the extra work because you don’t always have all the time in the world to do all the routes, so I think that is a big part of it.”

Anderson’s performance on Saturday showed the Huskies have some depth at the quarterback position, which, as the next man in, is a must have.