Down goes Lorenzen, up comes Frazer

By: Kevin Meacham

Posted: 10/2/08

Could Friday's win over Louisville turn out to be UConn's "Mo Lewis moment?"

Lewis, of course, is the former New York Jets linebacker who knocked out Patriots quarterback Drew Bledsoe in the second game of the 2001 season, clearing the way for a sixth-round pick out of Michigan named Tom Brady.

When Tyler Lorenzen broke his foot on Friday, perhaps it opened the way for a talented, pure passer who brings a whole bunch of positives to the table.

That would be Zach Frazer, the sophomore transfer from Notre Dame, who will make his first career start Saturday at North Carolina. No one's christening him the next Brady, or even the next Orlovsky, but there are reasons to be excited.

They say the backup quarterback is always the most popular player on the team, because the backup can do all sorts of theoretical things - and there's very little game film to the contrary.

Lorenzen struggles to throw the deep ball? I swear, dude, I once saw Frazer throw it 85 yards on a frozen rope. Lorenzen occasionally stares receivers down? Man, I once saw Frazer throw the ball - blindfolded! - through a defender's chest, right to the slot receiver.

Truthfully, only the coaches know what Frazer can do. And even then, no one in college has seen him compete in a 60-minute game, or after a full week of first-team preparation. There are certainly questions.

And, for sure, we'll find the answers to some of them when the Huskies suit up Saturday in Chapel Hill, N.C.

For now, all we can go on are the nebulous words of scouts, "recruiting experts" and the UConn coaching staff.

The third part of the list is the one that bothers me, ever so slightly. After all, if the coaches felt Frazer was better than Lorenzen, wouldn't he have been starting already?

Well, maybe not.

It wouldn't be the first time a head coach went with "experience" and "intangibles" over talent.

This is with all due respect to Lorenzen, who is 14-4 as a starter, and who was UConn's salvation after the dreadful quarterbacking of 2005 and 2006.

But he simply hasn't been very good this year.

The bottom line? One touchdown and six interceptions. He surpassed the first number in the third quarter of UConn's season-opener last year. He equaled that all-important second number in the Meineke Car Care Bowl.

Yes, UConn is 5-0, and neither Colt McCoy nor Tim Tebow could be better than that. But the schedule is about to get a little tougher than Hofstra, Virginia, Temple and Baylor. UConn can't rely on just defense and Donald Brown for 12 games.

Turnovers and 110 yards per game simply won't get it done against South Florida.

Whatever intangibles and leadership Lorenzen brought to the field, he will bring to the sideline as a de facto assistant coach. As a senior and a captain, nothing less should be expected of him.

And hey - it's not over for Lorenzen, either. If his injury is only for 6-to-8 weeks, as reported, he could conceivably play in a bowl game (hopefully, at least for Frazer's sake, as a wrinkle in the offense). After all, Bledsoe won the little-remembered AFC Championship Game over Pittsburgh in 2001 when Brady was hurt.

As for the scouts and recruiting experts, well, they all seem to agree that Frazer has a lot of talent. In high school, he broke a Pennsylvania state record for passing yardage in a season.

He was a four-star recruit to Notre Dame - one of four highly touted QBs - until Charlie Weis decided that Jimmy Clausen was his Golden Boy and turfed out Frazer and Demetrius Jones (now at Cincinnati).

Unless something changed - or all of those scouts were blinded by Touchdown Jesus - Frazer might legitimately be the most talented quarterback UConn has ever had.

Again, I get ahead of myself.

All we really have to look at is a decent, 8-for-15, 90-yard performance in relief of Lorenzen against Louisville. Frazer's touchdown pass to Darius Butler would have been intercepted for a touchdown had someone with lesser arm strength thrown it. (To be clear, I'm not just talking about Lorenzen. There are a lot of quarterbacks who don't have the arm strength to complete that pass.)

I won't lie to you. I'm very much looking forward to the Zach Frazer era of UConn football, and I have since last summer, when he transferred here. I reserve the right to throw things if Frazer makes rookie mistakes, or if the playcalling remains the same.

And UConn fans need to be patient, in the short term, with whatever the inexperience roulette deals us.

Long-term? I think UConn fans will be very pleased with what they have under center for the next couple of years.