Ex-SEC QB Faces Eagles
Posted: October 6, 2012
BRIDGEWATER – When James Madison quarterback Justin Thorpe takes the field against Towson, he won’t be the most highly recruited QB to play in the city/county today. Neither, for that matter, will Towson’s starting quarterback.
That honor belongs to a kid who plays at a Division III school.
Nash Nance received boatloads of scholarship offers from I-A schools out of Calhoun High School in Georgia, then spent two years as a scholarship quarterback at the University of Tennessee before transferring to what many would probably call a curious destination: Hampden-Sydney College, which Bridgewater plays today at 1 p.m. in its homecoming game.
“If three years ago somebody would’ve come up to me and told me where I’d be today, I’d probably laugh at him,” said Nance, now a 6-foot-4, 220-pound sophomore for the Tigers.
So too, probably, would some of the college coaches who originally recruited him.
As a high school senior, Nance first committed to Vanderbilt in the fall, then got “about 10 more offers,” he said. He picked Tennessee over Arkansas, West Virginia and Mississippi State, among others.
After redshirting with the Vols in 2010, Nance said he believed he was third on the depth chart at quarterback last year. So when Tennessee’s starting quarterback broke his thumb early in the season, he thought he was the backup heading into a Southeastern Conference matchup with Alabama.
But instead, as Tennessee was getting blown out 37-6, Tennessee coach Derek Dooley inserted a true freshman over Nance for mop-up duty. At that point, Nance said, he started thinking about making a change.
Nance said his priority was to find a good academic school and a football team where he would play. He also wanted a team that emphasized the passing game. Receiving an athletic scholarship, he said, wasn’t an issue, because he figured he’d receive financial aid as the son of divorced parents and academic aid after getting good grades his first two years at Tennessee.
Nance looked at several Ivy League schools along with Lehigh, but Hampden-Sydney also fit the criteria. So Nance’s father put in a call to H-SC coach Marty Favret.
“I thought it was a prank call from a [Randolph-Macon] grad or something,” Favret said during preseason. “I didn’t take it very seriously. … We wondered whether we wanted to go through the hassle of bringing him in for a visit.”
But he did, and Nance eventually committed.
“One day I just kind of woke up and felt like Hampden-Sydney was the right place,” Nance said.
And yet, even with an SEC quarterback running a spread offense that’s powered H-SC to three of the last five Old Dominion Athletic Conference championships, the Tigers (2-2 overall, 0-1 in the ODAC) find themselves in an unfamiliar position of desperation heading into today’s matchup with the Eagles (4-0, 1-0).
A week ago, the preseason-favorite Tigers lost their first ODAC opener since 1999, falling 41-28 on the road to Catholic, picked to finish sixth in the eight-team league.
That means that a win today for unbeaten Bridgewater could not only secure its first 5-0 start since 2006, but it would also just about eliminate Hampden-Sydney from league contention. Two losses are generally fatal in the ODAC, whose winner gets an automatic bid into the Division III playoffs.
Nance’s performance can best be described as inconsistent. He threw for 339 yards and five touchdowns in a 42-20 win over Christopher Newport in Week 2; last week against Catholic, he threw four TDs but also two game-changing interceptions. He has 11 touchdowns and five picks through four games.
“He’s been way up and down,” Favret said this week. “…You give him a little bit of leeway because he’s learning a new system, and it’s been a while since he’s been out there under the gun. But we’re concerned; we’ve got to get him more consistent and confident.”
Statistically, BC would be the most likely ODAC team to contain the Nance-led offense, as the Eagles lead the league in every major defensive statistical category, including pass defense (148.2 yards per game). But that has come against a relatively weak non-conference schedule, which has included predominantly run-first teams that haven’t truly tested BC’s freshman-laden secondary. Plus, Hampden-Sydney has won all of the last five meetings with the Eagles.
“There’s going to be 10 balls thrown in the air at least 40 yards [by Hampden-Sydney],” BC defensive coordinator Jack Johnson said. “What’s going to happen? Are we going to make a play or are they going to make a play? That’s going to be the big determining factor.”
That honor belongs to a kid who plays at a Division III school.
Nash Nance received boatloads of scholarship offers from I-A schools out of Calhoun High School in Georgia, then spent two years as a scholarship quarterback at the University of Tennessee before transferring to what many would probably call a curious destination: Hampden-Sydney College, which Bridgewater plays today at 1 p.m. in its homecoming game.
“If three years ago somebody would’ve come up to me and told me where I’d be today, I’d probably laugh at him,” said Nance, now a 6-foot-4, 220-pound sophomore for the Tigers.
So too, probably, would some of the college coaches who originally recruited him.
As a high school senior, Nance first committed to Vanderbilt in the fall, then got “about 10 more offers,” he said. He picked Tennessee over Arkansas, West Virginia and Mississippi State, among others.
After redshirting with the Vols in 2010, Nance said he believed he was third on the depth chart at quarterback last year. So when Tennessee’s starting quarterback broke his thumb early in the season, he thought he was the backup heading into a Southeastern Conference matchup with Alabama.
But instead, as Tennessee was getting blown out 37-6, Tennessee coach Derek Dooley inserted a true freshman over Nance for mop-up duty. At that point, Nance said, he started thinking about making a change.
Nance said his priority was to find a good academic school and a football team where he would play. He also wanted a team that emphasized the passing game. Receiving an athletic scholarship, he said, wasn’t an issue, because he figured he’d receive financial aid as the son of divorced parents and academic aid after getting good grades his first two years at Tennessee.
Nance looked at several Ivy League schools along with Lehigh, but Hampden-Sydney also fit the criteria. So Nance’s father put in a call to H-SC coach Marty Favret.
“I thought it was a prank call from a [Randolph-Macon] grad or something,” Favret said during preseason. “I didn’t take it very seriously. … We wondered whether we wanted to go through the hassle of bringing him in for a visit.”
But he did, and Nance eventually committed.
“One day I just kind of woke up and felt like Hampden-Sydney was the right place,” Nance said.
And yet, even with an SEC quarterback running a spread offense that’s powered H-SC to three of the last five Old Dominion Athletic Conference championships, the Tigers (2-2 overall, 0-1 in the ODAC) find themselves in an unfamiliar position of desperation heading into today’s matchup with the Eagles (4-0, 1-0).
A week ago, the preseason-favorite Tigers lost their first ODAC opener since 1999, falling 41-28 on the road to Catholic, picked to finish sixth in the eight-team league.
That means that a win today for unbeaten Bridgewater could not only secure its first 5-0 start since 2006, but it would also just about eliminate Hampden-Sydney from league contention. Two losses are generally fatal in the ODAC, whose winner gets an automatic bid into the Division III playoffs.
Nance’s performance can best be described as inconsistent. He threw for 339 yards and five touchdowns in a 42-20 win over Christopher Newport in Week 2; last week against Catholic, he threw four TDs but also two game-changing interceptions. He has 11 touchdowns and five picks through four games.
“He’s been way up and down,” Favret said this week. “…You give him a little bit of leeway because he’s learning a new system, and it’s been a while since he’s been out there under the gun. But we’re concerned; we’ve got to get him more consistent and confident.”
Statistically, BC would be the most likely ODAC team to contain the Nance-led offense, as the Eagles lead the league in every major defensive statistical category, including pass defense (148.2 yards per game). But that has come against a relatively weak non-conference schedule, which has included predominantly run-first teams that haven’t truly tested BC’s freshman-laden secondary. Plus, Hampden-Sydney has won all of the last five meetings with the Eagles.
“There’s going to be 10 balls thrown in the air at least 40 yards [by Hampden-Sydney],” BC defensive coordinator Jack Johnson said. “What’s going to happen? Are we going to make a play or are they going to make a play? That’s going to be the big determining factor.”