2011 Spring Game: Quarterback review

Well, that was tough to watch.

Not just because of the ridiculous scoring system, but the 19th Annual Jay McGillis Memorial Spring Game featured some really bad quarterback play. Not all of it, but a lot of it, anyway.

This first article will focus specifically on the quarterbacks from today. We know the candidate pool, so it’s time for me to hand out some grades. On a scale of 1-10, the Boston College quarterbacks performed as follows:

Chase Rettig: 7. Rettig was not without his flaws today, but he is far and away the best active quarterback on this team and I dare defy anyone who tells me otherwise. There are a number of ways in which he is head and shoulders over the competition, and we saw several of them today. Amongst them are his poise and ability to step up in the pocket, his ability to scan the field and make good decisions with the football, and his accuracy. Chase Rettig had good body language out there; he looked very calm and natural on the field and was all business. Not that there was any debate before today, but there is most definitely none now. This is Rettig’s team.

Dave Shinskie: 3.5. After Rettig, the Boston College quarterback depth chart falls into the abyss. We can’t read too much into the spring game (if we did, Mike Marscovetra would have been the starter last season), but it should be plainly obvious to Eagles fans, if it somehow isn’t already, that Shinskie has not improved a lick since the day he set foot on the Boston College campus. His problems are well-documented by BC bloggers, myself included, and from what I could see, it is the status quo so far in 2011. He was able to make some nice throws, which allowed him to eke out second place, but he is still inaccurate. He still looks as though half the time he has no idea what he’s going to do with the football. Shinskie still has the uncanny ability to be completely oblivious to coming sacks. When he does scramble out of the pocket to avoid the rush, he runs like someone with two pockets filled to the top with loose change. There is little about his game that I like, but yes, believe it or not, he was the second-best Eagle quarterback out there today.

Josh Bordner: 3. Admittedly, I did not have the time to pay attention to each and every snap he threw, but from what I saw, his performance was very bland. At times he was alright, but he also made some awful throws. Bordner had a good second scrimmage last week, but from what I saw, that performance was not replicated today.

Mike Marscovetra: 2.5. Marscovetra is another Eagles backup whose playing issues are well-known to the fans. Unfortunately, he, like Shinskie, did nothing to allay the fears of the BC faithful. If anything, he added to them. Simply put, when Marscovetra throws the ball, nobody in the stadium — himself included — knows where the hell it’s going or who is going to catch it. He needlessly throws into traffic and doesn’t seem to know when, or where, to get rid of the ball. When he steps out onto the field, it does not inspire much confidence. From all indications, he had not had a good spring so far, and it sure didn’t end that way, either.

Shane Cranmore: Incomplete. Cranmore came in late in the game and ran for a touchdown. There was far too little of him to evaluate, but I liked a few plays from him more than I liked a couple dozen from the other three quarterbacks.

Feel free to share your own evaluations of where the quarterback depth chart stands as of today. It remains my opinion that Rettig’s top-line position is etched in stone, but after that, you could probably pick them out of a hat 2 through 4 and no matter what combination you came up with, it wouldn’t make much of a difference.