Football's backup quarterback Verbit leads comeback vs. Cornell

Early in the fourth quarter against Harvard Oct. 26, football's star quarterback, junior David Splithoff, was crushed when trying to scramble for a first down. It turned out to be a separated shoulder that kept him out the rest of that game as well as the Cornell game this past Saturday.

After the limb-wrenching hit, it seemed like everyone in Princeton Stadium groaned. Sophomore Matt Verbit, who had already seen time in the Harvard game, came in and threw two interceptions in only 10 attempts. On the other hand, he did bring Princeton down the field for a late touchdown.

Nonetheless, going into snowy Ithaca, N.Y., Verbit had a quarterback efficiency rating of 71.35, less than half of Splithoff's, and he had thrown four interceptions in 19 pass attempts. He had only thrown three more complete passes to his own teammates than to the opposing ones. He would not have been the first choice at quarterback, but he was the only one.

"We called plays early in the game that we expected Matt to be comfortable with," head coach Roger Hughes said. "We didn't run the option until the fourth quarter."

The reason the team did run the option in the fourth quarter was that Verbit audibled to it.

In the first half, Verbit seemed jittery — he ran plays the way they were drawn up rather than improvising to find the best way to move the team down the field. Throughout the half, he was efficient, but not spectacular. He threw safe passes, but did not lead the team with emotion.

That all changed in the second half. He went 16-26 for 164 yards in the final two quarters, but that is only part of the story. Verbit showed poise in the pocket that had been missing from his methodical play earlier in the game and season.

He was able to see the best way to get a first down, rather than necessarily the best way to complete a called play. Scrambling entered Verbit's arsenal as he ran for 27 yards after not attempting a rush in the first half. On Princeton's first scoring drive of the second half, Verbit threw three complete passes, plus one that was dropped by the receiver, and rushed twice for positive yards — the final being a six-yard touchdown scramble that put the Tigers back in the game.

This drive was a new experience for Verbit because he started to take control of the offense as if it were his own. Before it seemed as if he saw himself as a tool in the system, but his view changed when he realized that he could make plays himself to get the team downfield rather than waiting for the called play to develop.

This proved critical as the clock ticked down toward the end of the game and the Tigers were still down eight points.

The final scoring drive of regulation started with a five-yard penalty and a one-yard loss. On second and 16, Verbit went to work. He zipped an 11-yard pass to junior wide receiver Blair Morrison, and then scrambled seven yards for the first down on the next play. Verbit threw for a total of 31 yards on the drive, and tossed an option pass to senior running back Cameron Atkinson who ran 13 yards down to the Cornell three-yard line. After the touchdown, who would run the ball in for the two-point conversion to tie the game? Verbit, of course.

In college overtime, the teams have equal numbers of possession, each starting from the opponent's 25-yard line. Cornell won the coin toss and elected to defend first, so that they would know how many points they would need to score in order to win or force a second overtime.

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On the first play of overtime, Verbit was sacked for a loss of nine yards, pushing the Tigers out of field-goal range. One would have expected a young quarterback starting his first game to be rattled, but on the next play, he made up the lost yardage on a pass to Morrison, and threw for a first down on the following play.

Verbit audibled once again on the last offensive play of the game — this time to a pass. He hit Morrison on a perfectly under-thrown fade toward the right sideline for a touchdown.

Splithoff is questionable for this Saturday's game against Penn. But the Tigers should have faith in their starting quarterback no matter who it is, thanks to the maturation that Verbit has undergone so far this season.