Coming off one of the worst seasons in the football program’s history, one of the biggest jobs for Mike London -- who will be among the handful of coaches on the hot seat entering 2014 -- was finding a starting quarterback exiting spring practice.
On that front, it appears to be mission accomplished.
On the Cavaliers’ post-spring depth chart released by the school Monday, Greyson Lambert was listed as the Hoos’ No. 1 quarterback. David Watford, the starter for the woeful 2013 season, was listed as Lambert’s backup.
After working with the first-team offense during the spring game, the anointing of Lambert was far from unexpected.
“I don’t think it’s a huge surprise how things worked out,” London said of the spring-long quarterback competition. “Greyson did a very good job with his on the field performance, his off the field performance, the things we’ve asked him to do. He’s done them and he put himself in position to come out of the spring as the guy being named as the starter at this point.”
Last season, Watford finished 102nd in the country in passing efficiency -- the NCAA’s official stats website only lists 104 quarterbacks -- while his 15 interceptions were the most in the ACC. As a redshirt sophomore, he barely completed 50 percent of his passes and tossed just eight touchdowns for good measure in starting every game for the 2-10 Cavaliers.
In limited time last season, Lambert didn’t exactly stand out as the sophomore completed 33-of-75 pass attempts for 340 yards, one touchdown and two interceptions. Lambert played in a total of seven of UVa.'s 12 games in 2013, the first games of his collegiate career.