Uconn hands QB reins to ‘gunslinger’
John Abbott College was in the Bol D’OR championship game in 2018 for the second year in a row, trying again to end a long drought. But its quarterback Jack Zergiotis was injured, and the school would have to live with another year of disappointment.
“When we lost, he was on crutches on the field next to me,” John Abbott coach Patrick Gregory remembered. “He promised me he was coming back the next year and we were going to win it.”
A year later, on Nov. 20, 2019, John Abbott made it back and beat Édouard-montpetit for its first Bol d’or title in 17 years.
The first person to greet Gregory after the game at Thetford Mines, Quebec, was Zergiotis, recovered and already starting at quarterback for Uconn. He endured a long journey by bus, 400 miles north of Storrs as the crow flies, to keep his word.
“He made our day,” Gregory said. “He ended up being on a bus 12, 15 hours.”
The injured gunslinger kept his promise, riding day and night to get to Thetford Mines to see justice done.
“He cares a lot,” Gregory said. “And he wants to win.”
From the day Zergiotis arrived at Uconn from Montreal, the term “gunslinger” — and all it implies in football — has stuck. The Wikipedia definition: Term for a quarterback who plays in an aggressive and decisive manner by throwing deep, risky passes.
It likely started with “Slingin’ Sammy” Baugh, the Texan who more or less invented the forward pass in the 1930s, and has been handed down to certain types for decades.
“Oh, I think that’s fair,” Gregory said. “Jack’s a very talented passer, and he’s also a young man
that has a lot of cowboy in him. He’s aggressive. He wants to make plays throwing the ball.
“That’s something I found very exciting right off the bat. I had a lot of fun coaching Jack, but it wasn’t always a straight line.”
When the Uconn program emerged from last year’s absence due to COVID-19, coach Randy Edsall put his faith in Zergiotis, who’d played 10 games as a true freshman in 2019 and showed flashes.
It won’t be a straight line. Things have already veered off course with the 45-0 loss at Fresno State last week. Zergiotis, 12-for-24 for 61 yards, struggled to find his bearings and hit his marks.
Uconn fans gets a fresh look at him Saturday against Holy Cross at Rentschler Field in East Hartford. The Huskies need a decisive win for a fan base starving for any sign of hope. We’ll continue to learn how much gunslinger there is in Zergiotis and how those traits manifest themselves.
“A gunslinger is known as a guy who can rip the ball around the field, and I do think I can make every throw on the field,” Zergiotis said. “But at the same time you have to find a balance. When you’re going to make the risky throw, is it the right situation? You can be smart with the risk-taking.”
Bold, seat-of-the-pants quarterbacks sometimes have rocky relationships with their coaches, or at least put gray hair on them. Gunslingers who are cool and accurate under fire are the stuff of classic Western dramas. Those with happy feet who can’t shoot straight are better suited for comedy, and Edsall has made it more than clear he is not trying to produce another “Blazing Saddles.”
“I’m not going to do what people think is the prettiest and the sexiest,” he said.
The 6-foot-1 Zergiotis is athletic enough to escape pressure and run with the ball, and he possesses the strongest arm of the five quarterbacks Uconn started with in July. And his teammates believe in him.
“When I watch the NFL and I watch Patrick Mahomes and the throws he makes, like from the side, I kind of see Jack,” Uconn running back Kevin Mensah said. “I have so much faith in him. I know what he’s capable of, he knows what he’s capable of, the whole offense knows what he’s capable of.”
At John Abbott College in Sainte-anne-de-bellevue, Quebec, Canada, somewhat similar to the prep school level in the U.S., Zergiotis was a winner.
He threw for 5,700 yards and 56 touchdowns in three seasons before the leg injury. When he got in for Uconn in 2019, he threw for 1,782 yards, nine TDS and 11 interceptions, stats accumulated mostly in lost causes.
“Uconn has a really competitive kid playing quarterback,” Gregory said. “Sometimes the outward demeanor won’t necessarily project that, but there’s a really competitive kid in there. I’ve seen him take games into his hands.”
There’s no way of knowing how long a rope there is, but it sounds as if Zergiotis is going to get the opportunity to be himself and grow into the position.
Edsall is correct to point out that the players around him have to do their jobs for Zergiotis to succeed.
But that’s just not in a gunslinger’s code. Accountability is.
“I appreciate Coach for backing me up there, but obviously I’m the quarterback,” Zergiotis said. “And in the end it’s on my shoulders.”