Playing beyond his years
QB Undercuffler lauded for maturity, confidence, leadership as freshman
All eyes turn to Ualbany freshman quarterback Jeff Undercuff ler as the football team prepares to play Montana State.
The offense was sputtering and he’d thrown an early interception. However, University at Albany redshirt freshman quarterback Jeff Undercuff ler did his best to hide any frustration from his teammates last Saturday.
Instead, he told them the Great Danes were fine, trailing 7-0 in the second quarter of their NCA A Tournament first-round game against Central Connecticut. He reassured them they ’d get points before halftime.
“Certainly, you’re not happy because you’re not executing like you want to,” Undercuff ler said. “A little frustrated, yeah, but as a quarterback and leader, you’ve got to lead your team and just physically show them you’re not depressed. Because if the quarterback ’s depressed, you guys have no luck.”
The only luck that ran out belonged to Central Connecticut.
Undercuff ler drove the Great Danes to that first score before halftime and then led them on a record-setting deluge in the third quarter.
He completed all 10 of his throws in that period for 220 yards and four touchdowns en
route to breaking the single-game program mark with six touchdowns in the 42-14 victory.
It was just the latest example of the remarkable maturity Undercuff ler has shown for the Great Danes (9-4), who take on fifth-ranked Montana State (93) in a second-round contest in Bozeman, Mont. on Saturday at 3 p.m.
“He never acted like a freshman since he’s been here,” senior center Niko Culnan of Colonie said. “He takes command of everything he’s done. He never wavers. Even if he’s ner vous, you’d never know it because he acts calm, cool and collected at all times and he always has, no matter how the game’s going.”
Teammates say they feed off his steady, confident personality heading into Saturday ’s matchup at Montana State, which packs 17,777-seat Bobcat Stadium for home games. The Great Danes are going for their first win ever against a top five-ranked Football Championship Subdivision program.
“I personally can’t wait,” Undercuff ler said. “This football team is just amazing. We’ve been in these kinds of situations all year. Coach tells us every game has been a playoff game and we pretty much treated that as true.”
Montana State head coach Jeff Choate was impressed by the 6-foot-5, 231-pound Undercuff ler’s willingness to attack a defense by taking shots down the field at any time.
“Undercuff ler, the redshirt freshman, is doing some historic things in terms of the way he’s throwing the ball,” he said. “Very confident. Big arm. Big strong kid. Team rallies around him. You can see as you watch them through the course of the year how his confidence has increased.”
Undercuff ler leads FCS with 39 touchdown passes, obliterating the old Ualbany record of 25 in a season. He’s thrown only eight interceptions, including the one against Central Conn., which came after an errant shotgun snap.
“The best way I can put it, there’s an internal toughness that a quarterback has that makes them great,” Danes coach Greg Gattuso said. “The really great ones can take a hit, can make a mistake and rebound. If you look at the great quarterbacks around the country, they all have that one trait and I think this kid has it.”
Even Gattuso said he wasn’t sure Undercuff ler had that intangible coming out of Holy Cross Academy in Delran Township, N.J. The only way to test it was in game conditions.
Undercuff ler did get three starts last season as a true freshman, which Gattuso said was invaluable experience. But he still entered training camp this summer in a competition for the starting job with Nevada transfer Griffin Dahn.
He’s turned a Ualbany passing attack that used to be feeble into an aerial circus with help from senior wideouts Juwan Green (80 catches) and Jerah Reeves (70 catches).
“We used to talk, and I would tell him, you have potential for the future,” Reeves said. “The future was just accelerated, you know what I mean? Who would think with three years remaining, he’d be where he is. But it ’s not surprising because of the combination of how good he is and the weapons he has. We have no choice but to excel.”
Undercuff ler couldn’t easily explain his unusual maturity that older teammates praised. He credited it partly to learning leadership as a multisport athlete who also starred in baseball.
“It ’s just me growing up in my town, just kind of the way I was raised, my friends and family,” he said. “All those people just molded me into the guy I am today and I couldn’t thank them any more.”