Abey happy to be back at helm
Spalding grad reclaims QB role after successful switch to wide receiver
Zach Abey willingly agreed to switch to wide receiver despite posting the second-highest single-season rushing total in Navy football history while playing quarterback in 2017.
Abey (Archbishop Spalding) dived head-first into learning how to play a newposition. Navy’s widereceivers not only have to run precision passing routes and catch the football, but also must block at a high level.
Abey made himself into a wide receiver over the course of August training camp and earned a starting spot for the season opener.
However, if you injected Abey with some truth serum and asked what position he preferred to play the answer would be quarterback. After all, the Pasadena resident has always been a quarterback beginning at the youth level.
In yet another surprising turn of events during a strange odyssey of a season, Abey reclaimed the starting quarterback job with a solid performance in practice last week. The 6-foot-2, 212-pound senior got the call against Cincinnati on Saturday and went the distance.
“It feels good to be back at the helm,” Abey said after practice on Tuesday night. “Senior year so you have that leadership role. That’s all I’ve got to do is be that leader out on the field.”
Abey has spent the entire season practicing as a wide receiver and attending meetings with that position group. There were a couple practice periods when Abey went with the quarterbacks, such as ball security drills and the goal-line package repetitions.
Abey has started six games at wide receiver, sitting out against Air Force because of a knee injury and serving as the backup quarterback versus Houston after Malcolm Perry was moved to slotback. It appeared at that point Abey might challenge Garret Lewis for the Zach Abey, who played mostly receiver through the first eight games of the season, returned to his role as Navy’s starting quarterback against Cincinnati. starting quarterback job, but he returned being a starting wide receiver against Notre Dame.
Lewis had made three straight starts at quarterback and seemingly had solidified the starting job. Needless to say, many Navy fans were no doubt stunned to see Abey line up under center when the offense took the field for the opening possession at Nippert Stadium on Saturday, noon TV: ESPN2 Radio: 1090 AM Line: UCF by 251⁄ Saturday.
Having spent three years training to be an option quarterback and after taking all the starter’s repetitions in practice for most of last season, Abey said returning to the position full-time was very much like riding a bicycle.
“Being the short-yardage guy, I’ve been under center the whole season,” he said. “Not running the whole offense, but doing alot of the samestuff. It really wasn’t that big of a change.”
Navy’s offense was a no-show against Cincinnati – managing just 171 total yards in a 42-0 blowout. It was the first time the Midshipmen (2-7) had been shut out since 2012.
It was far from being all Abey’s fault as mental mistakes, missed blocking assignments and penalties all conspired to set the offense back. However, the quarterback did not grade out real high either.
“I definitely messed some things up, had some missed reads and missed assignments,” Abey admitted. “I don’t think anyone played a perfect game, and you’re not going to when you get shut out like that and can’t even score a touchdown.”
Coach Ken Niumatalolo offered a similar assessment when asked about Abey’s performance in his first game as a starting quarterback since a Nov. 24, 2017 loss to Houston.
“I thought Zach did OK. He didn’t turn the ball over so that was good. For the mostparthegotusintherightplays and got the ball to the right person,” Niumatalolo said. “We have to make sure recognition-wise that he can see things and know what (the defense) is doing. That’s probably the next phase.”
Niumatalolo said the entire offense deserves blame for the debacle at Cincinnati and noted it was difficult to evaluate the quarterback because so many things were going wrong. The 11th-year head coach declined to say whether or not Abey had earned another start or whether the competition between him and Lewis would continue this week.
“Zach did some good things, but we still scored zero points. It’s hard to say when you don’t score any points,” Niumatalolo said. “Wehave to evaluate every position, not just quarterback. I think everything is up for grabs.”
Abey returned to the quarterback meeting room last week and acknowledged it was “fun” being back.