With the beginning of spring football practice just a few weeks away, ODUSports.com will preview each position before the first day of practice on March 3. The previews start today with a look at the quarterbacks.
Quarterback
For the first time since it started football in 2009, Old Dominion does not have a quarterback on its roster that threw a pass the previous season. Taylor Heinicke is gone after a spectacular four-year career in which he passed for 14,959 yards and tossed 132 touchdown passes. The winner of the 2012 Walter Payton Award and All-American, it goes without saying that ODU has big shoes to fill at this position.
The Returner
Shuler Bentley redshirted in 2014 sitting behind Heinicke after a standout career at Byrnes High School in South Carolina. A USA Today Parade All-American and two-time South Carolina Gatorade Player of the Year, Bentley has a year of fall practice and off-season training under his belt.
The Newcomer
Sophomore Joey Verhaegh comes in from Fullerton CC after throwing for 2,515 yards and 18 touchdowns as a sophomore. Verhaegh and Bentley will compete in the first ODU quarterback competition in spring football since Thomas DeMarco won the job in 2009.
The Former Quarterback
David Washington was Heinicke’s backup in 2013 and 2014, but added another role in 2014: starting wide receiver. The redshirt junior caught 47 passes for 599 yards and four touchdowns and the game-winning touchdown in the overtime thriller against Louisiana Tech. He took snaps in only the loss against Marshall without attempting a pass, and the first play at Vanderbilt, a run up the middle. The plan is for Washington to stay at wide receiver but take some snaps at quarterback.
By The Numbers
16,279: Total yards of offense by Taylor Heinicke, fourth most ever by a Division I quarterback.
2: Starting quarterbacks for ODU since restarting football in 2013 (Washington played one play at quarterback in 2014 at Vanderbilt). DeMarco and Heinicke.
5: Number of Conference USA schools that lost its starting quarterback from 2014
1: Number of quarterback coaches in ODU history. Ron Whitcomb enters his eighth season.