A week before spring football practice begins, ODUSports.com will preview each position, starting today with the quarterbacks.
Quarterback Overview
ODU brought in junior college transfers Messiah deWeaver and Stone Smartt to compete with a host of others for the starting quarterback spot with the departure of Blake LaRussa. deWeaver, who started his career at Michigan State, led East Mississippi Community College to an undefeated 12-0 mark and NJCAA National Championship. He earned honorable mention All-America honors, finishing second in the country with a 68 percent completion percentage.
Smartt was a first-team JUCO All-American, throwing for 2,754 yards and 31 touchdowns, helping Riverside City to back-to-back California State Championships.
Steven Williams started the first four games of last season before redshirting. He threw for 507 yards and a pair of touchdowns and also ran for 96-yards and a score.
Jonah Fitzgerald, a walk on from Roanoke, Virginia, saw playing time against VMI and was able to redshirt.
Hayden Wolff graduated early from Venice High School in Florida. Ranked the No. 34 pro-style quarterback coming out of high school, Wolff threw for 2,684 yards and 30 touchdowns leading Venice to a district championship.
Key Departure
Blake LaRussa took over early against Virginia Tech and became the second ODU quarterback to throw for 3,000 yards in a season, earning C-USA honorable mention in the process. He threw for 3,015 yards and 19 touchdown passes and led the with six, 300-yard passing games.
QB's By the Numbers
| Name | Cl. | Ht. | Wt. | Misc. | |||
| Messiah deWeaver | Jr. | 6-5 | 220 | Led East Mississippi CC to NJCAA National Championship | |||
| Jonah Fitzgerald | Fr-r. | 6-4 | 185 | Redshirted. Went 2-for-3 for 21-yards against VMI | |||
| Stone Smartt | Jr. | 6-4 | 215 | JUCO All-American led team to Calif. State Championship | |||
| Steven Williams | So-r. | 6-4 | 210 | Redshirted. Passed for 507-yards and two TD's in 2018 | |||
| Hayden Wolff | Fr. | 6-5 | 210 | No. 34 rated pro-style QB. Threw for 2,684 yds. and 30 TD's in 2018 |