Tony Muskett Officially Named Virginia's Starting Quarterback
True to his word, Tony Elliott waited until the end of fall camp to name his starting quarterback, ensuring that there was indeed a quarterback position battle. As expected, Monmouth transfer Tony Muskett won that battle, beating out the pesky and energetic true freshman Anthony Colandrea for the starting quarterback job, as confirmed by Tony Elliott after UVA's final practice of fall camp on Monday afternoon.
This was a rather inevitable conclusion, especially after expected backup Jay Woolfolk announced he would be leaving the program to focus on his baseball career in July, and despite Elliott's best efforts to convince the media and the fans that there would be a true battle to determine Virginia's starting quarterback in 2023. Just last week, Elliott said Colandrea was "pushing" Muskett in fall camp. At that time, the sentiment wasn't that Muskett had done anything to compromise his position as the favorite to land the starting job, but that Colandrea, continuing the trend that began when he put on a show in the spring game back in April, had simply been too impressive to not at least give him a chance to compete for the job.
In the end, though, the veteran Muskett, who amassed more than 5,600 passing yards and 51 touchdowns in 23 starts at Monmouth, unsurprisingly got the nod as UVA's starter. Elliott said that it was Muskett's performance in the team's second scrimmage this weekend that provided the necessary separation between himself and Colandrea, enough of a gap for Elliott to finally make the formal call that everyone assumed was coming anyway.
Perhaps somewhat unnecessary drama aside, it's now official: Tony Muskett will be the signal caller leading the Cavaliers in their season-opener against Tennessee in less than two weeks.
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