By Anthony Biancaniello, Multimedia Practicum Student

Last week head football coach Mickey Matthews made and announced the decision he said he would have loved to announce three weeks ago; he chose his starting quarterback for next season.  His choice was fifth-year senior Drew Dudzik.

The big topic this spring was about the quarterback competition between Dudzik and redshirt sophomore Justin Thorpe.  Last season, the two split time until Dudzik went down with a foot injury in the Richmond game and missed the rest of his season.  The young Thorpe then took over and seemed to gain confidence as the season went on.  He finished the season completing 82 of 145 passes with 1260 yards, six touchdowns and nine interceptions to go along with a team-best 654 yards rushing and 5 TDs in 11 games played.   

Dudzik, the Clifton, Va. native who had been a backup for two years of his career to Rodney Landers, showed promise early in 2009.  In the Dukes' first game of the year, at Maryland, he set career highs in completions (9), attempts (15), total offense (253), rushing attempts (14), rushing yards (112), and he had his longest career run at 70 yards.  His performance was part of the reason the Dukes almost upset the Atlantic Coast Confernce school in week one.  Dudzik saw action in only five games because of the foot injury and in those five he completed 28 of 50 passes for 472 yards with six TDs and two INTs, he also ran for 177 yards and a score.

As weeks went on the two quarterbacks continued to split time much to the dismay of many fans.  Many people had their opinion on who should be starting, but in the end the coaches felt it was best for the team to try to get them both into the game at some point. 

Now with Dudzik coming back for the 2010 campaign, it seemed that the starting job would be up for grabs.  Most people wanted to make it a rivalry between the two, however Dudzik says it's just good competition.  When asked about that competition he said, "We push each other every day to get better, Justin is a great athlete and he can do a lot of things to help us win, but I don't really worry about that, I'm just going to go out and play the best I can." 

Throughout the spring Dudzik has been taking most of the snaps with the first-string offense and it seemed that he had already won the job, but Matthews wouldn't comment on that and said it was an open evaluation.

Although Dudzik has been named the starter, Thorpe may still see some significant time next season.  When asked about the announcement, Thorpe said, "It is the coaches' decision and I respect that.  I came out this spring and just worked hard to compete and get better.  I am just excited to get some playing time and to continue to learn." 

He also went on to say that he fully supports Dudzik and thinks the team practiced well this spring.  Dudzik also spoke about how well everyone has performed this spring by saying, "We got better every practice, and we came together as a unit and every day we went out there and competed and made plays."

Everyone in the JMU nation hopes the duo with Dudzik as the starter can help lead JMU to the playoffs in 2010 after a subpar performance this past season.