MORGANTOWN - Perhaps if Hunter Cantwell had struck while the iron was hot, his senior season wouldn't have been the kind of do-or-die NFL audition it has become.
MORGANTOWN - Perhaps if Hunter Cantwell had struck while the iron was hot, his senior season wouldn't have been the kind of do-or-die NFL audition it has become.
Instead, he waited patiently - maybe too patiently, as it turns out - while watching Brian Brohm play quarterback ahead of him at Louisville, resisting the temptation to transfer someplace where he could be the man for a couple of years and work with the raw assets no one questions.
Instead, as he and Louisville struggle through his senior season - next up a home game with West Virginia at noon Saturday - Cantwell's once-bright NFL stock has plummeted almost as quickly as the stock market, if perhaps not quite as dramatically.
And it's because he did the right thing, waited his turn and took the chance that in one season he could validate all the hype.
"I think that's a hit-and-miss scenario,'' Cantwell said when asked why he never really considered transferring somewhere there wasn't an NFL first-round pick ahead of him. "You could go to a place that has a system you don't fit well into. You could go to a place where you're not comfortable or you don't get along with the coaches. At Louisville I had all that comfort. And I felt like I got better every day at practice and really progressed as a player, even though I wasn't playing.''
For those without the keenest of memories, perhaps a refresher course is in order.
Cantwell looks like the prototype of an NFL quarterback. He's 6-foot-5, weighs 236 pounds, has a cannon for an arm and, when he's not bothered by an ankle injury, is blessed with at least serviceable mobility.
We know all of this because in three years serving as Brohm's backup, Cantwell got a few chances to prove it. The most notable of those opportunities came near the end of Cantwell's redshirt freshman season.
That was when the sophomore Brohm - a few weeks after that triple-overtime loss at West Virginia in 2005 - blew out a knee in the next-to-last game of the regular season. Cantwell warmed up by finishing off a rout of Syracuse, then the next week - with a Gator Bowl bid on the line - led Louisville to a 30-20 win on the road at Connecticut, completing 16-of-25 passes for 271 yards and a touchdown.
A month later, Cantwell was Louisville's MVP in a 35-24 loss to Virginia Tech in the Gator Bowl after throwing for three touchdowns. You are forgiven if you recall more clearly the other quarterback that day, because that was the game in which Tech's Marcus Vick continued a family tradition of seemingly brainless acts by stomping on the leg of Louisville's star defensive end, Elvis Dumervil.
There were two obvious reactions to Cantwell's remarkable performance in relief of Brohm. At Louisville, naturally, there was a great sense of security knowing that for the next two years the Cardinals would have the security of a proven backup. It was needed, too, when Brohm injured a thumb the following season and Cantwell stepped in and quarterbacked two more wins.
Elsewhere, though, there were questions about Cantwell's sanity. Here was a guy with three years of eligibility remaining who had proven he could play, yet was willing to stick around knowing that for two of those three he almost certainly wouldn't. Loyalty is all well and good, but what about self-preservation and looking out for No. 1?
Well, the thing about Cantwell is that there was a great sense of loyalty to Louisville. That's because this big, strong quarterback with all the tools - a guy who had passed for more than 7,000 yards and 70 touchdowns in high school - hadn't been offered a single scholarship.
MORGANTOWN - Perhaps if Hunter Cantwell had struck while the iron was hot, his senior season wouldn't have been the kind of do-or-die NFL audition it has become.
Instead, he waited patiently - maybe too patiently, as it turns out - while watching Brian Brohm play quarterback ahead of him at Louisville, resisting the temptation to transfer someplace where he could be the man for a couple of years and work with the raw assets no one questions.
Instead, as he and Louisville struggle through his senior season - next up a home game with West Virginia at noon Saturday - Cantwell's once-bright NFL stock has plummeted almost as quickly as the stock market, if perhaps not quite as dramatically.
And it's because he did the right thing, waited his turn and took the chance that in one season he could validate all the hype.
"I think that's a hit-and-miss scenario,'' Cantwell said when asked why he never really considered transferring somewhere there wasn't an NFL first-round pick ahead of him. "You could go to a place that has a system you don't fit well into. You could go to a place where you're not comfortable or you don't get along with the coaches. At Louisville I had all that comfort. And I felt like I got better every day at practice and really progressed as a player, even though I wasn't playing.''
For those without the keenest of memories, perhaps a refresher course is in order.
Cantwell looks like the prototype of an NFL quarterback. He's 6-foot-5, weighs 236 pounds, has a cannon for an arm and, when he's not bothered by an ankle injury, is blessed with at least serviceable mobility.
We know all of this because in three years serving as Brohm's backup, Cantwell got a few chances to prove it. The most notable of those opportunities came near the end of Cantwell's redshirt freshman season.
That was when the sophomore Brohm - a few weeks after that triple-overtime loss at West Virginia in 2005 - blew out a knee in the next-to-last game of the regular season. Cantwell warmed up by finishing off a rout of Syracuse, then the next week - with a Gator Bowl bid on the line - led Louisville to a 30-20 win on the road at Connecticut, completing 16-of-25 passes for 271 yards and a touchdown.
A month later, Cantwell was Louisville's MVP in a 35-24 loss to Virginia Tech in the Gator Bowl after throwing for three touchdowns. You are forgiven if you recall more clearly the other quarterback that day, because that was the game in which Tech's Marcus Vick continued a family tradition of seemingly brainless acts by stomping on the leg of Louisville's star defensive end, Elvis Dumervil.
There were two obvious reactions to Cantwell's remarkable performance in relief of Brohm. At Louisville, naturally, there was a great sense of security knowing that for the next two years the Cardinals would have the security of a proven backup. It was needed, too, when Brohm injured a thumb the following season and Cantwell stepped in and quarterbacked two more wins.
Elsewhere, though, there were questions about Cantwell's sanity. Here was a guy with three years of eligibility remaining who had proven he could play, yet was willing to stick around knowing that for two of those three he almost certainly wouldn't. Loyalty is all well and good, but what about self-preservation and looking out for No. 1?
Well, the thing about Cantwell is that there was a great sense of loyalty to Louisville. That's because this big, strong quarterback with all the tools - a guy who had passed for more than 7,000 yards and 70 touchdowns in high school - hadn't been offered a single scholarship.
We're not talking about a lack of Division I-A scholarships, mind you. He had none at all.
"No juco, no I-AA,'' Cantwell said. "I even went back to a couple of prep schools and they said no.''
It seems almost unfathomable, doesn't it? Cantwell certainly didn't understand it. He had roughly the same size in high school, so it wasn't like he was some scrawny kid. After years of mulling it over, the only thing he can come up with to this day is that in the same backfield on his Tilghman High School team in Paducah, Ky., was a kid by the name of Joe Casey, who that year was one of two running backs (along with Adrian Peterson) named to USA Today's All-USA team.
"A lot of people probably looked at my statistics and figured they were based on teams having nine guys in the box to stop him,'' Cantwell said. "And I was pretty raw as a quarterback. And playing in Western Kentucky I guess people don't see that as the best competition.''
So no one wanted the big kid with the strong arm.
"Well, U of L did,'' Cantwell said. "U of L said, 'We'd love to have you. Come on up.' ''
Oh, and bring your checkbook because you're paying your own way.
Cantwell eventually earned a scholarship, of course, the summer after his Gator Bowl performance, but he rarely played again until Brohm graduated to the NFL.
Now that he is playing, it just hasn't worked out like anyone expected. Based on his size and on those out-of-the-blue relief efforts of Brohm, Cantwell went into this season having never been a regular but was, in the eyes of many scouts, the top-rated quarterback in the 2009 NFL draft. His season hasn't been a complete bust, but with 13 touchdowns and 11 interceptions, having thrown two picks that were returned for scores and with a completion percentage of less than 60, Cantwell's NFL stock has plunged.
He could certainly regain some of that lost ground in the final weeks of the season and, more significantly, at the NFL Combines, but the fact is that he is a first-year starter who is still learning the game. Perhaps had he transferred he would have worked out some of those kinks by playing two full years, but Cantwell isn't dwelling on it.
"I walked on at U of L. I didn't have any scholarship offers anywhere. So I always kind of felt a loyalty to the place and really felt love in the city and the fans,'' Cantwell said. "I knew I was going to have to sit behind Brian, but I also saw that as a great learning experience. You have time to really grow from watching him.
"There's always room for improvement. I felt like I got better. Would I have gotten even better by playing somewhere? Who knows? But if I had to do it all over again I'd do it the exact same way.''
Reach Dave Hickman at 348-1734 or dphickm...@aol.com.
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If L'ville beats WV with this guy?......whoa.