An understudy gets his shot at the lead role

It is an irresistible story. Backup quarterback, after three years in the shadows, gets chance to start and leads team to victory.

It’s easy to like Dan DiGravio, the redshirt junior quarterback of the University of Maine football team who currently finds himself with a chance to grab the brass ring of success, adulation, and just plain fun that comes with being a starter.

A week has passed since the 6-foot-3, 200-pound native of Marshfield, Mass., shook off three years of bench sitting cobwebs and helped steer the Black Bears to their first win of the season, an otherwise forgettable 24-17 decision against Rhode Island. Today, DiGravio will get career start No. 2 at Connecticut.

How does an erstwhile understudy react to suddenly being thrust into the role of featured player?

“It’s the same as every other week,” said DiGravio, as game day approached. “I just try to be as relaxed as possible, go out, practice, and get ready for the game. I’ve had a lot of tests this week, a lot of schoolwork. That’s taken my mind off thinking too much about it.”

Tests. Studying. Can it be the worries of the average student are the worries uppermost in the mind of a college quarterback? To look at DiGravio, it’s believable. Stripped of his football uniform, the easygoing player known as “Digger” to his teammates looks like the 21-year-old you see raking leaves down the street. His is a body that seemingly has never met a weight.

No one is more aware of this than DiGravio, who unashamedly compares his throwing arm to “a squirtgun,” and admits to having fun just watching the football games from his vantage point on the sideline.

“I really loved watching (offensive guard) Rob Noble pull and drill people the last few years,” he said during the press conference following the Rhode Island game.

Asked to list DiGravio’s strengths, Maine head coach Kirk Ferentz can’t help first listing his QB’s physical shortcomings.

“Well, he doesn’t have a great arm,” said Ferentz. “And he’s not very fast. He doesn’t have a lot of athletic ability. His strength is his poise and his leadership. And his intelligence. In this game, the more average you are physically, the smarter you have to be.”

So far, DiGravio has been pretty smart. His numbers, though sparse, are telling. In two appearances this season – a fourth-quarter stint at Hawaii and four quarters against URI – DiGravio has completed 10 of 19 passes for 118 yards. He has yet to throw a touchdown pass. But he also has yet to throw an interception.

DiGravio comes by his poise and intelligence with some help from his father. Ron DiGravio was a starting quarterback for Purdue University back in the 1960s. He went on to become the head coach at Marshfield High. Since Dan attended Thayer Academy, he had the benefits of living with a coach without the Freudian problems associated with a son playing for his father.

“My dad worked with me, but he never really pushed me. He’d just sit down and talk to me about what I might be doing wrong and how I could correct it,” said DiGravio, who still talks to his father at least twice a week on the phone.

DiGravio listened to his father well enough to become a Boston Globe All-Scholastic selection as a senior. He was recruited by Maine, but had the misfortune of arriving just when record-setter Mike Buck’s career took off. A redshirt year followed by two years of holding on PATs and field goals ensued.

Then, with Buck finally graduated, DiGravio blew his chance at starting with a dismal performance in spring workouts. Jeff DelRosso got the job.

Still, DiGravio never gave up on the idea his time would come.

“My dad told me when he started out at Purdue they had 14 quarterbacks. He was 11th string. His sophomore year he was starting. He always told me things happen and that I should be ready for anything,” the phys ed major said.

Anything came in the form of a shoulder injury to DelRosso. The injury was serious enough to hold DelRosso out of the URI game, but not serious enough to keep him out for the season. Which means DiGravio may again find himself the understudy. His reaction to that prospect?

“That’s the coaches’ decision,” DiGravio answered. “No matter what happens, I have to agree with the coaches.”

In the meantime, DiGravio is going to concentrate on having fun.

“I’m just thinking one game at a time. Right now, that’s Connecticut. I don’t want to jump ahead to anything,” said Dan DiGravio, savoring his time in the lead role.