If a young quarterback wanted to see a clinic at his position, he could do worse than to tune into the Super Bowl on Sunday.
That’s exactly what University at Albany redshirt sophomore Jeff Undercuffler plans to do when he sits down with roommate Ian Renninger, a tight end, to watch Patrick Mahomes and the Kansas City Chiefs take on Tom Brady and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
“I personally can’t wait for it,” Undercuffler said during a Zoom call on Wednesday. “The current GOAT (Brady) and No. 15 (Mahomes) is definitely on the verge of breaking that, so just being able to watch that game, watch how those guys handle their offenses, watch how those guys just play quarterback at the best level you can and just lead them guys to victory, I can’t wait to watch that.”
All Undercuffler and his teammates could do was watch other teams play for most of the fall and winter — whether it be major colleges or the NFL — while their season was postponed to the spring by COVID-19.
Now UAlbany finally opens its training camp on Thursday, with the Great Danes set to play a six-game Colonial Athletic Association regular-season schedule that opens March 5 at New Hampshire.
UAlbany quarterback Jeff Undercuffler is looking to lead his team back to the playoffs this season.
Ryan Berry/Chronicle
UAlbany quarterback Jeff Undercuffler said he's not concerned with what may be more difficult weather conditions associated with moving the season to the late winter and early spring. (Jim Franco/Special to the Times Union)
James Franco
UAlbany quarterback Jeff Undercuffler said he will try to raise his completion percentage from the 57.1 percent of last season. (Jim Franco/Special to the Times Union)
Jim Franco/Special to the Times Union“Everyone’s just ready to fly around and have fun playing the game that we love,” Undercuffler said.
Throwing the ball in Northeast weather can be challenging enough in the fall with the elements. It could be enough tougher in the winter, but Undercuffler said he's ready.
“At the end of the day, we all signed up to play football on the Division I level and football is football,” he said. “You play unless it’s thunder and lightning out and you’ve got to just keep that mindset I had growing up, that hard mindset to just battle through everything and, really, everything’s mental. So just playing in the rain, snow, whatever it is, it’s really not that big a deal.”
Undercuffler made a massive leap from his true freshman to redshirt freshman year while leading the Great Danes to the quarterfinals of the 2019 NCAA Football Championship Subdivision playoffs.
He led the nation with 41 touchdown passes and ranked 10th with 3,543 passing yards. Great Danes head coach Greg Gattuso said he doesn’t think Undercuffler has hit his ceiling.
“I think there’s two big areas,” Gattuso said. “One is the anticipatory throws. When a guy is coming between zones and throwing to an open area, knowing when your receiver is going to be there. I think that’s a next step for him. … And I think maturity-wise is going to be a big step for him. He had a few silly plays last year that really hurt us in games, trying to throw the ball left-handed, trying to do too much. And I think the sign of maturity is when they quit trying to do too much.”
Undercuffler said he wants to be “more efficient” and raise his completion percentage from last year’s .571.
When he plays his first game since December 2019, Undercuffler will do so without his two top wideouts from a year ago, All-American Juwan Green (on the Atlanta Falcons' practice squad) and Jerah Reeves. He does get back redshirt sophomore Tyler Oedekoven, who caught 17 passes last season, and junior Dev Holmes of Troy, who had 50 receptions as a freshman before quitting the team last season.
Otherwise, Undercuffler will need to develop timing with a group of wideouts, including freshmen and transfers, without the benefit of working together for months because of COVID-19.
“With Tyler and Dev, it will be just like last year,” he said. “All this COVID stuff made it tough to physically interact with your teammates. It was tough. You’ve just got to FaceTime them, call them, any of the new commits that we’ve got, just keep in touch with them as best as we can.”
Like Mahomes and Brady, trying to win their league’s championship on Sunday, Undercuffler said he’s squarely focused on bringing home a CAA title in a very unusual year.
“Always put the team first,” he said. “That’s what matters. I want to win a conference championship with these guys, make it into the playoffs for back-to-back seasons and continue to set the bar here at UAlbany and ultimately try to win an NCAA championship.”
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