Make no mistake about it; the Richmond Spiders will go as far as Stacey Tutt will take them in 2004.
For the third consecutive week, the Massachusetts football team will be facing a mobile quarterback, but that cannot prepare them for the challenge they face on Saturday afternoon at McGuirk Alumni Stadium.
Tutt, a former wide receiver who also joined the school’s men’s basketball team over the winter, is widely considered one of the more electrifying and dynamic players in the Atlantic 10, and has added an improved dimension to his game since being named the Spiders’ full-time starter during camp.
A graduate of Fork Union (Va.) Military Academy, the same school that produced UMass’ Brandon London and Michael Torres, among others, Tutt is listed at 6-foot-2-inches, 230 lbs., and is anything but a prototypical drop-back passer. Nonetheless, new head coach Dave Clawson has brought a pro-style offense in from Fordham to replace former coach Jim Reid’s option attack, and it has forced Tutt to improve his presence and pocket passing and rely less on his rushing ability.
In a loss to Division I-A North Carolina State and a win over Virginia Military Institute, the Tappahannock, Va. native threw for a combined 296 yards and four touchdowns while maintaining a stellar 125.1 efficiency rating. Yet unlike his three starts at the end of last season, Tutt carried the ball just 11 times for 20 yards and did not find the end zone with his legs.
Nevertheless, after Tutt ran for a season-high 70 yards against the Minutemen in Amherst last season and was third on the team in receptions despite playing receiver for just eight games, Brown is keenly aware of the potential game-breaking ability the Spiders’ quarterback has on the ground.
“We’ve used [running backs] Lorenzo Perry and Justin Montgomery at the quarterback position in practice during the week,” Brown said. “We obviously need to prepare for speed at that position, and that’s just something that we can’t always simulate to the degree we need to with our quarterbacks.
“He’s a great player with a lot of ability, and we need to be ready for him. He’s the kind of guy you can’t mess around with, or he’s gone.”
In the Spiders’ first two games under Clawson, Tutt has had the luxury of an effective tailback in junior David Freeman, who’s averaged 6.4 yards per carry in 2004. However if the Minutemen continue to play stingy against the run, as they have against both Delaware State and Colgate, the Spiders may be forced to rely on Tutt to carry the offense again as he did after senior quarterback Bryson Spinner went down last season.
“He’s obviously the main guy for them, the offense goes through him.” Brown said. “We need to play smart on defense and keep him in front of us and out of the end zone.”
And in fact, the Minutemen may be more equipped to contain Tutt than they were in 2003. With a defensive unit that has clearly gotten younger and quicker along the front seven and more experienced in the secondary, defensive coordinator Keith Dudzinski will likely have a lot of options to throw at Tutt, options that begin and end with junior middle linebacker and captain Serge Tikum.
“Tikum’s our guy, and he’s going to be out there any time the defense is out there,” Brown said at the UMass Athletic Association’s weekly sports luncheon. “He’s got a lot of ability and he’s only getting better at things like reading pulls.
“Our defense begins and ends with him.”
