Small college football preview: Garry has Rock rolling as Cal approaches
As a quarterback at Youngstown State University, Tanner Garry was trained to read defenses.
But it was his ability to read the writing on the wall that made him the starter at Slippery Rock for Saturday’s game against No. 5 California.
Garry, a Fort Cherry graduate, spent four years at Youngstown State, but the climb on the depth chart was difficult because of the talented quarterbacks ahead of him. Even in his redshirt season as a junior, Garry appeared set for limited duty, at best.
Then, one of his close friends, Dante Nania, called. Nania was a teammate of Garry’s at YSU but transferred to Slippery Rock after his junior season, earned the starting quarterback job and led The Rock to a No. 10 ranking and the playoffs in 2015.
“He said I should do it, too,” said Garry. “I talked it over with my family and decided to give it a try.”
Like Nania, Garry was forced to sit out a season to satisfy NCAA transfer rules, then won the No. 1 job in the spring and fought off all challenges in camp.
“There were no guarantees given to me when I came here,” said Garry. “Last year, the quarterback here was a senior, so I knew he would be gone. But it was a battle.”
Garry has led Slippery Rock to four straight wins and the No. 18 spot in the AFCA Top 25. He has thrown for 1,425 yards and 16 touchdowns to help The Rock average 43 points per game. He is off to the best start for a quarterback in the program’s history. The Rock averages 360 passing yards per game.
“We’ve had a great start but we can’t get complacent,” Garry said. “I have been really fortunate to have great players around me. They have made it an easy transition. My offensive line has been great. I’ve only been sacked three times in four games, and two of them were my fault.”
Cal (1-0, 4-0) has not won a football game at Slippery Rock since 2009 and is on a three-game losing streak at Mihalik-Thompson Stadium.
The Vulcans are coming off a 44-41 win over winless Seton Hill. Garry’s counterpart, Michael Keir, scored on a two-yard run with 18 seconds to play to clinch the win. Keir has passed for 1,058 yards and eight touchdowns. Cal’s running game produced five TDs in last week’s win and averages 140 yards per game.
“Cal has an aggressive defense and they put a lot of responsibility on the defensive backs,” Garry said. “They like to blitz, and they are athletic. They are good at what they do.”
Kickoff is 6 p.m.
Thiel at Wash & Jeff
Monday, 7 p.m. (tentative)
This PAC game was moved to Monday in response to the investigation of a gastrointestinal illness found to affect students at Thiel. To ensure the well-being of its student community, Thiel officials took precautionary steps and began working with the Pennsylvania Department of Health and the Department of Agriculture Wednesday to identify a cause of the illness and take appropriate steps to address the situation.
W&J is 3-0 overall, 1-0 in the conference. Thiel is 1-1 in the PAC, 1-3 overall. W&J will be without tailback Jordan West, who is recovering from a bruised knee.
Grove City at Waynesburg
Saturday, 1:30 p.m.
Grove City got the first win in coach Andrew DiDonato’s year-plus tenure last week, 24-14 over Saint Vincent, which also ended a 33-game losing streak for the program. Waynesburg will be trying to do the same for first-year interim head coach Chris Smithley. The Wolverines (1-1, 1-3) scored two fourth-quarter TDs to ice the game.
Waynesburg (0-2, 0-4) will celebrate Homecoming, and is on a 7-0 run in those games. Waynesburg senior inside linebacker Brent Blacharczyk is fifth in the league with an average of 8.5 tackles per game.