Albany football team had to scramble to find its quarterback

What happens when you lose your starting quarterback to a knee injury during spring practice?

Chaos. And a competition between a bunch of guys, if you are the Albany football program.

A whole bunch of guys.

A non-contact knee injury to Van Weber made the Great Danes shift in another direction for the 2025 season. Six QBs vied for the starting spot during fall camp.

Interim head coach Jared Ambrose announced two weeks ago that senior Jack Shields was his guy.

"If I was going to put it in simplest terms, he's got game," Ambrose told the Albany Times Union. “Not to take anything away from the other guys, but consistently throughout camp, Jack was protecting the ball, operating the offense, making plays. He's a tremendous passer, and he's a hell of a competitor."

Though this is his fifth season, Shields has been seldom used throughout his college career.

A Virginia native, he redshirted at Old Dominion as a freshman in 2021, then didn’t play at all his redshirt freshman season in 2022. He got into six games in 2023, starting two, and transferred to Buffalo.

Shields played in three games for the Bulls but didn’t throw a pass. Back into the portal he went, landing at Albany at the conclusion of spring practice with fellow transfer Colin Parachek.

"Just was looking for a spot to where I felt a little bit more comfortable with what was going on in general. Felt like it would just be better for me to move on,“ Shields told the Times Union. "Coach Ambrose laid it out to me. Basically, that he wasn't going to guarantee anything, but I had an opportunity to compete to be the starter. That was basically all I needed to hear."

“Van Weber got hurt, started the last three games for us last season and did more than an admirable job,” Ambrose said this week. “I think he’s got a great career ahead of him ... We felt like the two guys in house did a really good job in the spring. But in this league, we had three quarterbacks on our roster last year going into games 8, 9, 10, 11, so we knew we had to go get two of them. (Shields and Parachek) came in and competed very well. Jack came in about 10 to 12 practices in and took control.”

Shields prevailed over five other candidates, including other transfers Parachek (Marshall/Morehead State), Aidan Semo (Georgia Tech) and Kyle Keckler (Mercyhurst).

Parachek played in four games, two starts, at Morehead State in 2022 but did not play in his two years at Marshall. Semo did not play in two seasons at Georgia Tech and played in just two last season at El Camino Community College in California.

Keckler didn’t play in his one season at Mercyhurst.

In other words, the entire quarterback room at Albany has little to no experience. And these inexperienced guys get thrown into the proverbial fire Saturday against the Iowa Hawkeyes at Kinnick Stadium (5 p.m. kickoff on FS1).

"It's exciting, so I'm just ready for the challenge: Week 1, Iowa," Shields told the Times Union. "It's been good."

“It’s one of those things where you want to get high-level competition,” Ambrose said this week. “We want to see what guys have made leaps and bounds of growth in their game and their understanding of your schemes. And you want to come out healthy. I think we covered those, and I’m really excited to see this team compete.”

Comments: jeff.johnson@thegazette.com