Meet Ted, Gretna’s new quarterback

By Abe Nelson

Published: August 19, 2008

GRETNA — Ted Jennings knows people are going to doubt him, and he is OK with that.

After all, a big burden has suddenly been placed on the Gretna sophomore’s diminutive 5-foot-7, 140-pound frame. And Jennings understands that he has to prove himself — quickly.

When Nick Miller — the Hawks’ starting quarterback and reigning Associated Press Group A Player of the Year — went down with a broken right tibia against Jefferson Forest in a scrimmage on Friday, the responsibility of leading the defending state champions, likely for the remainder of the season, was suddenly shifted to Jennings.

And just like that, the transition had begun.

“It’s like teaching a little kid to walk,” Gretna coach Chris Thurman said. “(Jennings has) crawled. But that’s where we are, in the crawling phase.

“He has to learn on the job, but he’ll be fine.”

Fine, sure. But few are expecting Jennings to step in and fill Miller’s shoes immediately. A sudden star as a freshman, Miller exploded onto the scene last season with a jaw-dropping 3,463 total yards (2,096 passing and 1,367 rushing) and 49 total touchdowns. He led Gretna to a perfect 14-0 record and flattened opponents with a near 39-point margin of victory along the way. And then there was the small matter of Gretna’s 52-0 thumping of Gate City in the Group A title game.

Yeah, Miller was good. And when he dropped on the fifth play of Friday’s scrimmage, the general consensus amongst the Hawks was a hodgepodge of expletives and concern. It was a collective “what now?” that Jennings, a backup safety and wide receiver with the Hawks last season, is trying to do his best to answer.

“Right now it’s kind of tough. I never even thought I would play quarterback this year,” Jennings said. “I’m trying to step up and take us back to state.

“It’s coming together day-by-day.”

The signs of the transition are there, and not hard to see either. A hitch in a throw here or a receiver led too much there. A pitch that should have been made earlier or a decision that should have been made quicker.

It’s a learning process.

But it’s also one the Hawks have come to believe Jennings can handle.

“(Jennings) doesn’t have the arm and the experience that Nick did, but he’ll get the job done,” senior offensive tackle Bennett Fulper said. “He’ll be comfortable back there by next week.”

Fulper even found a silver lining to the whole situation as well.

“It hurt us, but it helped us in a lot of ways too,” he continued. “We have to pull together now. We have to push ourselves to get better every day.”

It’s a new state of mind that the Hawks began to dedicate themselves to from the first opportunity. The day after Miller’s injury, the team returned for a four-hour Saturday practice and followed that up with three more hours on Monday.

It’s exactly what has to happen for Jennings to become the game manager that Gretna needs him to be, and for the Hawks to prove to the doubters that they can still play.

“You hear it around town, how we’re done for,” senior guard Ethan Winn said. “But everybody’s been picking it up this week.

“We might be an underdog now, but we’ve still got the attitude that we can take it to everybody we play.”