UW senior Matt Schabert hasn’t been kidding himself or turning a blind eye. He understood going into the highly anticipated Badger quarterback competition this spring that not many people were betting on him to blow away his competition. As far as pure talent is concerned, Schabert simply can’t keep up with younger, faster, stronger and/or larger teammates Tyler Donovan, Sean Lewis and John Stocco.
“Matt knew the situation coming into spring ball,” said Badger quarterbacks coach Jeff Horton. “He knew we were going to give some of the other guys a majority of the reps, both Tyler (Donovan) and Sean (Lewis).”
But where Schabert might not have been blessed with quite the same physical potential as his teammates and may not be seeing the same playing time in practice, he has hedged the odds for those who are betting on him by working to his own strengths — his knowledge of the game and experience within the Badger system — to his advantage.
“I understand, though, that sometimes things don’t work out the way you want them to, but this is sort of a test character,” Schabert said. “Do you keep playing well, or do you fold up and die? As the spring keeps going on right now, I take it as a challenge and as something to motivate me.”
By accepting what he can and cannot control, Schabert may have put himself into a position to affect the Badgers next year as much as anybody. He seems to be a forerunner to be the UW backup next season, if not for his actual ability with the football, then for his irreplaceable presence without it.
“He’s like a player/coach right now,” explained Horton. “He’s doing a great job with that.”
Schabert takes that role seriously and understands that he may be able to help the Badgers more by sharing his experience with his competition than by blowing them away in practice.
“It’s sort of a dual role,” he said. “You don’t have the pressures of being a coach, but you’re not really a player either. It’s good to be in a position where I can be competing for a job but also be helping the young guys out. It’s nice to know that if I don’t have a great day playing, I can at least be teaching the other guys something and be productive — help somebody get better that day.”
If push comes to shove, Schabert will admit (with reluctance) that there is still a lot of fire in his stomach and that he would like more than anything to be on the field, leading the Badgers to a victory.
“I want to be that guy, 100 percent,” he said. “Everybody on the team wants to be that guy — the guy that goes out and makes the plays everyday and is the No. 1 guy.”
But Schabert also is prepared to accept whatever role he is assigned come fall, and to work to be the best he can be at it.
“I’m just going to play as well as I can, regardless of my role,” he said. “I’ll let the chips fall where they may. If someone beat me out, that’s fine, because I guess that means they’re playing better than me. I feel like I’m playing well and the other guys are as well.”
Schabert, whose father is a football coach, continued to admit that a role on the sidelines may be right up his alley.
“In the fall, if my role is teaching the young guys and not getting into the swing of things, then that’ll be fine with me,” he said. “The more I think about it, [coaching] sounds like something I’d really like to do in the future. It’s not a bad job, you know? You get paid to do something that you love to do and that you’ve been doing since you were little. That’s something I’ve thought about a lot.”
For now, though, Schabert is just enjoying the thrill of spring competition.
“It’s not that bad. It’s just like any other competition. You play as well as you can every day. You can’t worry about anything other than how you’re playing and what you’re doing on the field.”
“Competition is never a bad thing. It’s always something that brings out the best in you and brings in the best in others,” he continued. “This whole competition is something that we all look forward to in practice every day. Instead of just going through the motions, there’s something to come out for. It keeps it interesting.”
