Gurasich leaves QB
outlook a bit thinner
The Texan's departure means
By Paul Arnett
Robinson might not be able
to redshirt this year
Star-BulletinIf you went down the street and asked 100 people walking by just who is this John Gurasich anyway, it's unlikely anyone would know. Perhaps the redshirt freshman from Austin, Texas, was the University of Hawaii's future at quarterback, perhaps not.
He obviously didn't think so.
Before Tuesday night's scrimmage at Aloha Stadium, the 19-year-old Texan was talking whimsically about how much he missed the hill country back home.
Gurasich also spoke of Hawaii not providing the traditional college campus atmosphere he experienced on other recruiting trips. But not even his fellow Rainbow quarterbacks expected him to announce yesterday morning that he was leaving the team.
"I had no idea he was thinking about leaving," junior college transfer Dan Robinson said. "For some guys on the mainland, it's tough being so far from home.
"I think John missed his family and friends. All the quarterbacks here are close. I wish him the best. I hope he made the right decision for him."
Many of the players didn't even know he had left the team. One trainer jokingly said, "His father picked him up this morning in his Lear jet and took him home."
While his departure doesn't really affect the top half of the quarterback formula, it does affect the bottom half. He and Josh Skinner were fighting it out for the No. 3 spot behind Robinson and Tim Carey. That has obviously been decided in Skinner's favor.
The problem is, the UH coaches may have wanted to redshirt Skinner, who was recruited the same year as Gurasich. At this point, Skinner is a sophomore, and may be forced into action should Carey and Robinson go down to injury.
Robinson's future also remains unclear. With only three quarterbacks in the equation, it's possible the redshirt year still available to him won't be used this season.
The junior is still battling sore shinsplints. He has endured several grueling practices the past few days that have left him hobbled.
VonAppen said yesterday that Robinson is still pushing Carey in fall camp, but it's unlikely Robinson would start unless he were clearly ahead.
"You want to have as much competition as you can," UH quarterbacks coach Guy Benjamin said. "As far as redshirting Robinson, it depends on what the other guys do. If Tim gets hurt, we can't redshirt Dan.
"John had improved over the last year. He was coming along. He was still a little raw. But in terms of his technique, he was coming along very nice."
Skinner, who last May changed his mind about leaving the program, has had to play catch-up the last few weeks. During spring ball, the coaches thought he was transfering out, so he was relegated to the scout team and didn't have any daily repetitions in the new UH offense.
Despite capitalizing on Gurasich's decision to leave the program, he was friends with the amiable quarterback and expressed concern for his former classmate.
"Evidently, something wasn't going right for John or he wouldn't have just left," Skinner said. "I just hope everything goes well for him with making this decision.
"This came out of the blue. We just heard about it at our meeting this morning. Again, it's the decision he made. I hope it's the best for him."
UH head coach Fred vonAppen expressed similar sentiment.
"You don't like to lose anybody," vonAppen said. "The intent is to keep guys in the program and not have them leave. But if they don't want to be here, I found out a long time ago, trying to talk them in to or out of anything is generally counterproductive.
"It delineates the rotation a little bit. Josh Skinner moves into the third spot unopposed. We wanted to resolve it, but not this way. Those things just happen."
