UB's Maynard is up for the challenge
The Bulls' new QB has an enormous task before him following the graduation of Drew Willy and the season-ending injury to playmaking RB James Starks
One would have thought the elements might have been enough to scare the young man off. He hails from Greensboro, N.C., where winter is the rare day under 40. This was Amherst in January, its teeth bared.
The sun had set by the time quarterback prospect Zach Maynard and his father, Scott, entered the office of receivers coach and recruiting coordinator Juan Taylor to begin their official visit to the University at Buffalo. Gusting winds swirled the steady snowfall and sent the mercury plunging. The Maynards, football hardened, remained undaunted.
"The first thing he and his dad did was walk in the office and say, "Where's the field? We want to go out on the field,'" Taylor said. "It was pitch dark, and it had to be below zero with the wind chill. They walked out in the middle of the field, icy field, snowing, and I'm like, "Oh man, I got to walk out there with them.'
"I walked out there with them freezing my tail off and they're out there in the middle of the field talking and looking at the crown on the field, and talking about how to throw the football. And I'm like, "Wow, these guys are serious.' And they came back in and said, "That's all we needed to see, we're ready to go.' They were ready to commit."
The anecdote reveals one of the defining qualities of Maynard, the left-handed sophomore who replaces the departed, record-setting Drew Willy at quarterback for the defending Mid-American Conference champions. He warms to a challenge, and it's a good thing, too. Maynard took limited snaps as a freshman, and UB's offense suffered a major blow in late August when All-MAC running back James Starks was ruled out for the season.
If the Bulls take a run at another title this season it figures to be because Maynard acclimates, and quickly. Not a problem, say those who know him well. He's done it before, passing for 1,635 yards and 20 touchdowns and rushing for 1,404 yards and another 14 TDs in his one season as a starter at Grimsley High.
"He stepped into the same deal when he was in high school," his father said by phone. "It was him and his little brother. They had a real good team the year before, won 11 or 12 games, he stepped right in, they won the same amount of games. They actually went further in the playoffs. You want my opinion? People underestimate him. Grossly underestimate him."
"[The Bulls] hit the lottery. Believe me, they hit the lottery," Otis Yelverton, an assistant coach during Maynard's time at Grimsley, said by phone. "I think if [coach] Turner [Gill] stays the remaining three seasons that Zach has, he'll play on Sunday. He has that ability to play on Sunday. No ifs, ands or buts about it.
"I've been blessed to coach some pretty good kids and I've always told everybody that Zach is a diamond that needs to be shined. Oregon looked at him as being the next Dennis Dixon. Same size, height."
UB truly came to land Maynard via serendipity. BCS schools were hot on his trail — Oregon, LSU, Kentucky, West Virginia. But they hesitated, or backtracked altogether, when it appeared Maynard would fail to qualify academically. UB never wavered on its commitment, never attached any strings to its scholarship offer, which was also the first offer Maynard received.
"Like I told him, "These guys stuck with you when everybody else jumped ship,'" Yelverton said. "Yeah, he could have gone to a high-profile program once he qualified, but I think at some point in time in life you have to understand responsibility and what loyalty means. Turner even came down and said, "If you don't qualify, we're going to hang in there with you until January.' Most coaches wouldn't have done that. They knew the potential that Zach had."
Maynard qualified in June of his senior year, passing the last ACT exam available before the beginning of the fall semester. It was the end of a winding, rugged road navigated by tutors while Maynard immersed himself in a study load that at times seemed overwhelming.
"That was one of the biggest reliefs of my life, just knowing I was going to be able to play college football at a Division I school," he said. "It was an incredible feeling. Some days I felt like, "Man, I can't ever make it. I don't know if I'm really going to make it.'"
Whereas Willy was renowned for his accuracy, Maynard is distinguished by his arm strength. He's been seen at practice flinging the ball 65 yards through the uprights. At one of Maynard's first practices, when star receiver Naaman Roosevelt asked to see his stuff, the leanly built quarterback sizzled a 15-yard pass that tore Roosevelt's receiving gloves.
Respect instantly granted.
"I'll tell you, watching Zach's senior [high school] film ... this guy slung it," Taylor said. "He absolutely slung it. Guys couldn't catch his balls. There was a tight end that he had and his brother. Those are the only guys who could catch his balls, he just had so much zip on the football."
Combine that prodigious arm strength with dazzling 4.5 speed in the 40 and one begins to understand why Maynard was coveted by schools in the upper reaches of college football.
"If he wasn't a late qualifier I think everybody would have been all over him, no question about it," Taylor said. "With a strong arm like that and his ability to run, I think everybody would have been all over him. He was a late gift for us."
"The guy that I think he probably compares to in the younger stages that I've seen is Pat White, who was at West Virginia," said Danny Barrett, UB's offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach. "Athletic quarterback, lefty at that. Can do things with his arms and his legs.
"I'm pretty sure that when Pat first started he wasn't as big and as physical as he is now. To me, that's the comparison I see for him. And I know Pat over the last two years of his career really took off."
Maynard voices a supreme confidence in discussing his new role but goes about his work without entitlement. For instance, a starting quarterback might take a half-hearted approach to runs at the end of practice, but Maynard pushes himself toward the front, cognizant that it's his charge to both show he belongs and lead by example.
"He's a quiet young man, but at the same time he's a very competitive young man," Barrett said. "He always asks the right questions. He's not talking just to be talking. When he needs to know something he'll ask questions. He's like a sponge.
"He missed a couple days when he first came in but it was like he never missed a day as far as picking up on the offense and things like that. We install quite a bit in the first week, and for young guys their head could be spinning, but he kept up with everything as far as the base stuff. And he doesn't like to make the same mistake twice."
Just as importantly, Maynard dismisses the taunts and howls that come with the quarterback position.
"When people criticize him or talk bad about him, he don't take it to heart," Scott Maynard said. "And that's something I taught him a long time ago because of the position he plays. Either you're the guy who's the hero, or you're the guy who's the reason why we lost. There ain't no gray area."
Then again, Maynard was subject to criticism much of his youth. At 6-foot-3, 185 pounds, he's been told he's too lean and brittle to play quarterback, the chorus growing louder when he suffered a separated shoulder the first game of his sophomore year of high school. Then there was the academic issue, and questions about his accuracy. Even his mother, Doris, had her occasional doubts about his durability.
"Everything you can possibly think of," Maynard said. "My back has always been against the wall. People have always told me I can't do something. But my mom and my dad motivate me, and my brothers want me to be the best that I can be so they can look up to me."
"Of course. Skinny kid? I was terrified," Doris said. "Watching him, the size that he is, of course you're thinking, "He's going to get hurt,' or, "They're going to kill him.' But he has the heart of a lion. That's just that. He thinks he's tougher than anybody else. That's that. That's his mind-set."
The expectations expressed by his father, by Coach Yelverton, by the UB coaching staff? Maynard welcomes them wholeheartedly. Even without Starks, the Bulls' offense has an abundance of weapons. Perhaps it's no more than a matter of Maynard ensuring they are properly utilized.
"If I believe in myself I know I can do anything in this world," he said. "I can build a spaceship if I want to if I push myself to do it. It's just a matter of studying, knowing what you really want to do and going after it."
Which is exactly what brought him here to begin with.
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