Virginia’s roster is in a period of transition with the 2022 season in the rear view and preparations for 2023 and beyond well underway. And while Tony Elliott has plenty of work left to do in order to have his team ready to go for the season opener against Tennessee, the Cavaliers did get a major piece of clarity on Sunday afternoon.
Following his official visit to Charlottesville, quarterback Tony Muskett announced his commitment to UVa. The former Monmouth signal caller chose Virginia over offers from Missouri, Troy, Coastal Carolina, Georgia Southern and many others.
A native of Springfield, Muskett played his high school football at West Springfield High, alongside current Cavalier receiver Ethan Davies. He was a prolific prep player, throwing for more than 7,000 yards in his high school career, where he was named an All-Region quarterback.
Although he wasn’t recruited at the ACC level out of high school, Muskett had quite a bit of interest, ultimately choosing Monmouth over a bunch of FCS offers including William & Mary, Richmond and Penn, and even an FBS offer from Coastal Carolina. His brother Peter, who also played quarterback at West Springfield, eventually landed at Virginia Tech as a walk-on.
At Monmouth, Muskett demonstrated excellence throughout his career. His time with the Hawks did get off to a bit of a strange start, as Monmouth, like most FCS programs, canceled its seasons in the fall of 2020 because of COVID-19. Then the Hawks played a truncated schedule in the spring of 2021, Muskett’s first true season of college football. The NOVA native went out and won the job right away, starting all four games that spring. Muskett threw for 1,039 yards with nine touchdowns and three interceptions, leading the Hawks to a 3-0 regular-season record (with one game canceled) where they averaged 41.7 points per game and earned a playoff appearance. He and the Hawks saw their season end at the hands of No. 4 Sam Houston State in a one-possession game. The true freshman QB was named Big South Offensive Freshman of the Year and was among the top vote getters for the Jerry Rice Award, given to the best freshman at the FCS level.
A few months later, Muskett picked up where he left off, starting all 11 games for Monmouth and earning First-Team All-Big South honors. He threw for 2,651 yards with a 65.1 percent completion percentage, leading the Hawks to a 7-4 record, narrowly missing a playoff berth and 32.2 points per game. Muskett had an excellent 25-to-6 TD to INT ratio as well. It’s also fair to say that UVa QB coach Taylor Lamb should be familiar with Muskett’s work from the 2021 calendar year: In two games against Gardner Webb, where Lamb was the offensive coordinator, Muskett beat them twice, and in the second matchup, he threw for 289 yards and four touchdowns in a blowout victory.
This past fall, Muskett returned for his third season with the Hawks, who made a transition from the Big South to the much more competitive CAA. The season was a bit tougher for them and for Muskett, who missed the final three contests after injuring his knee in the seventh overtime of a loss to Rhode Island. Muskett got eight starts at QB, throwing for 1,997 yards with 17 touchdowns and eight interceptions, completing 64 percent of his passes. He also showed his ability to make plays with his legs, running for 331 yards and a touchdown on 66 attempts (when removing the negative 128 yards lost to sacks).
Muskett entered the transfer portal with two more years of eligibility and now he’s a Wahoo.
He has obviously been productive at Monmouth but the analytics have been impressive, too. In his eight starts this fall, Muskett was graded out at 88.1 overall with an 85.5 passing grade. For comparison, former UVa QB Brennan Armstrong graded out at 58.4 overall with a 56.3 passing grade this year, and 91.8 and 90.3 last season, close to what Muskett did at Monmouth in 2022. Muskett registered 60 “big time throws” in his career per PFF data, with a “big time throw” rate of 7.8, which is very solid. His career completion percentage when removing drops is 72.6, and the average depth of target on throws is 9.4 yards over the three seasons.
Muskett had a passing grade above 85.5 in all three of his seasons and was among the top quarterbacks in the FCS throughout his career, per PFF’s grading system.
He was not only productive at Monmouth but he appears to have the tools necessary to make a transition to a Power 5 school possible. Muskett moves well in the pocket, gets the ball out quick, and has the arm to make throws to all levels. In fact, the deep ball was one of his biggest strengths at Monmouth. This fall, Muskett’s grade on deep throws (over 20 yards) was an impressive 95.3, with a 43.9 percent completion percentage, which is quite good, with nine touchdowns and just two interceptions. In all, 17 of his 19 big time throws this fall came on balls 20+ yards down the field. The same was true last fall, when he graded out at 92.8 on deep throws, with 11 touchdowns and no interceptions on 65 attempts.
His intermediate throws were often on the money too, with grades 87.3 or higher in all three seasons on throws between 10 and 20 yards.
Some of Muskett’s career highlights are in the video below. Here, you’ll see UVa’s new quarterback move well in the pocket, step up and make some great throws down the field, throwing accurately and throwing on the move. Granted, this is a highlight tape, but it’s easy to see why UVa got interested in a hurry.
Everything we’ve seen from Muskett since he landed on UVa’s radar has been intriguing and exciting. It’s easy to be dismissive of a quarterback coming in from Monmouth, but the arm talent is still there, regardless of the level of football, as are his fundamentals, including footwork. If he had the same tape and production and was transferring from a MAC school, for example, there would probably be more buzz around him.
Still, Muskett appears to be a real looks nice get for UVa, as he ran some similar concepts to what the Cavaliers run. We’ll find out soon enough if he can come in and take Virginia’s offense to the next level, but in reviewing what Muskett has done so far, this seems like a great addition for the Cavaliers and hopefully the face of the offense for at least one season.
