• Where: Rosenblatt Stadium
• TV: Versus
• Radio: 1620 AM KOZN
If things had worked out differently, Chase Clement might be getting ready to help coach Rice's football team in Saturday's regular-season finale against Alabama-Birmingham.
Or he might be in graduate school somewhere, studying to become the orthopedic surgeon he once thought he wanted to be.
Instead, Clement will be at Rosenblatt Stadium, trying to quarterback the Las Vegas Locomotives to the United Football League title.
“Luckily, I'm getting a chance to do what I love to do,'' he said.
Clement is the third quarterback Vegas coach Jim Fassel has used this season. The first, NFL veteran Tim Rattay, went down after the fourth game with a torn Achilles' tendon.
Drew Willy, who got a couple of looks from NFL teams after completing a record-setting collegiate career at the University of Buffalo, took over and directed the Locomotives to a pair of wins. When Las Vegas fell behind Sacramento 21-3 after two quarters of a Nov. 6 home game, Fassel turned to Clement.
He rallied his team to three second-half touchdowns that tied the game before Sacramento won on a late field goal. Fassel stuck with Clement as his starter last week, and even though he struggled in a loss to Hartford, Fassel has indicated Clement would be his starter in Saturday's game.
The reason is simple, Fassel said. The 24-year-old Clement has that special something that any football coach covets in his quarterback.
“More quarterbacks that wind up being busts are guys that have the talent, they have the measureables, they have the arm strength,'' Fassel said. “What they don't have is the mental get-it-done stuff.
“Chase has it.''
Fassel saw “it'' when he flipped on the VCR and watched the way Clement had played during his college career from 2005 to 2008 at Rice. He passed for 9,785 yards and accounted for 11,526 yards of total offense. He was responsible for 125 touchdowns (99 passing, 25 rushing, 1 receiving).
Nice statistics but not ones that particularly impress pro scouts when they're trying to uncover the next great NFL quarterback. What the scouts saw was a 6-foot-1, 220-pound guy with an arm that didn't wow them.
But Fassel saw enough things he liked to invite Clement to the Locomotive training camp in August.
“When I watched his tape, I saw a guy making fast decisions and playing the game quickly,'' Fassel said. “What I like to watch is on second down, when a guy gets dusted in the pocket, does he come right back firing on third down?
“I like watching guys in the two-minute drill and see how many plays he makes and how many mistakes he makes. He just impressed me as a guy that could make it happen in critical situations.''
After playing his last game for Rice, Clement had hopes that some NFL team would take a chance on him. None did, so he signed a two-year contract with the Hamilton Tiger Cats of the Canadian Football League.
He reported to training camp. Two days later, he was on a plane back to his home in San Antonio, having decided the CFL wasn't for him.
He traded his uniform for a suit and a 9-to-5 job. Football's hold on him was strong, though, and he was set to return to Rice this season as a graduate assistant in charge of offensive quality control.
“That was the plan,'' Clement said, “to go through the season and work with the quarterbacks and see if I liked the coaching world.''
Before he got that chance, the UFL came calling. A scout with the league's Sacramento franchise informed Clement that the team was interested in working him out.
“I had it planned to go out there, and then decided I might as well work out for some of the other teams, too,'' Clement said. “I tried out for Las Vegas first, and coach Fassel said they wanted to sign me. I never did make it to Sacramento.''
Clement won a battle for the No. 3 spot in training camp, then settled in for what he thought would be a year of learning. Rattay, an eight-year NFL veteran who had passed for almost 5,000 yards in the league, was the Locos' starter.
“I figured I'd watch and learn from Tim,'' Clement said. “I figured that if I ever got an opportunity, I could use what I learned.''
That opportunity came sooner than later. When Rattay went down for the season, Fassel turned to Willy.
“When we lost Tim, I didn't know which guy to go with,'' Fassel said. “I thought I'd go with the guy that had been in an NFL camp and had a little more experience.
“But as I continued to watch Chase practice and saw the command he had, I saw a confident young man that did not get rattled. He's been outstanding for us.''
When he got his chance in the second half against Sacramento, Clement completed 8 of 12 passes for 101 yards and a touchdown. He also ran for two scores in pulling the Locos into a 24-24 tie late in the game.
Clement and Willy split time last week in a meaningless game at Hartford — the Locomotives had already clinched a spot in the title game. Clement threw three interceptions in the 27-14 loss and completed only 9 of 23 passes. Willy was 10 of 16 for 109 yards, two less than Clement's 111 yards.
Regardless, Clement appears to be the quarterback that will start for the Locos on Saturday.
“I'm glad for this opportunity,'' he said. “I struggled last week but I'm going to take the mistakes I made and learn from them. I think that's going to help me this week when we play for the championship.''
Contact the writer:
402-679-2298, steve.pivovar@owh.com
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