‘Q’ in Search of an ‘A’

Quincy Carter, the New York Jet quarterback who goes by the nickname “Q,” has never been the answer. Not for long, at least.

Not at the University of Georgia, where he went from freshman star to junior washout. Not with the Dallas Cowboys, who abruptly dumped him amid drug rumors in August, eight months after he had led them to a 10-6 season and the playoffs. And, even now, he is at best a short-term solution while Chad Pennington recovers from a shoulder injury.

Carter, who today will make his starting debut for the Jets against Baltimore, is merely keeping the position warm for Pennington, who could miss as much as a month because of a strained rotator cuff in his throwing shoulder. Carter signed a one-year, $550,000 deal with the team in part to learn the West Coast offense, something he felt would enhance his marketability. Suddenly, the heat is on him to keep a resurgent franchise on course. At 6-2, the Jets are one game behind New England in the AFC East.

“Quincy has the right attitude,” running back Curtis Martin said. “He doesn’t expect us to miss a beat. We all believe in him.”

Apparently, belief in Carter evaporated quickly among the Cowboys. Far from a chorus of complaints, the veteran players hardly made a peep after his shocking release. In three seasons with the Cowboys, he reportedly failed two drug tests and twice was admitted to rehab. Shortly after his release, he adamantly denied a report he had used cocaine.

“I just refuse to believe he has gone down that road [of cocaine],” Steve Davenport, one of his former high school coaches and a friend, told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution in August. “Even so, as most mortals do, he has some issues and demons to fight.”

Carter, 27, wasn’t ready last week to publicly discuss his troubles as a Cowboy, not with a major game looming.

“The only thing I want to concentrate on right now is winning for the New York Jets.... That’s who I’m playing for right now,” he said. “That’s who’s paying me my paychecks.”

An elusive scrambler with a rocket launcher for a right arm, Carter was an immediate sensation at Georgia.

He played brilliantly as a freshman, despite sitting out of football for two seasons to pursue a pro baseball career. But by the time he was a junior, his play had dropped off so sharply that some Bulldog fans speculated something sinister was taking place. There were rumors about drug use and game-fixing. It became almost an afterthought that most of his exceptional supporting cast was gone.

Former Georgia coach Jim Donnan, now an analyst for ESPN.com, said some of his players tested positive for marijuana use, but Carter wasn’t one of them. So persistent were the rumors of wrongdoing, Donnan conducted his own investigation after one season, calling local authorities and the FBI to look into the situation and see what they could find.

“That was something that was kind of a cloud around me, all the game-fixing stuff,” said Donnan, who was fired after Carter’s final season. “I wanted to make sure all that innuendo wasn’t true.”

In 2001, Carter left for the NFL a year early and was a surprise second-round pick of the Cowboys. He had some bumpy times -- he was almost cut after a sideline yelling match with team owner Jerry Jones in Arizona -- but eventually seemed to develop the trust of his teammates. Last November, after Carter helped lead his team to a 24-20 victory over the Super Bowl-bound Carolina Panthers, Dallas Coach Bill Parcells called it “a big step forward.” That was a mouthful for a coach who is slow to dole out praise to his players.

A year later, Carter is determined to reconstruct his career. Although the expectations for him are lower now, the stakes are as high as ever. Once an insurance policy, he’s now the man.

Former USC coach Paul Hackett, offensive coordinator of the Jets, told reporters that, even though the game plan was tailored to Pennington’s skills, it would be “foolish” to tweak it too much for Carter.

“This guy [Carter] has got a marvelous arm,” Hackett said. “His ability to run the team is going to be key. We have seen a little bit against Miami, we’ve seen a little bit against Buffalo. How do you run the team? How do you get the ball in the end zone? That’s the unknown. That’s the exciting thing for the fans, for me and for everyone: How is he going to run the football team?”

Carter typically has had problems protecting the football. He had 21 passes intercepted last season. But Jet Coach Herman Edwards said it was important to allow him to play his game rather than ask him to be overly conservative.

“You don’t want to put a harness on a guy and all of a sudden he’s thinking, ‘I can’t throw the ball. I’m nervous,’ ” Edwards said. “He needs to play like he did in the Buffalo game, that little spark that you saw.”

And Carter said he’s ready to show that spark to everyone.

“I’m just looking to go out and complete footballs,” he said. “Since I’ve been in this league, there have been naysayers, and pretty much I’ve been beating the odds and I’m going to try to continue doing the same thing.”

It won’t take long to see whether this Q comes with an A.

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Out of Balance

New York Jets quarterback Quincy Carter played well during the first six games of last season with Dallas but struggled the rest of the way:

*--* 1st 6 Gms Last 11 Gms* * Yards/Att 7.77 5.72 * Yards/Comp 13.3 9.9 * TD/INT 7/5 10/16 * Rating 84.6 63.6 * W-L 5-1 5-6

*--*

* -- includes playoffs

On the Weak Side

The Jets have a 6-2 record this season, but they haven’t played an imposing schedule. A look at the Jets’ strength of schedule this season:

* Teams played to date: .373 (2nd easiest in NFL)

* Teams remaining: .594 (t-2nd toughest in NFL)

Source: Stats Inc.