He’s a championship QB with a 17-0 mark at MGCCC. Why do colleges mostly ignore him?
All Chance Lovertich has done is win throughout his football career.
If you add up the games he has started from his high school days at Jackson Prep and the last two seasons at Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College, he’s 56-1 as a starting quarterback.
He has been flawless at Gulf Coast, going 17-0 as a starter over two seasons and leading his team to the Dec. 5 NJCAA national championship game against Lackawanna in Pittsburg, Kansas.
If Lovertich leads the Bulldogs to a national title, it will give him five championships during his football career, adding to three private school state titles at Jackson Prep and this year’s MACJC state championship at MGCCC.
All the while, he has shown pinpoint accuracy as a passer and leadership skills.
“He’s everything you want as a quarterback,” MGCCC coach Jack Wright said. “He’s accurate and he’s a winner. He brings some intangibles to the table as far as his leadership ability, his ability to be a coach on the field and get guys lined up to get us in a great play, get us out of a bad play. That’s all stuff that you want. Chance has really been the leader of this offense, and most recently the leader of the team.”
After completing 70.8 percent of his passes as a freshman, he has hit his targets this year at a 66.3 clip for 2,676 yards, 24 touchdowns and seven interceptions.
Lovertich doesn’t bring Brett Favre to mind when it comes to arm strength, but he’s good at setting his feet and getting rid of the ball in a hurry.
“I have a sense of urgency to make the right read and get the ball out of my hand because I can’t throw it 70 yards down the field,” he said.
‘If I could be a little bit taller’
While Gulf Coast has a tradition of sending players to college football powerhouses like Alabama and LSU, Lovertich has barely been a blip on the radar for most college coaches.
While his passing stats jump out, it’s another number that scouts see that causes them shy away from recruiting the Brandon native. Lovertich is 5-11, 192 pounds, short of the 6-2 standard that coaches often place on quarterback prospects.
When you consider his perfect mark in the MACJC, a junior college league regarded as the nation’s best, and his stats, Lovertich acknowledges there has to be some bias due to his height.
“If they looked at my name and it said 6-2, then what else would be wrong?,” he said. “The stats, the wins … there’s nothing else I feel like I can do besides if I could be a little bit taller.”
Lovertich didn’t earn his first FBS scholarship until Nov. 13 when South Alabama offered, joining a pair of Div. II programs — Arkansas Tech and Mississippi College. Louisiana Tech has also shown interest.
The USA offer provided a respite in what has been a frustrating recruiting process.
“It was very nice,” Lovertich said. “It showed that they believe in me. It gives me the opportunity to continue playing football so I can show what I can do. I’ll definitely take that into consideration.”
Ole Miss and UAB have also told Lovertich they’d like to have him on their rosters for the 2020 season, but those are preferred walk-on offers that don’t include a scholarship. South Alabama, which is located an hour and 20 minutes from the Perkinston campus in Mobile, didn’t start talking to him until after the eighth game of the season.
Lovertich overlooked and underestimated
Being overlooked and underestimated is something Lovertich grew accustomed to at Jackson Prep, where he only received a pair of junior college offers out of high school — Pearl River and Gulf Coast. He ultimately chose MGCCC due to the coaching staff and what he describes as the best junior college football facilities in the state.
College coaches lined up to watch his star teammate at Jackson Prep, current Ole Miss running back Jerrion Ealy, but they dismissed Lovertich’s production in high school since he played against inferior competition in the private school league.
Even when he completed over 70 percent of his passes as a freshman at Gulf Coast, coaches at four-year colleges didn’t pay him much attention.
“If you want someone that wins games, I think you go recruit someone that wins and at a good level too. And this is a really good league,” Lovertich said. “It’s not like in high school when they doubted me because the competition wasn’t good at a private school. They can’t say that I didn’t play against really good competition.”
That lack of recruitment has fueled Lovertich, inspiring him to treat his sophomore season as his last opportunity to prove the doubters wrong.
“I knew if I didn’t this would be my last year playing football,” he said. “You’ve got to do everything in your power to show what you can do and make people believe you can get it done at the next level, or else I’m done. This is the last shot.”
Against Lackawanna, Lovertich and the rest of his Gulf Coast squad will be given one more chance to prove themselves in a nationally-televised game on CBS Sports Network. Lackawanna, located in Scranton, Pennsylvania, has a roster loaded with FBS prospects, including a pair of Penn State commits — safety Ji’Ayir Brown and receiver Norval Black.
Lovertich is confident his offense will be up to the task.
“(The coaches) give us the right plan and we go out there and execute that game plan,” he said. “We’ve got the dudes around me that can do the job. If I just get it to my receivers in open space, they’re going to do the rest of the work.”
Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College vs. Lackawanna College
When: 5 p.m., Dec. 5
Where: Pittsburg, Kansas
Watch: CBS Sports Network
This story was originally published November 22, 2019 at 11:58 AM.
