After 12 NFL seasons, former UConn star Orlovsky weighs future

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As the offseason revs up with the start of mandatory minicamps, Dan Orlovsky ponders his next move. The future is suddenly murky for the well-traveled quarterback.

Twelve years in the NFL have undoubtedly taken a toll on his body, but Orlovsky, 33, isn’t ready to walk away. He still eats and trains — albeit with lighter weights these days — as if he’s preparing to play another season.

“That’s not to say that I don’t hurt getting out of bed every morning,” Orlovsky said recently by phone. “I still love it, I love that hurt. It probably makes me a little weird, but it makes me feel alive. I’ve always loved the grind. I love that it takes as much mentally as it does physically.”

If it seems like Orlovsky is a glutton for punishment, it’s because quarterbacks tend to be wired differently. After all, what possesses a man to scrape himself off the turf and jump back into the huddle just moments after being flattened by a 250-pound linebacker?

“There’s just not a lot of people on the planet like us,” Orlovsky said with a laugh.

Shelton High School quarterback Dan Orlovsky looks to throw in the 2000 Class LL hampionship game against Greenwich. Shelton won the game 22-8. Shelton High School quarterback Dan Orlovsky looks to throw in the 2000 Class LL hampionship game against Greenwich. Shelton won the game 22-8. Photo: Hearst Connecticut Media File Photo Photo: Hearst Connecticut Media File Photo Image 1 of / 39 Caption Close After 12 NFL seasons, former UConn star Orlovsky weighs future 1 / 39 Back to Gallery

Orlovsky spent last season with the Detroit Lions, but the team opted not to re-sign him with 24-year-old Jake Rudock waiting in the wings to supplant him as Matthew Stafford’s backup. If this is the end for the former Shelton High School and UConn star, Orlovsky will leave having thrown for 3,132 yards, 15 touchdowns and 13 interceptions across stints with the Lions (twice), Houston Texans, Indianapolis Colts and Tampa Bay Buccaneers. He made 12 starts, including seven as a member of the 2008 Lions, the only team to ever finish 0-16.

“I’ve had some talks with teams this spring about playing another season,” he said. “I don’t have to make that decision just yet.”

Raising eyebrows

Offenses, especially at the high school level, have undergone a radical transformation since Orlovsky last donned a Shelton uniform. In those days, teams rarely utilized the no-huddle drill early in games, but the Gaels ran it whenever they pleased with the state’s Gatorade Player of the Year at the controls.

“He had a way of seeing things on the field that very few high school players could see,” said former Shelton head coach Joe Benanto, who let Orlovsky call the plays.

Orlovsky’s ability to make nearly every throw in the book caught the attention of several prominent college programs, including Michigan State. The Spartans ran Orlovsky through a series of drills during their visit to Shelton and were wowed by the precision on his 15-yard out patterns.

“They basically offered him a scholarship on the spot,” Jeff Roy, a former defensive coordinator and current head coach at Shelton, said. “They said they didn’t have a quarterback on the roster who had the arm strength that Dan had.”

Shelton finished the 2000 season 12-0 and beat Greenwich 22-8 in the Class LL championship game. Orlovsky passed for over 2,300 yards, 24 touchdowns and just five interceptions in his third year as a starter.

Purdue and Virginia joined the Spartans in pursuit of Orlovsky, who already stood 6-foot-5 and weighed over 200 pounds, but Orlovsky chose to stay close to home and commit to UConn. That decision surprised even a few members of his own camp.

“A lot of people and coaches around here questioned it a bit because he had some big-time offers,” Roy said. “But Dan knew what he wanted. He wanted to be the guy that put UConn football on the map.”

The daunting leap from Division I-AA to I-A was just beginning for UConn, which at the time was still playing before scarce crowds at 16,000-seat Memorial Stadium. The Huskies finished 3-8 in their first year as an independent in 2000 under Randy Edsall.

“He was the guy at 17 who said, ‘Hey, it’s cool to go to UConn,’” Edsall said.

Knowing there were rewards on the horizon, the Huskies were patient. Rentschler Field, a 40,000-seat, state-of-the-art facility located in East Hartford, was set to open in 2003.

“I know there were people in his camp that maybe were pushing him to go to bigger places, more established places,” Edsall said, “but we just did the things we needed to do to convince him that, ‘Hey, here you have a chance to make a bigger impact.’”

Tough love

Rob Ambrose, the former head coach at Catholic University, a Division-III school located in Washington, D.C., sat face-to-face with Orlovsky and grilled his new quarterback in one of the most awkward get-to-know-you moments that anyone could imagine.

“I asked him if he thought he was really good. He said, ‘Yeah,’ pretty arrogantly,” recalled Ambrose, who took over as the quarterbacks coach at UConn during Orlovsky’s sophomore year in 2002. “I said he was too skinny, his release was too long, he wasn’t really athletic and, as far as I could tell, he wasn’t really being a student of the game.”

Any guesses as to how that turned out?”

“At first he was angry,” Ambrose continued, “then he said, ‘OK, teach me.’”

Knowing Orlovsky needed to have a strong backbone in order to build the Huskies from the ground up and lead them on the path to the Big East, which they joined in 2004, Ambrose wasn’t afraid to ruffle the quarterback’s feathers. For instance, when Orlovsky proclaimed himself the best quarterback in the state, Ambrose sarcastically replied, “Congrats, that’s like being the best quarterback across three counties in another state.”

Call it tough love for the quarterback who dared to be different.

“He’s the face that really got this program started,” Edsall said. “He never batted an eye. He never flinched.”

A few days before they were supposed to visit Navy late in the 2002 season, the Huskies trotted out to practice in a driving rainstorm. Orlovsky whined about how cold it was. Tired of those complaints, Ambrose ordered him to roll around in a puddle.

“I pulled him aside and said, ‘You’re about to have the best ... damn practice of your life,’ and he did,” recalled Ambrose, who is now the head coach at Towson.

Coincidentally, it rained that Saturday. Orlovsky had one of the best games of his career, completing 29 of his 35 attempts for 272 yards and three touchdowns in a 38-0 rout.

In 2003, Orlovsky threw for 3,485 yards and 33 touchdowns. The next year he led the program to its first bowl game — a 39-10 victory over Toledo in the Motor City Bowl.

“I don’t know if we would’ve had the success we had if he didn’t come here, if he didn’t blaze the trail to do what he did,” Edsall said.

“He made us relevant on that stage,” added Norries Wilson, who was the Huskies offensive line coach from 1999-01 and the offensive coordinator from 2002-05.

Orlovsky still holds the school record for most completions (916), passing attempts (1,567), passing yards (10,706) and touchdown passes (84).

Hello, again

UConn hit a new low point during last year’s 3-9 campaign, finishing last among the 128 Football Bowl Subdivision teams with a measly 14.8 points per game. The porous offense upset a large fraction of the fan base, including Orlovsky.

During a season-ending loss to Tulane, Orlovsky posted the following on his Twitter page: “I feel terrible for the folks of CT who bought in and supported this program from the beginning. Hoping it comes back soon. #UConnFootball.”

The Huskies fired Bob Diaco in December after three tumultuous years, setting the stage for Edsall’s surprising return. Edsall spent last year alongside Orlovsky as the Lions director of football research.

“When he left Maryland, I thought he would choose to not be a head coach again,” Orlovsky said. “But I know coach Edsall and he keeps things close to the vest. I know how special UConn is to him.”

Edsall’s return has created some speculation as to whether Orlovsky will rejoin him in some capacity if the quarterback’s career in the NFL is over. Though Orlovsky — whom the Lions drafted with the 145th overall pick way back in 2005 — spent some time in the spring at UConn as a student assistant, he said he still hasn’t decided what to do next.

“There’s not a lot of people that play 10 years in the NFL, 12 years,” Orlovsky said. “I know how hard it is to play for four years, let alone 12.”

Orlovsky, who lives in Philadelphia with his wife and four children, has also explored broadcasting if he can’t latch onto another team. No matter what happens, though, he knows he’s lived a charmed life.

“I haven’t bought sneakers since I was 17,” he said. “I haven’t bought a Gatorade since I was 17. I’ve had breakfast and lunch cooked for me for half the year since I was 17.”

dbonjour@ctpost.com; @DougBonjour