Somebody will have to explain to me why football coaches believe in developing depth at every position except quarterback. At whatever level, the QBs are the most vulnerable players on the field, the ones most likely to get injured. Yet these days it’s difficult for the backup QB to get snaps even when his team has a game in hand.

I first became aware of the importance of a backup QB in 1965. That year Kentucky had an extraordinarily talented team that won six of its first eight games and seemed destined for a berth in the Cotton Bowl.

But against Houston in the Astrodome on Nov. 13, the Wildcats lost the one player they couldn’t afford to lose – senior quarterback Rick Norton. His absence didn’t cost the Wildcats that game – Houston won, 38-21 – but it certainly cost them the next week against Tennessee.

Without an experienced backup for Norton, UK Coach Charlie Bradshaw shifted sophomore Terry Beadles from safety to quarterback. Beadles did as well as could be expected, completing seven of 13 passes, but the Wildcat offense, which went into the game averaging 21 points per game, were helpless in what turned out to be a 19-3 Tennessee victory.

At 6-4, the Cats didn’t have a good enough record to merit an invitation to one of the few bowls that existed in those days.

I thought about Norton and Beadles in the closing minutes of the Louisville-Connecticut game. With the Cards clinging to a 21-20 lead and starting quarterback Hunter Cantwell hobbled by a sprained ankle. U of L coach Steve Kragthorpe decided to stick with Cantwell instead of going to backup Tyler Wolfe.

I suppose I could have understood if the Cards were behind and needed to hit a couple of deep passes to win. But with the lead, it seems to me that U of L should have forgotten about passing and concentrating on eating the clock with the running game that had served it so well.

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Both Victor Anderson and Bilal Powell had 100-yard rushing games, so I would have put in Wolfe with the orders to give them the ball. The worst that could have happened was (a) a fumble, or (b) UConn would have stopped the Cards and forced them to punt.

Either scenario would have been better than what happened.

Not content to force Cantwell to play on one leg, Kragthorpe ordered him to pass instead of hand off. You know the result. He completed a nice spiral to Lawrence Wilson, who took it 45 yards for a touchdown. The only problem is that Lawrence Wilson plays for UConn.

Kragthorpe’s refusal to use Wolfe was underscored by the painful fact that when starting UConn quarterback Tyler Lorenzen was knocked out of the game with an injury, sophomore backup Zach Frazer came off the bench to pass for 90 yards and a TD. The Huskies had a backup QB ready to go and U of L didn’t.

Why?

Well, I suppose you can blame Matt Simms. He’s the son of Phil Simms, the former Southern High, Morehead State, and New York Giants star who’s now a top NFL TV commentator. He was supposed to be the backup QB, but got himself a four-game suspension for an undisclosed violation of team rules. He’ll be eligible to play next week against Memphis, which is a game too late for the Cards.

But I prefer to blame Kragthorpe for (a) throwing the ball when he should have been running it, and (b) not having Wolfe ready to go. He apparently believes his starting quarterbacks are indestructible. Last year, playing behind Brian Brohm, Cantwell appeared in only three games and attempted a meager 14 passes.

I wonder what Rich Brooks will do if he faces a similar situation Saturday against No. 2 Alabama in Tuscaloosa.

Going into fall practice, Brooks had a healthy quarterback “controversy” working for him. He planned on playing both Mike Hartline and Curtis Pulley. But he had to go to Plan B when Pulley’s troubles with the law left Brooks no choice but to kick him off the team. (He’s now at Florida A&M).

Hartline played all the way in UK’s opening win over U of L, but, when he faltered early in the Norfolk State game, Brooks replaced him with freshman Randall Cobb, who electrified the crowd by leading the Wildcats to three consecutive scores. Cobb looked so good, in fact, that some in the crowd booed when Brooks went back to Hartline to start the second half.

While chastising the boo-birds afterward, Brooks noted accurately that UK would need both QBs to get through its monster schedule. The very next week, Cobb was injured against Middle Tennessee, again putting UK at risk in case something happens to Hartline.

At least Brooks recognizes that it’s just as important to have a backup QB as it is to have a backup safety or tight end. But he’s in a distinct minority. Today’s coaches build their offenses around one man – what will Florida do if Tim Tebow goes down? – and that’s an amazing gamble in such a high-stakes endeavor.

This year most of the nation’s top teams are built around a super-talented quarterback. Besides Tebow, the reigning Heisman Trophy winner, there are Sam Bradford of Oklahoma, Chase Daniel of Missouri, Colt McCoy of Texas, Max Hall of BYU, Todd Reesing of Kansas, and Mark Sanchez of Southern Cal.

The spots in the national championship game may well go to the teams that have backups ready to go. It’s sheer folly to pin all your hopes on one QB. Rich Brooks knows that already, and it will be interesting to see if Kragthorpe learned anything from his gaffe in the UConn game.

It says here that Matt Simms should get some snaps against Memphis no matter what the score. He seems to be the future more than Wolfe, considering Kragthorpe’s refusal to use Wolfe at the end of the UConn game.

Whatever, in order to be fair to all concerned, Kragthorpe needs to have a backup ready. Quarterbacks do go down, you know. Just ask the NFL.