The best time to find out what a quarterback is made of is when he must react after a performance where he struggled and know he didn't play his best game.
For Charleston coach Pat Kirkland, he got to see that firsthand in the days following the Golden Eagles' loss to Glenville State as he watched Anthony Fontana.
Fontana, thrown into the starting role after quarterback Mason Olszewski went down with an injury, completed just 3 of 8 passes for 43 yards with a touchdown and four interceptions as UC fell 35-28 to the Pioneers. But to watch the way he responded leading up to last week's win over West Virginia State, you would have never known that it happened.
"You saw a kid who really showed a lot of maturity after that game," Kirkland said. "It's hard to come back from that - to jump right back into it and practice the way he did and help lead us to a win last week. That says a lot about who he is."
As far as Fontana was concerned, that was the only way he could react.
See, he knows that opportunities don't often come up for backup quarterbacks to show what they can do. If he shut down after one bad game, he may have not gotten many more chances after that.
"I just couldn't wait to get back on the field, that was the big thing for me. I wanted to go play again and put that in the past," Fontana said. "Even in practice, I wanted to get on the field.
"You can't make those mistakes, but you can't let them add up or carry over. That was what I focused on, I needed to move on and try to not make many more negative plays."
In the offense UC has started to run, skewing more toward the run with the talented group of backs the Golden Eagles have, the sophomore from New Jersey understands that the burden won't be on him to throw the ball a ton.
His job is to manage the offense, work with those backs and that offensive line and do what he has to do to help Charleston continue returning to form after picking up its first win of the season last week.
In that win over West Virginia State, he completed four passes for 57 yards and seemed to grow more comfortable as the game went on.
"Those guys make my job so much easier," Fontana said. "We believe we have the best running backs in the conference. My job is to manage the game and be smart when I run the offense - we have the talent here to be really successful."
Fontana will make another start Saturday as Charleston visits Concord. Olszewski remains out.
"We started to make some really good headway with him and then tried to go on it, but then he aggravated it," Kirkland said of Olszewski. "Right now we're trying to rest it, and when it feels good to go we'll really be sure with it.
"Anthony is doing a nice job right now and we just have to continue to build on what he can do."
That situation illustrated the most important piece of Fontana's job as the backup heading into the season.
When you're the backup, you never know when something is going to happen and your number is called. That was why Fontana knew he needed to stay ready, and now he has his chance to keep UC moving in the right direction while the starter remains sidelined.
"When Mason was out there, I still prepared as if I was going to have to be out there because you never know," Fontana said. "If you practice like that, watch film like that, it all helps. When you're not on the field, you have to take those mental reps on the sideline.
"That's the best thing you can do because when you get your shot you have to take it and try to make the most of it."
Contact Michael Carvelli at 304-348-4810 or michael.carvelli@wvgazettemail.com. Follow him on Twitter @carvelli3.