Weight Watcher
July 14, 2003 01:51 PM | General
July 14, 2003
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – Hamburgers without the bun? Forget about it. West Virginia University senior defensive back Brian King will eat two hamburger buns if it helps him reach his desired weight of 185 pounds by the time fall camps rolls around.
King isn’t a fan of the Dr. Atkins diet -- or any other diet for that matter. Unlike the rest of us, putting on weight has always been a concern for the 6-foot, 180-pound senior from Damascus, Md. He’ll eat just about anything to add a few additional pounds to help combat the wear and tear of a grueling college football season.
“I asked (strength coach) Mike Barwis if he thought I could be 185 by the time the season starts,” said King. “He said there’s no reason I can’t be 190 by the time the season starts.
“You’ve got to do as good as you can leading up to two-a-days because once you get to two-a-days you’re going to lose three or four pounds,” King added. “Mike says we’re going to be working as hard in-season as we are right now.”
For King, the fun has already begun. “This is the hardest I’ve ever worked during the summer by far,” he said.
According to the WVU graduate now working on his master’s degree, physical conditioning has taken on a new meaning this summer. The Mike Barwis plan includes plenty of pain.
“We’re head and shoulders ahead of where we were last year,” King said. “I’ve been here since the fall of 1999 and I don’t even want to see where some of these younger guys are going to be a few years from now.”
Perhaps the most difficult test of strength and stamina comes in the form of Law School Hill, an imposing obstacle that must be completed in a span of two and half minutes.
“It’s just a mindset,” says King. “Mike gives you the ability to not put a limit on your mind as far as what you can do. Last year we did the hill four, five or six times and we were done. We couldn’t do any more. The first time we did it this year we did it seven times. The second time we did it 10 times. I don’t want to think about how many times we’re going to do it next time.”
King says summer conditioning may be the most important time of the year in a football player’s development.
“This is when you build yourself up,” he said. “I think it is more important now than the spring or winter conditioning. This is when you’ll know where you’re going to be as a team.”
This year’s West Virginia University football team has the opportunity to build upon a surprising 2002 season that saw the Mountaineers win nine games and qualify for the Continental Tire Bowl.
Brian King played a big part in West Virginia’s turnaround season. The cornerback finished last year with 79 tackles, 12 pass breakups and three interceptions.
His most noteworthy pick came at Virginia Tech when he intercepted Bryan Randall’s pass in the end zone that would have won the game for the Hokies. King managed to hold onto the ball despite playing with a cumbersome cast to protect a broken thumb injured in the Syracuse win.
Despite his success as a three-year regular, King says he can’t wait for the 2003 season to get underway. “This is the most excited I’ve been coming into a year since I’ve been playing football,” he said.
King knows that with a potent offense returning, all eyes are going to be trained on West Virginia’s young defense. One key spot of concern is the defensive line. King is certain veteran defensive line coach Bill Kirelawich will have them ready to play.
“I’m not worried about the personnel because I know Coach Kirlav is going to have them right,” King said. “He’s been around for 20-some-odd years and he’s not going to accept anything less than their best.”
Because King was concentrating on playing two positions last spring (cornerback and safety) he didn’t get a chance to study West Virginia’s defensive line very closely. Yet he knows when the time comes they will be up to the task.
“You don’t really have to worry about them because you know they are going to be coached well,” said King. “That’s a good feeling to have as a player.”
An area King has put some thought into is West Virginia’s 3-3 stack defensive scheme. Last year under Todd Graham, the Mountaineers pretty much stayed in the same defense in order to make sure everyone was comfortable running it.
“Teams now know what to expect so we’ve got to throw some different angles and different looks at them … maybe a two-high safety look as opposed to a one-high safety look all of the time,” he said. “We’ve got to make the quarterback drop back and think a little bit instead of knowing that West Virginia is going to sit back into three-deep coverage all of the time.”
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| Brian King has made many bone-jarring tackles during his three-year Mountaineer career. (All-Pro Photography/Dale Sparks) |
King, who got rid of his trademark “high-and-tight” haircut for a longer “mop-top” look this summer, says his work at safety last spring was an attempt by the coaching staff to get the best players on the field at the same time. Yet he expects to be playing cornerback when the season starts against Wisconsin on Aug. 30.
“I think they were just playing with the numbers and seeing where the best fit was as a whole,” he said. “We made some changes since spring and we’ll probably still play with the numbers when camp rolls around. We’ll have the best 11 on the field by the time Wisconsin comes to town.”
King says playing the Badgers will be a great challenge.
“This will be a good measuring stick as to how we’re going to do as a whole,” he said. “They’re strong and they’re tough.”
This and That ...
King points out that Marshall’s real strength is his 4.4 speed.
“A defensive back can still be in his back peddle when Rasheed pulls the ball down and decides to run,” said King. “By the time you get out of your back peddle he’s already on top of you and that’s tough to defend.”
“He can throw a football sixty yards in the air from his knees,” added senior Leandre Washington. “He’s got one of the strongest arms I’ve ever seen.”
McBrien and King have remained good friends and McBrien attended King’s graduation party his family held back in Maryland last May.
The two talk frequently but the conversation rarely turns to football. “He called the other day and football never came up,” said King. “We usually talk about other things.”
