Quiet Leader
August 05, 2003 02:40 PM | General
August 6, 2003
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – Senior Tim Brown may not be the rah-rah type, but he says he’s ready to assume a leadership role for West Virginia’s revamped offensive line this season.
“I just try and lead them in the drills and show them the ropes and how Coach (Rick) Trickett wants the drills done,” he said.
In addition to Brown, West Virginia also has senior guard Geoff Lewis and senior center Ben Timmons working with the first group. The rest of the unit is made up of junior left tackle Jeff Berk and redshirt freshman guard Dan Mozes.
Brown says leadership responsibilities rest with all three seniors. “It’s the three seniors’ jobs, it’s not just mine,” he says. “They each started a game last year; Geoff Lewis started the Pitt game, he’s a good vocal leader and so is Ben Timmons.”
Brown admits he’s not as vocal. But he’ll say something when he believes he has to.
“It depends. I’m not really a big vocal leader. (Lance) Nimmo was a big vocal leader last year but I’m a different type,” he said.
Tim Brown would rather let his action speak. According to WVU strength and conditioning coach Mike Barwis, Brown has worked himself into terrific shape.
“He’s probably the best conditioned linemen we’ve got out there right now,” said Barwis. “One thing’s for sure, we don’t have a bunch of fat guys running around out there now.”
And while Brown agrees he’s in great shape, he says there is a little give and take with playing at nearly 300 pounds this season.
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| Senior Tim Brown is assuming more of a leadership role this season. (All-Pro Photography/Dale Sparks) |
“As far as strength-wise plus conditioning, I’d say, yeah, I’m in the best shape,” he admitted. “That first year when they were here and I weighed like 269 pounds I could run all over the place. But I was light.”
Today Brown has the size and strength necessary to become a dominant college offensive tackle. Some even believe Brown has enough tools to play at the next level. Yet Brown downplays any talk of a future career in the NFL.
“It doesn’t change anything,” he said. “You’ve just got to keep on playing as hard as you can. I don’t know about all of that NFL attention, though.”
Last year as a junior, Brown helped pave the way for Avon Cobourne’s record-breaking 2002 season. Cobourne finished the year rushing for a Big East and school-record 1,710 yards last year. Cobourne also became one of just a handful of backs in NCAA history to rush for more than 5,000 career yards. Many of Cobourne’s yards came as a result of Brown’s crushing blocks.
This year, Brown will do his blocking for up-and-coming back Quincy Wilson. He says there is absolutely no difference blocking for the two.
“They’re both great backs but they have different styles,” said Brown. “Quincy is more of a straight-on runner and I think he’s faster. But they’re both great backs.”
Although Brown hasn’t paid much attention to newcomer Kay-Jay Harris, he believes he could be a factor if he’s as good as his press clippings indicate.
“If he does what he needs to do I guess he should play based on what people say,” said Brown.
West Virginia’s first two practices of fall camp must be done without full pads. For the casual observer, it may appear that not much is going on down with the linemen when they aren’t going full-go. Not true, according to Brown.
“You run exactly the same kind of practice except you don’t hit as much,” he said. “We do the exact same things as far as individual drills with or without pads. You can still go hard in one-on-one pass sets.”
At any rate, Brown says his primary focus is on improving this fall and having his best season ever as a senior.
“It’s an important year because it’s my last year. I want to do well and go out on top,” he said.
