Mountaineer Magazine
October 01, 2004 10:46 AM | General
October 1, 2004
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – Charles Hales has worn a lot of hats since he transferred to West Virginia University three years ago from Jones County (Miss.) Community College.
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| Charles Hales has already thrown a touchdown pass this year. Now he would like to catch one.
All-Pro Photography/Dale Sparks photo |
Hales came to WVU as a quarterback and has served well in that capacity as a backup to starter Rasheed Marshall. He has also seen action as a fourth wide receiver, both catching the ball and running reverses.
Now most recently, Hales has added student ticket broker to his WVU resume.
When the school instituted a new student ticketing policy before this season based on a merit system, some students were left out in the cold for the sold-out Maryland game a couple of weeks ago. The topic of student tickets was discussed in one of Hales’ journalism classes and Charles came up with an instant solution for three lucky students.
Hales explains: “It was a regular Thursday class and I had three extra tickets. We were doing an evaluation in class about the new ticket system and some students weren’t able to get tickets and they were seniors,” he said. “They gave their opinion about the situation and it just happened that I had three extra tickets.
“I was glad to help them.”
Helping people is just his nature. There may not be a more popular and likeable guy on the Mountaineer football team than Charles Hales. It’s common to see Hales with an ear-to-ear grin on his face walking around the Milan Puskar Center, and he often transfers his infectious personality onto the practice field, too.
And Hales isn’t just about making his teammates laugh, either. Last year when West Virginia needed him to step up at Boston College he performed like a champ. He coolly led WVU to a 35-28 victory over the Eagles by firing three touchdown passes and finishing the game with 167 yards passing.
Hales is good enough to start on a lot of teams, which is why West Virginia coach Rich Rodriguez decided last spring to use Charles at wide receiver.
“I told Charles there is no NCAA rule against starting two quarterbacks,” Rodriguez said during fall camp.
The 6-foot, 200-pounder played both wide receiver and quarterback in the season opener against East Carolina, running a reverse for 11 yards as a receiver and also getting some snaps under center although he didn’t attempt any passes.
He caught his first pass against James Madison last week (14 yards) and also completed both pass attempts for 15 yards with a touchdown. The TD pass to Brandon Myles was a check off from the sidelines.
“Everyone saw it. It was a run play and I was concerned about the linemen being down field but I don’t think Coach was. He just wanted me to get the ball downfield to him,” Hales said. “I didn’t even see the ball land.”
Hales nearly didn’t see the coaches frantically motioning for him to change the play.
“It’s really hard when everyone is screaming and hollering,” Hales said. “Sometimes he gets caught into the game and he’s rushing you and sometimes you get set in that mode and then he wants something else. It is just something we work on everyday trying to get better.”
The Ellisville, Miss., admits it’s much easier managing Rich Rodriguez’ offense from the field during games than it is in practices. That’s because Charles says there is a lot more distance between the quarterback and Coach Rod during games.
“In practice he’s like right here,” said Hales, pointing to the back of his head. “We’re like, ‘Coach, okay, okay.’ He’s good at it.”
Hales says it’s not that difficult shifting from wide receiver to quarterback, but he does admit it takes him a little while to get his arm loose.
“As a receiver I’m running straight and as quarterback I’m taking three steps so it’s a different rhythm,” he said. “I’m not using my arm as much. It’s kind of like waking up and then trying to throw a football … it’s hard to do.”
Because Hales could go in at any second at quarterback, he must wear every protective pad there is to cover his body. There can’t be a wide receiver in the country wearing as many pads as Hales does.
“I’m like a kicker: I’ve got every pad on,” he laughed.
There were times last Saturday against James Madison when Rodriguez had Marshall, Hales and fourth-string quarterback Dwayne Thompson in the game at the same time. And while defenses are aware that Hales is a quarterback and they identify him quickly when he goes out onto the field, Hales says Thompson kind of flies under the radar screen right now.
That makes trick plays harder for Hales to run.
“I don’t think it is going to be more effective with me in because people are looking for me. They maybe don’t realize that Dwayne is also a quarterback and that benefits him,” he said.
Hales believes by running more routes and catching more passes defenses will soon let their guard down and that could open up some things. “The best thing for me is to run routes because teams now know I’m not just in there for trickery,” he said.
Hales says he would like to catch a pass at midfield and turn on the jets and see how far he can go.
“I’m ready to catch one and see if I can run for 40 or 50 yards,” he said.
Mountaineer fans wouldn’t mind seeing it happen this Saturday against Virginia Tech. That would be worth the price of a ticket.
Be sure to watch Charles tonight on Mountaineer Magazine.
