WVU's Field General
April 19, 2004 01:01 PM | General
April 18, 2004
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – With the conclusion of spring football drills senior-to-be quarterback Rasheed Marshall admits he isn’t one for being nostalgic.
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| Quarterback Rasheed Marshall warms his hands during a break earlier this spring. (All-Pro Photography/Dale Sparks) |
Marshall took part in his final spring activity as a Mountaineer quarterback on Saturday playing in the Gold-Blue spring game. He says spring football practice is more about work and less about play.
“I’m not going to say it’s a bad feeling,” said Marshall of his last spring. “Spring practice is kind of long and you want things to be over with but with it being my last one it’s kind of like I’ll never be here again. It’s something you’ve got to deal with.”
Close friend Quincy Wilson told Marshall to enjoy his senior year because it goes by quickly.
“I was just talking to Quincy the other day and he said, ‘I can remember spring drills being over and just right after that the season was over.’ I know it’s going to be a quick year this year and I’ve got to make the most of it,” Marshall said.
The Pittsburgh native returns for his third season in 2004 as West Virginia’s regular signal caller. In two years as a starter Rasheed’s passing figures haven’t knocked people’s socks off but statistics have never been the true measure of Marshall’s worth. As a starting quarterback he has led WVU to 9-4 and 8-5 seasons and back-to-back bowl game appearances. West Virginia is 12-2 in Big East games with Marshall under center and more importantly, he has the respect of all his teammates.
That respect has allowed him to speak his mind when he believes the circumstances call for it.
“Regardless of whether it was my junior year or sophomore year I was telling guys where to go,” he said. “You’ve got to let them know because you’re the guy with the ball in your hands. You're the field general so to speak out there. If you want to depend on guys you’ve got to let them know.”
It’s no secret that West Virginia coach Rich Rodriguez is interested in developing more of a downfield passing attack this year. In his first three seasons, personnel have dictated more of a grind-it-out style. Marshall says downfield passing is something the offense has spent a lot of time this spring working to improve.
“We’re trying to develop a vertical game so that’s what it’s going to be … more downfield throws,” said Marshall.
And while West Virginia has tried to take advantage of the seams created by two years worth of punishing runs, so far the results have been varied.
“It seems we’ve been hitting them and at other times we haven’t been hitting them,” said Marshall. “There’s always room for improvement.”
In the three scrimmages leading up to last Saturday’s Gold-Blue game, the defense clearly got the upper hand. The final scrimmage before the Gold-Blue game the offense failed to score a touchdown. Part of that is because some key offensive players were missing due to injuries and also because the defense has a pretty good beat on what the offense is going to do.
“It wasn’t hard for them to catch on,” said Marshall. “We’re not doing a lot of different things and it kind of makes it easy on the defense to be able to stop some of the things we do. We’ve got a whole lot of stuff that we haven’t put in and if we really wanted to play our defense in a game we could game plan them. But it is spring ball and we’re pretty much out here to get better.”
Marshall says it is also important that West Virginia get its full compliment of running backs healthy and ready to go when fall camp begins in August. A lot of what West Virginia does offensively is predicated by having a strong running game.
“Having good running backs in there definitely helps,” said Marshall. “Not saying the guys replacing Kay-Jay (Harris) and Bryan (Wright) weren’t good but those guys are experienced … they’ve been in there and they can pretty much get the job done.”
Because the coaches had to play musical chairs at running back for most of the spring, Marshall admits he spent a lot of time before each play directing traffic instead of going through all of his pre-snap reads and checks.
“It has been difficult because sometimes you’ll have a guy in there that is experienced and knows what he’s doing and then at other times you have to direct things right in the middle of the play when I have to think about what I have to do. Pretty much as a quarterback that is going to happen but it definitely helps having guys in there that know what’s going on,” he said.
Marshall believes he may also have to take on more of the burden in the running game this year, “I’m already planning on doing that,” he said. “If I can be an addition to helping our running game by using my speed and quickness then so be it.”
Marshall says he has consistently clocked in the 4.4 range in the forty this spring and admits he’s a step faster than last year. That was evident on one play earlier this spring when it looked like he was bottled up along the sideline when all of the sudden he put on the jets and turned a short gain into a 15-yard run for a first down.
Rasheed thinks better instincts may have also helped his football speed, “Being in there so much you kind of develop a little rhythm to where it’s like, ‘All right, it’s getting that time to run with it.’ I’m a step ahead on the decision making and knowing when to tuck it or staying in the pocket.”
In addition to running more, Marshall is interesting in developing a better rapport with the wide receiver corps. Many times a quarterback is blamed for a bad pass when in some cases it is the wide receiver that wasn’t where they were supposed to be. Marshall says both parties need to be on the same page, particularly if West Virginia is going to air it out more often this season.
“We’re still working on that,” he said. “There are times when maybe a defensive back might do something and the receiver is not used to it and breaks his route off. Those are the things we need to work on over the summer and hopefully it will come together.”
Marshall’s passing figures weren’t spectacular on Saturday, hitting 6 of 11 passes for 90 yards with an interception. By comparison, backup Charles Hales was 11 of 14 for 153 yards and freshman Dwayne Thompson was 13 for 21 for 154 yards and a touchdown. But both of Marshall’s top Blue team receivers were out while Hales and Thompson were able to throw to Chris Henry, who finished the game with 13 catches for 200 yards. Also, both Hales and Thompson played against mostly backups on defense.
Putting any stock whatsoever in those spring-game totals is ridiculous. And while Hales has been impressive at times this spring, Rodriguez takes into consideration the whole body of work put forth by each player during spring practice when determining who is where on the depth chart.
“Clearly Rasheed had the better spring of all of our quarterbacks … we’re looking at the big picture for that and he will be the starter going into the fall,” said Rodriguez Saturday.
He was also quick to say that no job will ever be secure as long as he’s head coach. Based on what has transpired this spring, West Virginia’s other quarterbacks will keep putting the pressure on Marshall to improve. And based on Marshall’s performances over the past three seasons he is sure to be up to the challenge.
Season tickets for the 2004 Mountaineer football campaign are now on sale. They can be ordered by calling toll-free 1-800-WVU GAME or by logging on to WVUGAME.com
