Tough Call
April 21, 2005 03:09 PM | General
April 21, 2005
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – West Virginia coach Rich Rodriguez has a tough decision to make but at least he’s got some time before he’s got to make it. The fifth-year coach has to determine which quarterback is best suited to lead the Mountaineers in their season opener at Syracuse in the Carrier Dome on Sept 4.
 Bednarik |
 Thompson |
The candidates are of varying age and ability but each share the same characteristic: inexperience. Rodriguez sizes up the group of eight quarterbacks he expects to have in camp this fall.
“We have a lot of quarterback candidates,” he said. “Obviously Adam Bednarik was out but we think he will battle for the starting job. We think Pat White made great strides and he’ll compete for that position as well. And we thought Dwayne (Thompson) made improvements.”
White had by far his best performance of the spring in the Gold-Blue game last Saturday, completing 10 of 18 passes for 141 yards and a touchdown and running 11 times for 89 yards and a pair of scores. In the previous two officiated scrimmages the lefthander had a tough time completing at least half his pass attempts going up against the No. 2 defense.
Rodriguez believes White, a former Alabama player of the year runner-up and a one-time LSU recruiting target, might be a completely different player when the lights come on and there are people in the seats.
“We were talking about as coaches that sometimes when a player gets into a scrimmage or a game-like situation the game is slower for them and they see things better and they actually perform better,” Coach Rod reasoned. “That is one reason why you want to have a spring game and scrimmages like that. It was good for (Pat) because that was the best he had performed and that was encouraging.”
Dwayne Thompson completed 10 of 15 passes for 65 yards and ran 11 times for minus three yards in the spring game. Because Thompson is such a talented athlete, Rodriguez isn’t against using him some at wide receiver should the need arise.
“He has played receiver in the past and he can help us again at that position,” said Rodriguez.
Bednarik, the team’s number three quarterback last fall, lost some ground by not being able to compete this spring but Rodriguez expects him to make that up through informal throwing this summer and during fall camp. The 6-foot-2-inch, 220-pound sophomore might be the best pure passer on campus right now. The coach said Bednarik is about ready to start his throwing program.
“We talked about that with the athletic trainer and he’s right on schedule if not ahead of schedule,” said Rodriguez. “We think by the time the end of May is here he should be released 100 percent. We may want to limit how much he throws on his own during the summer initially. By the time August gets here he’ll be projected to be 100 percent. We’re really not concerned with that at all.”
The coach isn’t about to tip his hand on which direction he’s leaning this fall. He does believe that by the end of camp he will have a couple of them ready to go against the Orange.
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| Freshman Pat White passed for one touchdown and scored two more in West Virginia's spring scrimmage last Saturday afternoon.
All-Pro Photography/Dale Sparks |
“I know that position is critical and is on everybody’s mind but I’m confident we’ll have at least two guys ready to go by September 4th,” he said.
Rodriguez also isn’t entirely opposed to taking a close look at his three freshman prospects this fall when they arrive. And while it is tough for a freshman to step right in and lead a major college football team, Rodriguez isn’t going to pigeon-hole himself by disregarding them entirely.
“You never discount them because you don’t know how much they can learn and we don’t have the opportunity to work with them until August,” he said. “I don’t want to ever discount any true freshman because you don’t know how fast they’ll learn but it’s tougher for them maybe to play that position and offensive line than any others. We signed them because we thought they had a chance but we’ll see what happens in August.”
Possibly helping the newcomers with the acclimation process is a propsoal that would allow true freshmen to enroll in summer school in an effort to give them a head start on the fall semester. This practice has been successful in men’s and women’s basketball.
“The final legislation has not been passed on that yet but we’re hoping that it will pass to allow incoming freshmen to come and take summer classes and be allowed to pay for summer scholarships,” the coach said. “There are several of them that we signed that indicated that they would like to do that in the second session in the summer starting in July. It would be hard for them to do that in the first session because you have to be admitted to school and cleared by the Clearinghouse. We’re hoping it will pass and we will have several of our new guys down here for the second session.”
The wild card in the quarterback equation is J.R. House, a former two-time state player of the year who chose to play professional baseball in the Pittsburgh Pirates organization. House, now 25, last threw a football in a game during his senior year of high school in 1998.
He had off-season shoulder surgery recently and has also had surgery to repair an injured elbow on his throwing arm.
“J.R.’s biggest thing is obviously his shoulder and his rehabilitation,” said Rodriguez. “I think the other issues are behind him (surgeries). It’s more a question of how fast his shoulder will rehab from the surgery he had this past off-season.”
Rodriguez has no reservations whatsoever about House’s age or his long inactivity on the gridiron.
“There are quarterbacks in the NFL … Vinnie Testaverde was 41 and playing so the age to me is not a factor, particularly at that position,” Rodriguez said. “A lot of times the extra maturity at that position will help you.”
