Small Town to Big-Time
June 13, 2005 03:30 PM | General
June 13, 2005
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – Being from a town small enough to fit in the Touchdown Terrace section of Mylan Puskar Stadium, Travis Garrett knows all too well the overwhelming feeling a small-town guy can have playing big-time college football.
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| Senior Travis Garrett is looking to become one of the leaders of a young offense in 2005.
Pete Emerson photo |
Sometimes it just takes them a little longer to get their feet on the ground.
“Coming from a small town like Grafton you’re always the big man on campus and coming here you see that everyone is a little bit bigger and a little bit stronger,” he said. “It definitely takes you back a little bit but it’s something you have to go along with and get used to.”
For Garrett, it’s never been about physical ability. The 6-foot-6-inch, 305-pound left tackle is the biggest offensive lineman on the team and has feet nimble enough to keep up with Rich Rodriguez’ no-huddle, spread offensive system. The obstacle for Garrett has always been realizing that he’s good enough to play on this level and doing it consistently on Saturdays.
“It’s been about mentally maturing and I feel now that I’m more mature than I’ve ever been in my life,” he said.
Garrett says being ‘more mature’ means being able to “handle all of the stresses of the job and taking things in stride.”
A more mature Garrett is a good sign for a young West Virginia offense that has a pretty solid group of linemen returning in 2005. The Mountaineers do have to replace longtime regulars Tim Brown, Mike Watson and Jeff Berk, but their replacements aren’t exactly wet behind the ears either.
“We have some guys who are ready to step up,” Garrett said. “Of course we took a hit when Mike, Jeff and Tim left last year but the guys who are up right now have game experience and I think we’ll be ready.”
The man in charge of getting the offensive line ready has developed a pretty healthy reputation for putting together effective units. One of the biggest weapons in offensive line coach Rick Trickett’s arsenal of tactics is playing time. Each practice is a lesson in natural selection: only the strongest survive.
“Everyday you step onto the field there is competition for your job. You never know if you’re going to start from one week to the next,” Garrett said.
That competitive philosophy helped Trickett successfully piece together an offensive line that was virtually decimated with injuries in 2003.
In fact, Garrett and fellow sophomore Garin Justice got significant playing time that season and have grown ever since. Today, those two are developing into the leaders of the team.
“For guys like me and Garin it’s basically taking what we know now and teaching that to the younger guys. We’re trying to become the best leaders that we can be,” Garrett said.
Garrett was only able to get in a couple of weeks worth of work during spring drills before injuring his ankle. Returning guards Jeremy Sheffey and Dan Mozes were also out for the spring, meaning several younger players got valuable experience.
“It started to look better. We had a pretty good spring game,” the senior said. “I could see it from the sidelines. I think we’ve finally got a hold on what we need to do and now it’s a matter of getting all of the veterans together and trying to teach the younger guys because we had a lot of young guys out there during the spring.”
Garrett’s ankle injury forced him to spend time in a boot and that put him behind in his conditioning.
“I was pretty immobile,” he said. “I just had to stand back and watch and if any guys needed help they could come to me and I could talk to them.
“I definitely need to get into better shape,” he mentioned. “I still have a long ways to go being off surgery but I’m working hard at it to get back.”
What Garrett was able to observe during the spring drills was an athletic and talented defensive line that was able to take advantage of the younger, more inexperienced offensive linemen. Even though it was ugly to watch at times, Garrett believes that experience will only help the younger linemen this fall.
“We’ve definitely got some guys that are athletic and can run,” Garrett said of West Virginia’s defensive linemen. “It is certainly a challenge blocking them everyday in practice.”
According to Garrett, there is a great deal involved in having a successful play – more so than the casual fan might realize. If one part of the process breaks down, the entire play doesn’t work.
“A lot of it is not just knowing what you do but also knowing what the guy beside you does as well,” Garrett said. “If you know what everyone is supposed to do then you’re going to be better.
“If we run a screen and the receiver is supposed to make a certain block I need to know where he’s going to be at that time and where I need to be at that time,” he mentioned.
Garrett says having all five linemen in sync on every play is the unit’s ultimate goal.
“I’ve spent time playing guard as well as tackle so I know what Dan is supposed to do on plays and I know what I’m supposed to do. It’s all about Jeremy (Hines) making calls and us helping with those calls to get things going,” he said.
Garrett isn’t foolish enough to make bold predictions, but he does promise that the team will come to work everyday with the goal of getting better. That has become an expectation in the five years Rodriguez has been here.
“You don’t want to go out and just predict something,” he said. “You want to go out, play hard, and let the chips fall where they may.
“Right now we’re just a bunch of guys who are working hard and we’re trying to achieve one thing and that’s to win,” Garrett said. “We really don’t have any egos, not that we had any egos last year, but I think we have more team players this year. We’re just going to go out and try our best. That’s all we can do.”
