Tall Task
December 29, 2006 07:04 PM | General
December 29, 2006
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – West Virginia University junior safety Eric Wicks doesn’t see Calvin Johnson in his sleep, but he certainly is aware of what a tremendous talent Georgia Tech’s two-time All-American wide receiver is.
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| Safety Eric Wicks says getting pressure on the quarterback may be the best recipe for holding down Georgia Tech All-America wide receiver Calvin Johnson.
All-Pro Photography/Dale Sparks |
“He’s got it all. He’s tall, he’s fast, he can jump, he goes up for the ball and he can catch it,” said Wicks.
Johnson was called the “most gifted player in college football” by ESPN.com’s Bruce Feldman. “Johnson is like the superman player you create on video football games when you want to toss reality aside,” wrote Feldman.
Wicks and his Mountaineer teammates have to face the real thing Monday afternoon in the 2007 Toyota Gator Bowl in Jacksonville, Fla.
“He has great ball skills,” Wicks said. “The way he goes up for the ball and as big as he is, most guys don’t have that type of skill to go get the ball. I like the way he does it.”
Johnson has a rare blend of size (6-5 and 235 pounds), speed (4.3 in the forty) and athletic ability (45-inch vertical jump). The junior has a school-record 26 career touchdown catches and ranks second in Georgia Tech history in career receiving yards (2,741) and is fourth in career receptions (169).
This year, Johnson shows 67 catches for 1,016 yards and 13 touchdowns. He had a 10-catch, 133-yard effort in a win against Maryland and had a career-high 168 receiving yards on nine catches against North Carolina State. Wicks isn’t sure a talent like Johnson can be totally stopped, but West Virginia must try and do some things to disrupt his timing a little bit.
“I think we’ve got to stay in his face all day and try and bother him; knock him off balance and knock him off his routes,” Wicks said. “It’s hard to stop him.”
The best way to hold down Johnson is by finding a way to get to quarterback Taylor Bennett, who assumes the starting role against West Virginia now that four-year starter Reggie Ball was proclaimed academically ineligible for the Gator Bowl.
“It’s very important just to try and shorten the time for the corners to try and cover him. If they can get pressure on the quarterback and force him to throw some bad balls maybe we can get them out of sync,” Wicks said.
West Virginia doesn’t have a lot of tape of Bennett to go on. The sophomore appeared in just six games this year, attempting 29 passes and completing 16 for 197 yards and a pair of touchdowns.
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| Calvin Johnson owns the Georgia Tech record with 26 career TD catches.
Georgia Tech photo |
“He’s a good quarterback and we’ve got to worry about him trying to pick us apart,” Wicks said. “We’re going to try and mix up some things and see how he does.”
West Virginia’s defense has been susceptible to the pass this year. The Mountaineers are giving up 236.4 yards per game through the air and in their last five games against Louisville, Cincinnati, Pitt, South Florida and Rutgers they have allowed 1,562 yards.
“People have been putting a lot of passing yards up on us and we’ve got to try and slow it down a little bit and help out,” Wicks said.
Facing a receiver of Calvin John’s stature is certainly a huge challenge – one Wicks is looking forward to.
“It gets me pumped up and it gets the defense pumped up because we know we’ve got a big challenge for us and we’ve got to try and slow him down,” Wicks said.
Briefly:
“We’ve got a couple of big guys ourselves so we try and get everybody to match up against the tall guys,” said Wicks.
“The coaches help us out a lot but most are running to the weak side of the field,” Wicks said. “In our defense we have two strengths on the edges so they want to try and go up the middle a little bit more. When we disguise and show a little bit it should help us.”
“As the season went on I think we’ve gotten better and better as far as getting to the quarterback and pressuring him,” Wicks said. “If we can do that this game I think that will be big.”
A handful of players and coaches from both teams visited Wolfson Children’s Hospital after the luncheon.
