P is for Preparation
March 25, 2009 02:37 PM | General
March 25, 2009
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – Bill Stewart knew the day was coming when West Virginia would no longer have Pat White under center. Once he got the WVU job on a permanent basis, right away Stewart began planning for the time when that would happen.
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| Jarrett Brown has patiently waited four years for the opportunity to run West Virginia's offense. Now he gets his chance.
Bill Amatucci photo |
“Coach Stew had the vision to know that there was going to be a post-Pat White offense in place very soon,” Offensive Coordinator Jeff Mullen said. “We were able to implement that last year.”
So even while White was still running the show, instead of constantly running into nine-man fronts why not change the play and throw the football over top, Stewart reasoned? If the defense is giving you the middle of the field or the seams, attack that part of the field.
Sometimes it worked and other times it didn’t, but Stewart knew the day was coming when White’s feet were no longer going to win football games for the Mountaineers. As irony would have it, it was actually White’s arm that won the Meineke Car Care Bowl.
What Mullen is attempting to do this spring perfectly suits Jarrett Brown’s abilities – which Mullen says are more similar to White’s than you might think.
The one big difference is a simple matter of approach. Brown readily admits that when the pocket breaks down and the play becomes instinctive, his first inclination is to scramble and buy time to throw the football downfield. On the flip side, White was always instructed to tuck the football under his left shoulder and take off running when things went awry.
“All he had to do was make one guy miss and he was usually up against a linebacker or somebody that was not as fast as him,” Brown said.
Having watched White play for four years, Brown grew to appreciate White’s growth as a quarterback, particularly last year when Mullen took over the offense.
“One thing I could say about him from watching him from the sideline is that he has gotten a lot better with his poise in the pocket,” Brown admitted. “I wasn’t surprised that he did so well at the combines because I knew he could do it. He impressed me in practice.”
With White around, Brown has done a lot of watching – probably a lot more than he originally intended to do when he came to West Virginia. It has been pointed out many times that Brown is undefeated as a starting quarterback, which amounts to only three games.
However, one of those wins was performed under a steady chorus of boos in the second half of West Virginia’s surprisingly difficult 17-6 victory over Syracuse last year. A week earlier White was knocked out of the Rutgers game with a concussion and Brown, having been used as the team’s third-down back against the Knights before taking over for White, could barely lift his right shoulder against the Orange. Naturally, the coaching staff couldn’t reveal that little nugget of information because Syracuse would have blitzed Brown into oblivion. So Brown kept going out there chucking bubble screens - he had no other choice.
“When he went out with a hurt arm against Syracuse, it was like going out on the street and fighting with one leg, hand over one eye and one hand behind your back,” Stewart explained.
It showed tremendous courage on Brown’s part and a willingness to do whatever it takes to win a football game. Brown wasn’t traumatized by the experience because he is mature enough to understand that those booing didn’t have the slightest idea what was going on behind the scenes.
“They don’t understand why we threw all those screens in the Syracuse game and why we didn’t throw the ball downfield,” Brown said.
“Some are passionate and some are straight knuckleheads,” laughed Brown, immediately adding that the passionate fans far outnumber the knuckleheads.
Brown is also quick to point out that he doesn’t waste his time paying much attention to the ‘straight knuckleheads’ anyway.
“(Criticism) doesn’t exist. I just do what I do and I’ll be alright. I’m a positive person,” he explained. “If I throw a pick it’s not the end of the game.”
Having passionate fans (and the knuckleheads) is a by-product of the tremendous success West Virginia football has experienced the last five years. It is a great compliment to the players and coaches when nine-win seasons are now considered a disappointment in the eyes of some.
There was a time not too long ago when nine wins was enough to warrant a parade down High Street.
“It’s a process,” Brown cautioned. “Sometimes you have to go through some tough things to reach the top. We are blessed to be in the situation that we are in.”
Brown became much more introspective and serious about his business once he realized that the security blanket West Virginia had been relying upon was gone when White graduated.
“I said to myself, ‘I’m the only quarterback that really knows all this and has played.’ I know the offense and I’ve got to run seven on seven and all of the functions that we’ve got to run,” Brown said.
That meant no more diversions like his year spent playing with the Mountaineer basketball team in 2008. From the beginning of last season until now, all of his thoughts had to be devoted to playing quarterback – which is one of the hidden secrets to the phenomenal success Pat White enjoyed during his career. Observing White, Brown came to understand the link between preparation and being a great quarterback. The two are not exclusive.
“I am always thinking about new ideas even when I am sitting in my house,” Brown said. “I feel like I’m thinking like a coach sometimes – just randomly thinking about what can I do to make this play better? Things like that.”
Mullen is doing his part to stimulate Brown’s curiosity.
“We’ve started this thing called Quarterback School and it’s going great,” Brown said. “(Mullen) is covering areas that no one had ever taught me before like learning fronts of the defensive line and then tying it to the safeties.
“Just looking at the defense as a whole and knowing the responsibilities and the assignments of the corners and the safeties – I should automatically know where to go with the ball just like that.”
Brown said there are three letters that Mullen has drilled into his mind every time a play is called and he begins scanning the defense. Those three letters are P-C-P.
“Protection, coverage and play – that is what he is always telling us,” Brown said. “You are not looking at your players because you know what they are going to do and the areas that they are going to be in.”
All three letters are interlinked, beginning with protection.
“Protection is knowing which way your line is going to slide,” Brown explained. “If they are coming from this side are you going to have that side blocked? Then you don’t have to worry about that side. You may be hot on this side but you don’t know. You’ve got to get the protection right so that you are protected.”
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| Jarrett Brown has a 3-0 record as West Virginia's starting quarterback.
Bill Amatucci photo |
Coverage amounts to all of the time Mullen and Brown spend together observing other team’s tendencies and understanding what they are going to do in certain situations.
“The coverage part is knowing what the defense is going to give you and the areas that are open,” Brown said.
And play is what Brown does best.
“Just play ball,” he says.
The trick for Mullen will be to minimize the first two parts of PCP in order to maximize the third part because Brown is such an enormous raw talent. His size enables him to see over the line of scrimmage, his arm strength allows him to cover the entire field, and his foot speed and athleticism can get him out of trouble most of the time.
“I think we put our kids in a great position to win last year with this system, and I think Jarrett having been in it for a year, he will continue to get better at what we do,” Mullen said.
Brown offers this interesting analogy to characterize the preparation he’s done so far.
“If you have a chemistry test and you study all week for it you know how you feel when you prepare for it,” he explained. “You are not anxious or nervous at all. That’s how I feel. Everything I have done in practice has prepared me for this.”
That should make all Mountaineer fans a little more comfortable.
