Football Notebook
August 03, 2009 05:54 PM | General
August 3, 2009
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| Jarrett Brown |
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – Quarterback Jarrett Brown plans on running the football this year – he just won’t be doing it as the deep back in the I-formation.
“In my mind I was a running back so I tried to lower my shoulder and run over everybody,” he said last week.
The result?
“I had a thigh, a shoulder … my whole right side was messed up,” Brown laughed.
Last year, necessity required the 221-pound Brown to spend a portion of the season as the team’s third-down power back. Including carries at quarterback, Brown finished the season with 176 yards and three touchdowns. In 25 career games, Brown has carried the ball 117 times for 671 yards and seven touchdowns. He has an impressive 5.7 yards-per-carry average.
Brown said the running he will be doing this year will mostly occur when the linebackers are clear and a lane is open.
“I’m going to run the ball because it comes natural,” he said. “I will be able to extend a play with my legs.”
One of the reasons Pat White was so effective running the football was because defenders rarely ever managed to land a good blow on him. Former Mountaineer quarterback Rasheed Marshall used to marvel at how White could usually avoid a direct hit while also landing softly on the ground when he went down.
Brown noticed that as well.
“He never took a direct hit and that is a compliment to his speed,” Brown said. “It was hard for people to judge where to meet him because he would out-run them or shake them.”
Brown, although not as fast as White, has deceptive speed. His long legs can chew up yardage quickly and he said he will use those long legs to buy time to look for an open receiver down the field or run and get a few extra yards.
“It’s going to have to be a split decision,” he said. “Most of the time I am looking down the field but if I see grass, I’m going to take it.”
Briefly:
“I’m going to treat it like the spring,” he said. “(Coach Jeff Mullen) didn’t want to wear me out but at the same time, when he did take me out I wanted to get back in there because I can’t stand to stand on the sidelines,” Brown said.
It was also during the spring that Brown said he got the Bill Stewart take-charge-and-be-a -leader speech.
“This is my team,” Brown explained. “We had a lot of leaders go and we have to replace them this year. I’ve got to be in the best shape of my life and study film as much as possible.”
“They may look covered but they’re not covered,” said Brown. “Just like basketball when you throw the ball to the guy in the post – it’s the same thing. That’s what they’re good at, making those type of catches.”
Brown is a big fan of West Virginia’s receiver corps and he says this is the best collection of receiver talent the Mountaineers have had since he’s been here.
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| Alric Arnett |
“We’ve got speed, we’ve got size and we’re not too young,” Brown said. “(Alric) Arnett is experienced – he played in every game last year. Wes (Lyons) had an awesome spring and Bradley (Starks) is a rising star. We’ve got talent out on the field and we’re going to be hard to defend.”
If Pitt is the pick, recent poll history is not necessarily on the Panthers’ side.
Since the departure of Miami, Virginia Tech and Boston College in 2004, the league favorite has only gone on to win the Big East title one time – in 2007 when West Virginia did it.
In 2004, preseason favorite West Virginia was edged out by Pitt. In 2005, West Virginia turned the table on preseason pick Louisville. In 2006, Louisville paid back preseason favorite West Virginia, and in 2008 Cincinnati knocked the Mountaineers off their perch.
Four years ago the Gator and Sun bowls worked out a deal to take a team from the Big 12 or the Big East, including Notre Dame, two times during a four-year span. This year marks the final year of this arrangement.
The previous two years the Gator has picked a Big 12 team (Nebraska in 2008 and Texas Tech in 2007) so this season the Gator is contractually required to choose a team from the Big East, or Notre Dame.
You can follow the Big East’s media day coverage at http://www.bigeast.org.
