By Bob Hertzel
MORGANTOWN — While the news on defensive tackle Scooter Berry isn’t very encouraging about his chances to play for West Virginia this Thursday night in a nationally televised game against Colorado, the Buffaloes learned that their worst fears have been realized and they will have to face quarterback Jarrett Brown.
Injured late in the fourth quarter of a 41-30 loss to Auburn after having been harassed into throwing four interceptions and losing a fumble on a sack, Brown was pronounced fit Monday by Coach Bill Stewart, who also said that he expected senior middle linebacker Reed Williams to answer the bell.
“Jarrett threw lasers yesterday. He’s fine,” Stewart said.
Brown had gone out with an injury to his left (non-throwing) shoulder against Auburn and sat out the final few minutes as freshman Geno Smith got his feet wet.
Colorado controlled Patrick White last year in pulling off a 17-14 overtime upset in Boulder, but they know that facing Brown is a totally different challenge.
“If you ask him, he’ll probably say he doesn’t want to be Pat White,” Colorado linebacker Marcus Burton said this week. “He’s a whole different animal. White was athletic and they had a whole lot of plays designed for him to run. It’s no different now, but Brown is definitely a passer. This guy can use his arm or his feet. He’s a football savvy guy when you watch his film.”
Brown has used his size and strength — he is 6-4 and 221 — to escape what has been a lot of breakdowns by his offensive line, often throwing on the run. But his exceptional arm strength has allowed him to make good plays out of bad.
“Every scout that comes through here goes ‘Wow!’” Stewart said. “He’s becoming a polished passer right now. It’s all coming together.”
Against Auburn there were a number of factors that went into his first really difficult game since he had to start last year against Syracuse with a bad throwing shoulder and had a rough time of it but oversaw a victory.
“He was frustrated because he did not take care of the ball,” Stewart said during Monday’s Big East coaches’ conference call. “He tried to force some passes.”
A year ago WVU ran the ball well against Colorado and may lean more toward the run this week than it has in the first three games as they want to control the ball and keep away from what Stewart believes is a tricky passing attack run by a sly quarterback, coach Dan Hawkins’ son, Cody.
Running back Noel Devine has been a force on offense for the Mountaineers and Stewart wants to increase his number of touches. Colorado knows what they are up against with Devine.
“He can start one way and can end up on the other side of the field. That guy’s an athlete,” Burton said.
“He’s definitely something to watch,” linebacker B.J. Beatty added. “He gets the littlest gap and takes off for 20-30 yards. Get him into open field and he’s a deadly person. Hopefully, we contain him and keep him in check . . . and hold down the fort.”
Stewart speaks as highly of the Colorado offense as the Buffaloes speak of his.
“I’m very worried about Cody Hawkins,” Stewart said. “He’s a tough guy. He has the ability to make three and four reads. The guy has winner written all over him. He understands exactly what his dad’s offense is all about. He was reared in it back in the Boise State days.”
Having Williams around at middle linebacker will help deflect some of the things Colorado does. He did not play last year’s game with injured shoulders.
“Reed is our defense. He’s the anchor. He brings a mental toughness every day, every time out on the job. He brings a mental edge,” Stewart said. “It hurt him not to play last year. When he couldn’t defend himself, we had to make a decision. I’ll never send a kid out there who can’t protect himself.”
And, unless Berry makes a quick turnaround in the closing days of this week, he will sit out his second straight game with a shoulder injury that came while executing a sack on Patrick Pinkney in the East Carolina game.
Josh Taylor has done a solid job filling in for Berry.
WVU’s Oct. 10 game against Syracuse will either be at 3:30 p.m. on Saturday and shown by ABC-TV or it will be a noon game that will be shown as the Big East game of the week. The decision between that game and Pitt’s game against UConn will not be announced until Monday … Wide receiver Wes Lyons is fully recovered from a hamstring problem and could be more of a part of the offense than he has been to date.
E-mail Bob Hertzel at bhertzel@hotmail.com.
