By Bob Hertzel
MORGANTOWN — The problem with being a writer is that everyone expects you to find exactly the proper phrase for what it is you want to express and that just doesn’t always happen. There are times where you struggle over a certain phrase, maybe even can’t sleep because you know it’s there, but you just can’t put it together.
So it has been with Noel Devine, who has emerged as one of the great offensive weapons in a college game where the nation thinks offense begins and ends with either Tim Tebow of Florida or Colt McCoy of Texas.
If only he had some kind of catchphrase, something that put a stamp on him that the public could understand and that the national media and those glib, slick-haired TV people could put their lips around.
See, the advertising guys have always had a way coming up with the perfect phrase that would brand a product, as far back as you can remember.
Brylcreem hair dressing told us that “a little dab’ll do you” and there was a toothpaste company informed us that we’d “wonder where the yellow went when we brushed our teeth with Pepsodent.” Burger King says “Have it your way” and Dinah Shore on her early days TV show reminded us we could “see the USA in a Chevrolet.”
But whenever we tried to find that perfect catchphrase for Devine, we were always left asking “Where’s the beef?”
These phrases sometimes just jump out at you and they might come from anywhere, which is why it is far better to keep your mouth shut and your ears open, especially in a press conference setting, for in the midst of Bill Stewart’s Sunday teleconference we finally stumbled upon the perfect label for Noel Devine.
While this was Stewart’s press conference, it was Colin Dunlap of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette who must be credited with putting the words together exactly as they should be to fit Devine. In the midst of questioning Stewart about the play that Devine broke for the game-winning touchdown from 56 yards out, Dunlap said:
“Is that what makes Noel Devine special, he takes first downs and makes them touchdowns.”
Bells went off, sirens sounded, birds sang and somewhere a T-shirt was waiting to be made.
I can see it now, a picture of Devine running down the sideline, a defender in hot pursuit behind him with the wording underneath the picture:
NOEL DEVINE
He turns first downs into touchdowns
Could anyone come up with a better description of Devine?
Could anyone describe the play that he ran a year ago in the late minutes against
Syracuse any better, a zone read around end that was designed to get the Mountaineers out of their own goal, to maybe pick up a first down and let them run the clock out.
Ninety-two yards later, he crossed the end zone.
What happened against UConn was little different. The Mountaineers trailed, 24-21, just under three minutes to play. They had just picked up a huge third down conversion and now they were looking to pick up another first down, run that zone read with Devine wide around right end.
Stewart said the play is designed to pick up 6 or 8 yards, maybe 12 or 15.
But a touchdown?
You have to understand the zone read play. It is designed to create seam, the entire offensive line sliding in one direction.
“Defenses have to adjust,” Stewart explained. “Everyone has gap responsibility. As the line moves, the gaps move. You have to keep your feet, you can’t stumble.”
There’s one problem.
“You can’t block them all,” Stewart said.
Even if the play is run perfectly the free safety gets a shot at the ball carrier, and that’s how it was with Devine’s run. Jerome Junior was the safety with the shot at Devine after he had made his first down.
“We think maybe Devine can beat the free safety.”
Junior had a perfect angle. He got there on time. He made a push on Devine … and he couldn’t get him out of bounds, even though he was within inches of the sideline.
Devine had turned a first down into a touchdown.
More than that, he’d turned a defeat into victory.
E-mail Bob Hertzel at bhertzel@hotmail.com.
