COLUMN: Brown adds one more wrinkle to offense

By Bob Hertzel

MORGANTOWN — Early this past week, West Virginia ran a play in practice, a rather routine kind of play where the back just hit the hole and drove forward.

It was the kind of run the Mountaineers could have used how many times as they staggered to a 1-2 start, the losing record being a direct reflection on their inability to gain those tough yards on third down and short.

On this play, the back hit the hole and drove forward, moving people as he did.

Jeff Mullen, the offensive coordinator who had been looking for someone to do that, greeted the back as he returned the huddle.

“You,” he said, “are my Eric Dickerson.”

Hearing that, Jarrett Brown just did what he does best — he lit up the sky with one of those big, bright smiles of his.

From that time on, every time Brown carried the ball — and he carried it a whole lot — Mullen reminded him that he was his Eric Dickerson.

For those of you too young to remember or who know Dickerson only as a rather terrible sideline reporter on Monday Night Football, he was one of the best, most punishing running backs ever to play in college or professional football.

We now fast forward you to Saturday afternoon in Milan Puskar Stadium, WVU’s season hanging in the balance, 60,154 fans unsure what to expect as the Mountaineers lined up to hand Marshall its annual whipping, 27-3.

They had been warned by coach Bill Stewart that he’d been messing with Brown running the ball, hinting that at 6-4 and 220 pounds he might just be the big back they’ve been lacking.

Coaches don’t normally give away secrets like that, but Stewart would point out in his post-game press conference, “When I tell you something it’s the truth.”

Indeed, Brown found himself in the same backfield with quarterback Patrick White on the game’s second play, even taking a pass and losing a yard, the only negative yard in another otherwise classic first drive.

Leading 7-0 on this drive that was mostly done with the basics of the offense, WVU did a strange, strange thing. Rather than coming right at Marshall with more basic stuff and doing it until they stopped it, they decided to use a play that Stewart would refer to as a “dipsy-doodle”, which was in this case a double reverse.

One might recall a week earlier they tried a “dipsy-doodle” of another color, a double pass that should have gone for a touchdown but fell incomplete. This “dipsy-doodle” was even worse, even though it might have broken big, for the lateral from White to Noel Devine was off line and fumbled for a loss of 5 yards.

Brown had been in on two plays and they accounted for a fumble and six yards lost.

“My first thought was ‘What’s going on?’” Brown admitted.

Rather than taking the package of plays they had designed for Brown to run in the backfield with White and scrapping it, the coaches decided to stick with it and it proved to be the difference in the Mountaineer offense.

After going 3 for 13 on third down against Colorado, WVU was 8 for 13 this time and the difference could be found partly in a Marshall defense that gave up almost 500 yards and has given up more than 400 yards in each of its last three games and partly in the fact that Brown became a huge factor.

Called on to handle the ball on three third-down plays while the game was still in hand, Brown accounted for three first downs, running once for 10 yards, once for 14 and once for 3.

“Him being in there adds another dimension,” White would say later. “He adds a big body.”

While this is true, it also creates something of a problem. Put this way, you don’t pinch hit for Albert Pujols when the game is on the line and it doesn’t really make a whole lot of sense to take the football out of the hands of the best running quarterback in history, either.

However, when White was asked about that, he looked the questioner in the eye and asked, “You trying to start a fight?” half-jokingly, I hope.

No, but it is a legitimate concern. White has 3,875 career rushing yards, third in history for a quarterback, Brown has 826.

So why Brown and not White on crucial third down carries?

“I weigh a buck ninety,” said White. “He weighs 225. He’s the biggest back we have.”

Brown wound up with more playing time than he ever expected to get as White went down midway through the third quarter with what was diagnosed a bad thumb.

Ironically, it was on a third down play, one that White successfully executed, as if to put on exclamation point on why he shouldn’t be carrying the ball on every third down.

“Pat can’t carry it on every play,” said Mullen.

Brown came out and finished out the game, putting some big numbers on the board. He rushed for 78 yards on eight carries, a 9.8 average, and completed 5 of 7 passes for 44 yards, making only one really miserable decision that ended up in an interception.

White, on the other hand, rushed for 61 yards on 11 carries and completed 17 or 21 passes for 130 yards and a pair of touchdowns, one to Jock Sanders, one to Dorrell Jalloh.

While White’s thumb was wrapped after the game, it wasn’t believed to be bad enough to keep him out of the lineup next week when the Mountaineers play their first Big East game at home against Rutgers, who now must prepare for White and Brown separately and collectively.

And, just so they are aware, they might note that running back Noel Devine rushed for 125 yards and a touchdown, just to make the Scarlet Knights’ preparation more difficult.

E-mail Bob Hertzel at bhertzel@hotmail.com.