MORGANTOWN —
Scooter Berry came to West Virginia as a gray shirt.
He will play his final season as a gray beard.
“He’s close to Social Security,” Coach Bill Stewart joked as he talked about his senior who came in five and a half years ago in January, which is known as a gray shirt.
That Social Security line may be stretching the truth some, but Berry at 24 is an elder statesman on this club.
Berry understands that he’s five or six years older than the incoming class of freshmen.
“I feel like I’m about 40,” he said, laughing at the thought. “I’ve been here for a while and I’ve been through a lot. It definitely matured me as a person. Character, charisma, motivation, dedication …. I feel like it enhanced all that by a great deal and it will carry over onto the field.”
In fact, he’s gearing up for a big comeback season.
“I feel bad for whoever lines up in front of me because I’ve got a vengeance,” he said.
Berry has a lot to make up for. As he said, he’s been through a lot.
No one really knew what they were getting when he came in with his half-brother out of New York City, that being the highly touted, five-star recruit Jason Gwaltney.
Gwaltney had broken Jim Brown’s rushing record in New York. He was big and strong and fast, the kind of player Rich Rodriguez loved.
He just couldn’t hack it as a college student, bounced around and played his final season last year at a small New Jersey school.
The thought was that Rodriguez brought Berry along simply to placate Gwaltney, to give him a playmate. Little did anyone suspect that Berry would be the star player.
The ride has not been smooth for Berry. There have been injuries, an ankle and a shoulder, and there was the arrest for public intoxication and disorderly conduct in downtown Morgantown that led to his being suspended from WVU’s Gator Bowl date with Florida State, a game the Mountaineers lost.
If there was any blessing in it, it allowed Berry to go ahead and get his shoulder operation, which just now is finishing its healing process. He missed the spring.
“I feel good,” he said after his first workout of his last season. “I was a little nervous to practice with my shoulder, but after the first pop it felt right. It felt natural. I’m back. I’m ready to roll.”
Injury, of course, does linger in the back of his mind, especially when they really get to scrimmaging and then playing the opener on Sept. 4 against Coastal Carolina.
“It’s something you think about. I think I might be hesitant at first, but probably not. If you’re hesitant, you can hurt yourself, so I’m going to give it all I can and see what happens,” he said.
What probably will happen is that he’ll begin harassing quarterbacks and corralling running backs as he has done through his entire career, possessing 74 tackles and three sacks.
“This season is everything. I feel like it’s now or nothing. I’ve been here for a long time, I’ve had my ups and downs and I want to finish on a great note. With that being said I’m going to go out and do my job.”
And in Berry’s case, even as eager as he is to make up for lost time, he realizes that the Mountaineers finally have some depth on the defensive line, that behind him he has Jorge Wright and Curtis Feigt, and that the plans are not to push him and play him every play.
“Scooter is nicked up. He’s been in the wars,” Stewart said. “He is probably in the best camp shape he’s been in. What he has to do and what he and Coach Kirelawich have to connect on is having a relationship where he says he needs a couple of plays off.”
“Me and Kirlav, we spoke about that before practice,” Berry said. “He told me to let him know if I need to take a play off. I told him, ‘Sure, but I don’t want to feel like a sissy. I just want to play to the best of my ability and if I need to take a break, I will.”
The idea this year is to stay healthy.
“It definitely takes a toll on your body. You have to be mature when it comes to taking care of yourself. I’m going to work on that this season with diet, sleep and good exercise,” he said.
Makes sense … at his age.
E-mail Bob Hertzel at bhertzel@hotmail.com.
WVU Sports
Related Photos
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West Virginia University defensive lineman Scooter Berry, shown here during a weekend practice session, is hoping for a big senior season. PHOTO BY BOB HERTZEL
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