By Bob Hertzel
For the Times West Virginian
MORGANTOWN —
He sat there in the lounge in the players’ study area at Puskar Stadium, his hair a bit mussed but strangely conservative in its cut.
When it was mentioned to Branko Busick, who may have to step out of the shadows of a redshirt season and into the starting middle linebacker spot for Saturday’s West Virginia University opener against Coastal Carolina, that his cut was conservative for him, his reply was simply “Aaaargh!” as he mussed it even further.
The man wearing a T-shirt that read only “Animal” across the front seemed quite ready for the challenge he faces.
For the uninitiated, Branko Busick is from Steubenville, Ohio, where the only thing bigger than high school football is … well, there is nothing bigger there than high school football, even if it is the city that produced the entertainer Dean Martin, Traci Lords, who is kindly tagged an “actress” on Wikipedia; Jimmy “The Greek” Snyder and Rollie Fingers, the Hall of Fame pitcher.
He came to West Virginia with a lot of rough edges, so much so that it was not at all startling when he made this admission during interviews the other day.
“I’m a knucklehead.”
This may require some explanation, for he didn’t just blurt the declaration out as a thought crept into his mind. Hardly. The conversation was about his relationship with Reed Williams, the scholar-athlete who started at middle linebacker for the Mountaineers whenever his injured shoulder would allow him to, and sometimes when it wouldn’t.
When the decision was made to redshirt Busick last season, to get the rough edges off a game that included great instincts but that needed to be disciplined within the offense, coach Jeff Casteel made a command decision.
Busick would not play, but he also would not be on the scout team.
“Coach Casteel took care of me,” Busick admitted. “No scout team. He just sat me next to Reed and said ‘Watch him!’”
That did not make a year without playing games any better to accept; it simply ended up making Busick a better player.
“It was one of the roughest years of my live but probably one of the most learning years of my life. I’m glad it happened, in a way. A redshirt is a bad thing, but I’m glad it happened,” Busick said.
He watched and he learned. Oddly, it turned out, Williams was watching him, too, and that gets us back to the “knucklehead” quotation.
“I’m a knucklehead. Off the field, I’m kind of a knucklehead. If I was going to get in trouble, Reed would snatch me up and say, ‘No, people are watching you. You can’t do it.’ I realized he was really looking out for me,” Busick said.
It was as if he had this guardian angel looking over him, keeping out of trouble and on course to someday be the starting middle linebacker at West Virginia.
Of course, if it happens this Saturday due to Lazear’s injury, it would be quicker than anyone imagined.
Still, it would be a thrill, and Busick seems as well prepared mentally as he can be for it.
“First of all, I’d like to help the team win, but I’d like to do it for the people back home. I talk to people back home every day and they are supporting me so much that there’s no feeling like that,” Busick said when asked what he wanted to accomplish on this opening day.
It is that way in Steubenville, where a hero for the Big Red is a hero for the city.
“My family, my friends, everyone is behind me,” Busick said.
Asked how many would make the short trek to Morgantown, he answered:
“A lot … a whole lot. They tell me they are so excited and that means a lot to me,” he said.
So does this first game, although he is acting a bit blasé about it.
“I don’t think I’ll be nervous. It’s just another day’s work,” he said.
Still, even in mid-week, he has that itch to get out there, to make that first collegiate tackle, to let someone know he has arrived.
“When I get my first official tackle, I’ll be on Cloud 9. I’ll be so excited,” he said.
Does he have a celebration of any kind planned for that first tackle?
“Nah,” he said. “I’ll stay humble.”
Then he added, gesturing with three fingers, “I’ll probably do this to my Dad for the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.”
Amen!
E-mail Bob Hertzel at bhertzel@hotmail.com.
