What’s the biggest difference between Jarrett Brown and Pat White?

‘(Brown) is going to throw it more. He’s going to throw it a little more. The type of offense they run this year, they’re throwing it a lot more. Pat White, he ran it most of the time and they were mostly a running offense.’

What do you remember about playing him in last year’s game?

Probably his size. He was mobile. He’s developed a lot more since last year when we played him. He was backing up Pat White when he went down because Pat didn’t play against us.

What’s the biggest thing in his development?

Pocket presence, throwing the ball, stuff like that.

It seems Jarrett had a good arm, maybe much more of a deep threat than Pat was?

Oh yeah, of course. He’s a bigger guy and he has arm strength.

Last year he completed 14-of-20 passes for 52 yards. How were you able to hold him to such low numbers?

I don’t remember what we really did last year. I guess we shut him down. I don’t know exactly what we did last year. But we are going to have to contain him this year too because he can run and be good in coverage this year.

What’s going to be the biggest key in stopping what they can do as an offense?

Just containing whoever. Stay in coverage, the defensive line is going to have pressure, it’s going to be an effort of the whole defense.

Are you worried about him as a runner?

He’s a mobile quarterback and he doesn’t have to throw. He has the ability of running out of the pocket and making plays on his feet so he’s a threat there too.

How does last week’s game with South Florida and B.J. Daniels prepare you for that?

It helps a lot. I think BJ was more mobile and more of a mobile quarterback and less of a quarterback passing than that. So it was good to see a quarterback like that to see how we could contain him, so that would be good for this week.

What will be your primary role this weekend as the safety?

I’m going to be in coverage on the slot receivers and coming up on run support. I’m going to have a big role in the game.

Have West Virginia’s wide receiver weapons changed? Jock Sanders is still there, but have any new weapons emerged for Jarrett?

Jock Sanders is the go-to receiver this year and he’s turned into a good wide receiver and there are other guys that surround him.

Is there any difference between Jock Sanders last year to this year?

On film, he’s faster and more mature route running and things like that. Last year they just used him more so as short routes and bubbles but he’s more of a wide receiver this year.

What about Noel Devine? It seems he has big-play potential anytime he touches the ball.

He’s a great running back. Size, quickness, just to hit the hole, and if you make mistakes he’ll capitalize on it. So it will be an effort on defense for everybody to do their job and run to the ball.

What do you remember about last year’s 92-yard run to seal the game?

I was on the field. It was bad to watch. It was a missed assignment and he went for 92 yards. I think we did a good job the whole game, so it’s going to take an effort from the defense.

Heart drops as you watch that?

Yeah, because I think we were trying to stop them so we could get the ball back and try to score and win the game.

Have you guys been talking in practice about not letting him have one big play like that?

Going into every game it’s trying to eliminate the big plays. That’s been killing us and the more we can get that closer to zero, the better off we will be because that’s what’s been hurting us – big plays.

Offensively it seems WVU is at least as good as USF, if not better?

With West Virginia, it’s going to be a lot of speed on the field, so it’s going to be speed versus speed and we gotta run to the ball and help each other out, have each other’s backs so big plays don’t happen.

How do you combat speed?

Better technique, better tackling, effort, running to the ball – those little things add up.

mrehalt@syr.edu

Published on October 10, 2009 at 12:00 pm