By Dave Morrison
MORGANTOWN — Jarrett Brown was ready. He was hoping it wouldn’t happen, but the West Virginia quarterback was ready for the two-minute drill.
With his team leading Pittsburgh 16-9 last Friday night at Milan Puskar Stadium, he got the word from offensive coordinator Jeff Mullen.
“Coach said be ready to run the two-minute (offense),” Brown said. “So we were ready, just in case.”
Just in case became reality when Pitt quarterback Bill Stull connected with Jonathan Baldwin on a 50-yard touchdown strike to tie the game with 2:48 remaining.
It proved to be too much time.
Starting at his own 32, Brown started the drive with a 10-yard run, then connected with Alric Arnett on an 11-yard pickup. On fourth-and-one, big fullback Ryan Clark gained just the right amount with a clutch carry to keep the drive alive. Three straight runs ran the clock down under four seconds and Tyler Bitancurt’s 43-yard field goal won it for WVU.
It was textbook two-minute drill material and textbook clock management.
Not bad for a guy who had struggled after being dinged up in the Marshall game midway through the season.
“Up to the Auburn game and even Colorado, we were clicking and our quarterback (Jarrett Brown) was exciting,” coach Bill Stewart said. “He was stepping up and doing things. Once he got whacked against Marshall, things changed.
“Our medical people played Jarrett Brown when he was ready to play and right to play, but there was something just not clicking.
“It’s not all on Jarrett; we had some guys nicked up. With that being said, I think we have really strained on offense. We really haven’t clicked since the Marshall game. We started getting it back against Cincinnati and I thought we got some of it back the other night (against Pitt).”
Indications are that Brown is returning to normal.
He has not thrown an interception in the Mountaineers’ last two games — a 24-21 loss to No. 5 Cincinnati and the 19-16 win over No. 9 Pitt.
They’ll need more of that when No. 24 West Virginia (8-3, 4-2 Big East) visits Rutgers (8-3, 3-3) at noon Saturday. The game will be televised by ESPN.
Expect Brown to be in the thick of things. For the season, he is 176-of-272 passing for 2,013 yards and 11 touchdowns. He threw eight interceptions in the Mountaineers’ first nine games but played just one series against Marshall.
Rutgers coach Greg Schiano is very familiar with Brown. He remembers the quarterback replacing an injured Pat White in 2006 and leading the Mountaineers to an overtime win over the Scarlet Knights.
“We have had our experiences with the quarterback (Jarrett Brown),” Schiano said. “We go back a lot of years. He played in our game in ’06 and he has a lot of miles behind him now. He is a much more experienced quarterback now. He is very elusive. When you do get pressure on him, he is big and strong and can get away from you.”
Brown, then a redshirt freshman, completed 14-of-29 passes for 244 yards with a touchdown and an interception and he also rushed for 91 yards and a score.
Schiano actually goes back further than that with Brown, a Florida native, and wasn’t surprised when Brown led WVU to victory in that game.
“We had him in a camp and we knew what a great passer he is. When he started chucking the ball a lot in the ’06 game, it wasn’t a shocker,” Schiano said. “He is a good quarterback and a good athlete. If he was the guy with a bunch of solid guys it would be different, but he is the guy next to the guy (Noel Devine) and that is tough.”
