| Friday, July 14
By Gene Wojciechowski
ESPN The Magazine |
|
Rickey Bustle sits in the semi-darkness of the film room, remote in his hand, astonishment on his face. "Here it comes," the Virginia Tech offensive coordinator says, his voice rising as Peter Warrick takes a handoff on a reverse and turns what would have been a two-yard gain for a mere mortal into the signature offensive play of the 1999 season.
"Tell me how good that is! Gawd almighty!"
|  | | As every other FSU opponent knows, stopping Peter Warrick is a job too big for just one man. |
Start to finish, Warrick's touchdown run against Louisiana Tech looks like an Etch A Sketch of the Florida panhandle. In motion from the left flanker position, he takes the ball, curls left to elude tacklers, stops on a grass blade, juts forward, cuts right at a 90-degree angle, weaves and bobs past more tacklers, makes one last Barry Sanders-ish dip to the inside, slithers right and then jogs untouched into the end zone. Officially, it's a 20-yard run.
Bustle double-taps a button with his thumb. He has to see it again.
"Look at those feet," he says in awe. "The balance. He ain't taking a lot of steps, and he's running the whole time."
Then Bustle watches the run a third time. And a fourth.
Coaches see things we don't. We see Warrick do the Lara Croft thing -- escaping danger-but never understand how. We see numbers: 71 receptions, 13.2 yards per catch, eight receiving TDs and three rushing, one touchdown throw. Bustle sees the extraordinary footwork, the ability to go from one cut to the next without sacrificing speed, the knack for creating space when there is none -- football in its finest, purest form. "Warrick has that sixth sense," says Bustle, who would know, since he coaches Hokies quarterback Michael Vick. "It's like he's got a couple more eyes than he's supposed to."
The coach leans forward in his chair. He has watched less than two quarters of FSU-Louisiana Tech game tape, but the 'Noles' strategy is obvious: move Warrick around, from wide receiver to inside flanker to anywhere that puts him in open space or one-on-one against a defender. Make sure he gets 8-10 receptions, maybe a few snaps at quarterback, maybe a reverse or two. See that first play FSU uses? A quick screen to Warrick. Safe, and it gets the ball in the hands of their best player immediately.
During the second quarter, quarterback Chris Weinke ignores a wide-open receiver on the right and instead tries squeezing a pass to Warrick, even though both safeties and a cornerback are zeroing in on him. Bustle freezes the frame as the ball falls incomplete. "See, I'd be pissed if Michael did this," he says. "I mean, there's three of them that's going to be over there by the time this ball gets around. But he's made those plays before. You tell that quarterback, 'You put it where he can get to it.' "
Bustle analyzes Warrick's pass routes and can't find a flaw. Cornerbacks go from their toes to their heels with each Warrick deke. Defenders move toward him but not at him. Nobody leaves his feet. Nobody attacks. It's as if they're scared of missing. This is what Warrick does to people.
Now it's Virginia Tech's turn to try to stop him. Can the Hokies' front four put enough pressure on Weinke to force mistakes and allow double coverage? Can they render Warrick a non-factor, like Tennessee did a year ago in the Fiesta Bowl, holding him to one measly catch for seven yards?
That's defensive coordinator Bud Foster's challenge, and he's not exactly divulging state secrets these days. Foster knows what FSU offensive coordinator Mark Richt likes to do with Warrick. But knowing and stopping are two different things.
Kent Briggs, NC State's co-defensive coordinator, says to double-team Warrick wherever he goes. Does it work? Well, FSU has lost only two of 64 conference games since joining the ACC in 1992. One was two seasons ago to the Wolfpack, which held Warrick to four receptions and one touchdown. This season, NC State got beat by 31, but Warrick went scoreless. Double-team him? Yeah. Maybe.
Briggs also saw Warrick's yardage-after-catch stats and knew he had to teach geometry to his players. "You have to make sure all your guys have great pursuit angles," he says. "You want one in front of him, two beside him, one chasing him." Surround him? Sure. Sounds right. And if you can't do that, Briggs suggests herding Warrick toward the sideline, where out-of-bounds becomes a safety's best friend, or toward the middle of the field, where help is waiting.
The blitz is another option. Weinke is many things, but mobile isn't one of them. He tends to force passes when pressured. He threw six interceptions against NC State in the 1998 loss, and two more this season. So if your No.1 priority is to stop Warrick -- and it had better be -- you have to make Weinke uncomfortable in the pocket. Virginia Tech's front four, led by All-America defensive end Corey Moore, is good enough to bring pressure. But the 'Noles' offensive line, which features its own All-America, guard Jason Whitaker, has the muscle to deflect it. The big uglies allowed only 22 sacks this season.
"The catch-22 on the pressure game is that if you're not getting it done with your front four, then you're bringing a linebacker or a second guy," says Paul Ferraro, Georgia Tech's defensive backs coach. "Now you're creating one-on-one situations. If you're going to go to the pressure game, then you better create a quick throw. Otherwise, you're looking for trouble." The Yellow Jackets shadowed Warrick with their best defender and then gave help. They used three-deep and two-deep coverage. They mixed zone and man coverage. They went high-low, using a corner and safety. "Florida State has a lot of other weapons," says Ferraro. "But we said, 'We're not going to let Peter Warrick beat us.' " It almost worked: Georgia Tech came within six points
of beating FSU.
Duke, on the other hand, tried the same thing and got trampled, 51-23. Warrick had only 67 receiving yards, but three of his six catches went for
TDs. He also threw for a score. "The best way to get ready for Peter?" says Duke defensive coordinator Bob Trott. "Throw a live chicken on the field
and let your players try to catch it." Problem is, Warrick's not the only
FSU chicken out there. "If it was just one guy you had to worry about,"
says Maryland defensive coordinator Wally Ake, "you could single up on
the other matchups and feel good about it. But against us, they ran nine
or 10 receivers in and out of the game."
Nobody played Florida State better than Clemson. The Tigers were the only team to hold the Seminoles under 30, losing 17-14 at Death Valley. In his first game back after a two-game suspension, Warrick caught 11 passes, but none covered more than 19 yards, and he didn't score. He also dropped a handful of catchable balls. So when Clemson coach Tommy Bowden talks about how to stop his old man's best player, the Hokies should listen. "The first guy never tackles him," says Tommy, "so you better have a helper close by. You've got to teach pursuit."
Too bad you can't teach luck, because guessing right on coverages may
be your only chance to contain Warrick. Careful, though -- guessing wrong will definitely kill you. Too much zone with a double-team, says Bowden, and the 'Noles will run Travis Minor until the Hokies drop. Too much man coverage with a double-team, and FSU will find Ron Dugans or flanker Germaine Stringer.
Here's the book on the Virginia Tech defense: The Hokies prefer man
coverage over zone . . . their corners are better coverage guys than their safeties . . . and they like to rely on the front four rather than blitz packages. Which means exactly what when it comes to Warrick? Bowden's non-answer -- "Virginia Tech will not have faced this kind of skill before" -- sheds no light. Doesn't matter. What he doesn't say -- what none of the defensive coordinators say -- is answer enough.
Stop Warrick? In your dreams.
|  |
The Ultimate Weapon
