Published: April 13, 2008 11:28 pm      

Starks shows off talents at new position

MORGANTOWN — Admittedly, it was nothing more than an early Saturday afternoon scrimmage in the midst of spring football practice, a time when juices aren’t flowing as they would with 60,000 in the stands and network cameras focused on the action.

But in athletics, there is always one constant, be it game, scrimmage or practice, and that is an exceptional athlete will be noticed.

You knew Joe Alexander was an amazing basketball player before he began scoring his nightly 32 points, just as you knew Jerry Porter was an NFL player even while Don Nehlen was forced to play him out of position at safety.

It may take time to mature, to learn a system, for everything to click, but when one of these special players comes along he can not hide in the shadows of others for the light he casts upon himself is far too bright to do anything but cast shadows of its own.

Such is the case with Bradley Starks, West Virginia quarterback.

No, he will not quarterback the Mountaineers this year and probably won’t quarterback them next year.

This year, the job belongs to Patrick White, who despite some shaky spring showings, remains the quarterback and the man most likely to bring a Heisman Trophy to Morgantown.

Next year it will be Jarrett Brown.

“I saw (the potential) when I recruited him. His quarterbacking skills are awesome,” said head coach Bill Stewart, then recruiting Starks for Rich Rodriguez.

He knew he had a good one, but he also knows he has two other good ones in White and Brown.

“I know I’m not the brightest bulb. I’ve know that my whole life. I am what I am. But I do know if I take Pat White out of the game and put No. 12 (Starks) in the game, I should just walk over there in the parking lot. If I’m not fired for doing that, I never will be.

“No. 12 is going to compete, so is No. 16 (Brown). The best is going to play. Right now the best is No. 5 (White). The second best is No. 16.”

That being said, Stewart wants no part of leaving Starks standing there on the sideline, wiggling and wagging in play signals.

Bradley Starks is going to play football — maybe not quarterback right now — for WVU.

“Would you keep a ship in the harbor?” Stewart asks.

He means that Starks will see the field at wide receiver, just as Brown will see the field at wide receiver and as White may see the field at wide receiver.

Now this isn’t exactly typical thinking, for the last thing on earth you want is your quarterback or quarterbacks getting hurt playing another position. Stewart knows that. He’s heard it from his coaching staff at times.

“My coaches are mad at me. They won’t speak to me. But I just tell ‘em, ‘Boys, we ain’t gonna keep a ship in the harbor? I ain’t going to say it again.’”

Stewart had a problem here, however. Starks had never played wide receiver, never wanted to play wide receiver and at first was resistant to including the position in his duties as he matured as a quarterback.

“I said ‘Bradley, why would you want to be a third quarterback and never play?’ The kids got a chance to play in the slot, wide receiver, in motion. He’s got a chance to help us. He thinks I’m kidding him, and I’m not,” Stewart said.

“I say to him, ‘Why can’t we have three on the field. Why not have Nos. 5, 16 and 12 on the field?’ Now the coaches say ‘You’re going to get No. 5 hurt.’ Hurt? He ran the ball 197 times last year.”

We return now to Saturday’s scrimmage and how Starks suddenly leaped into the limelight.

He was at wide receiver, raced down the field and caught a 49-yard touchdown from Brown, looking like he’d done it his entire life, like he was born to play wide receiver.

Now in one afternoon we’re not ready to say that Bradley Starks is best receiver on this team. It could be even that Patrick White is, but Starks’ athletic ability puts him near the top already and on Saturday he came to know it.

“I think today opened my eyes a little bit,” he said. “It made me realize I can be successful as a wide receiver.”

It wasn’t something he ever really thought about, something that never came up when Stewart recruited him.

But now it makes sense to him.

“Just because in your mind you’re thinking quarterback, in the long run it’s going to help you out because you’re getting experience playing wide receiver. If you love the sport, you do whatever it takes to get out on the field,” he said.

Actually, the talk in Starks’ recruitment was more about whether he’d play basketball or not than wide receiver, so good was he at the sport. He had an offer to play basketball at N.C. State and interest from Virginia.

But he wanted no part of college basketball, even though the lithe 6-4 redshirt freshman from Unionville, Va., was the Associated Press Group AA Player of the Year in 2007 when he averaged 23.0 points, 9.7 rebounds, 4.3 assists and 3.0 steals for Orange County High.

“I love football. This is what I came here for. I’m focusing on getting better,” he said.

Could he do both? Without a doubt. Probably play guard and forward in basketball, just as he can play quarterback and receiver in football.

See, as an athlete, there is nothing he can’t do, except one thing.

“Do you see the day when you’ll be able to throw a pass to yourself?” he was asked.

“No, sir,” he answered.

Well, there goes that myth.

E-mail Bob Hertzel at bhertzel@hotmail.com.