Saturday, March 24, 2001
Noel has set sights on being Virginia Tech's starting QB
Open road ahead
roanoke.com
Grant Noel is willing to sacrifice anything that could alter his path to becoming Michael Vick's successor.
By RANDY KING
The Roanoke Times
BLACKSBURG - How much does Grant Noel want to be Virginia Tech's next starting quarterback?
So much that he's trying to ditch his beloved wheels. Anybody looking for a 1996 Kawasaki ZX7 motorcycle? Noel has a deal for you.
"I need to sell it," Noel said Wednesday. "I'd love to keep it. I just don't want people depending on me and then I lay the thing on the ground. I've never laid it down before, but there are risks on it."
The way Noel has it figured, this is no time to be taking unnecessary gambles. Not with his dream job in the offering.
When the Hokies hit the spring practice field today, David Grant Noel goes from third wheel to big wheel. Last season's third-stringer behind departed Michael Vick and Dave Meyer will be Tech's No.1 quarterback.
"I came here to play quarterback and now I'm going to get my chance," said Noel, a third-year sophomore from Ridgeley, W.Va.
"I hate to see someone like Mike leave the program. But I was kind of happy, too. As soon as I heard he was leaving, I said, 'OK, this is the time to go.'"
Noel, who could be pushed in the four-week spring session by rising redshirt freshman Jason Davis, has had the hammer down lately, bulking up his 6-foot-1, 225-pound frame in the weight room and spending long hours in the film room.
"My arm has gotten a lot stronger and I've worked on my feet," Noel said. "And I understand everything about the offense - blitzes and coverages. I continuously paid attention in meetings and prepared to play because I knew my time was coming."
Noel's primary goal this spring is to prove to the coaches and players that he's capable of leading and running the Hokies' offense.
"They just want me to come out and prove to them that I can play," Noel said. "When you lose a player like Mike, you've got to have somebody come in and be able to work with the offense and help it be productive. You're not going to fully fill his shoes.
"I've got a lot of help around me. I just need to show them I can complete balls when I need to complete them. And if people aren't open, I'll need to throw the ball away or tuck it and run it. Not cost our team bad things, that's all I need to do."
Tech coach Frank Beamer said Thursday he will evaluate the spring performance of Noel and Davis, then make a decision on how he will look at a trio of talented freshman recruits due to arrive on campus in August. The threesome is Bryan Randall of Williamsburg, Chris Clifton of Chesapeake and Will Hunt of Arkansas.
If Noel gets his wish, he will have such a superlative spring session that Beamer & Co. won't have to think too long about playing a freshman QB this fall.
"My big thing is to be productive and not cause our coaches to have to take a freshman out of his redshirt just because I'm not ready to play," Noel said. "I don't want to have to put them through that and they shouldn't have to do that.
"That's so tough for a freshman. I really don't think Mike could have done it. You saw what happened to [Ronald] Curry [at North Carolina] his freshman year ... of course, he got hurt. But if Mike would have come in and played his true freshman year, it would have been nothing like his redshirt freshman year. I think he could tell you that.
"I know those freshmen are talented. If they weren't talented, they wouldn't be coming here. A kid comes out of high school, he's really going to be hyped up a lot, where a player like me, I've been around here for three years and no one has talked about me.
"That doesn't bother me. I know people are going to talk about those freshmen. Maybe if I do what I'm supposed to do, it won't be a big deal for them to talk about."
In the meantime, Noel needs to move a motorcycle. He's been riding one since he was 6, when his family moved from Low Moor to Ridgeley.
"The coaches haven't really said anything about it," said Noel, "but I'm going to get rid of the thing nonetheless. My mom will be happy. She hates it. I've got my whole life to ride a motorcycle, so I'm going to kind of take a timeout with that right now."
Besides, this guy doesn't mind taking a hit for the team.
"Whatever it takes," Noel said. "Whatever it takes to get the job done and be successful. That's what I'm here to do." |
