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Pastimes : Virginia Tech Hokies -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Wildstar who wrote (99)	8/9/2001 2:01:48 PM
From: caly	Respond to of 1332

dailynews.yahoo.com Wednesday August 08 12:19 PM EDT The education of Michael Vick By Dan Pompei - The Sporting News An errant training-camp throw by Michael Vick skipped out of the end zone and blasted into Ashley Ambrose's moped, chipping off a piece of plastic and knocking the fender loose. It might be awhile before Vick can similarly wound an NFL defense. Despite his promising play in the Falcons' preseason opener, Vick is as much a project as the Genesis sun catcher. The hope is that both will pay off in years to come. This might be Dan Reeves' last year as coach of the Falcons, but he didn't trade up in the draft to select Vick in order to win the Super Bowl this season. He did it because he thought Vick was the best selection for the long-term health of the organization. That will be true, however, only if the Falcons can develop Vick. And as organizations such as the Chargers, Bengals and Bears could testify, developing a gifted young passer is nothing that can be taken for granted. Reeves already has made the mistake of trying to rush a talented rookie quarterback. The year was 1983, and Reeves thought the kid was ready to play, so he determined early on he would be the opening day starter. Five games later, Reeves had to bench John Elway because he was struggling. In part because it took so long for Elway just to get the snap, Reeves says "he had no idea what the defense was doing. And teams were coming at him with everything. Some things weren't even sound, but they knew he wasn't going to be able to see it. With the experience of working with John, I don't want to put Mike in that situation." Although Vick technically is the Falcons' No. 2 quarterback, he wouldn't be the starter if Chris Chandler were unable to play, Reeves said. Eric Zeier would be. Reeves also is resisting temptation to play Vick at various positions as the Steelers did with a young Kordell Stewart. Even though there is little doubt Vick could help the Falcons in such a role, Reeves doesn't want to risk having Vick get hurt playing a position other than the one he was drafted to play. "He's got to focus in on being a quarterback,'' Reeves says. "If I thought he was best suited for some other position, we wouldn't have taken him." The Falcons want Vick to get more practice time than the typical backup, so he'll take 40 percent of the reps in regular-season practices. That is similar to how the Eagles prepared Donovan McNabb as a rookie. The Falcons also plan on Vick playing a limited number of series in each game like Cade McNown did in his first year with the Bears. Reeves is noncommittal regarding how much Vick will play. Some of it depends on Vick's readiness. "What you can't do is take away the ability of your starting quarterback to get a rhythm going," Reeves says. "It's a touchy area. You want to be able to create problems for the defense without it creating problems for us." Limiting the number of series Vick will play will free him to be responsible for only a condensed version of the weekly game plan. For instance, the Falcons might tell him to prepare strictly for their "21" package, which calls for two running backs and one tight end. He wouldn't have to worry about the one-back, two-tight end package, the one-back, three-wideout package or any other package. So he'll have to know, say, 10 pass plays instead of 100. This is significant given the fact that Vick understandably feels as if he sometimes doesn't have enough memory to handle the download. "I'm overwhelmed a little bit,'' he admitted while sitting on a picnic table at Furman, where the Falcons train. "The verbiage in the offense has caught me by surprise. But if you study, you can learn anything.'' It doesn't help Vick that the Falcons' offense uses more words to describe the play than most NFL offenses. Zeier, who has played in five offenses since being drafted in 1995, says the Falcons offense has been the most difficult to pick up from the standpoint of verbiage. The difference between what Vick was asked to do at Virginia Tech and what he will be asked to do with the Falcons is the difference between riding a bicycle and piloting an airplane. Vick estimates the Falcons' playbook has as much as 60 percent more information than the Hokies' playbook. Vick's experience with hot reads and deciphering coverages is rudimentary. Don't forget, Vick threw only 313 college passes before turning pro after his second season of playing. McNabb, by comparison, was a four-year starter at Syracuse who came to the Eagles having thrown three times as many college passes as Vick. At Virginia Tech, Vick ran on 40 percent of the plays in which he handled the ball. Falcons quarterbacks coach Jack Burns subsequently has spent a lot of time trying to get Vick to think like a pocket quarterback. "We feel if he can get comfortable in the pocket with a handful of throws, or a few more, that will make his running or when he comes out of the pocket that much better,'' Burns says. "And that's what his career will be built on -- not to be a scrambling, gimmick-type quarterback who is running all over the field but a truly legitimate NFL quarterback who can operate in the pocket, outside the pocket and be an extremely potent runner when it's timely.'' This is saying something with the way young players like McNabb have performed, but Vick's running skills may be superior to those of any other NFL quarterback. His arm is golden, ranking among the strongest in the league right there with Jeff George's and Daunte Culpepper's. All that separates Vick from some of the league's better QBs are fundamentals. Many of Vick's training camp throws have sailed like hang gliders. Witness Ambrose's moped. "He has a tendency to get stretched out with his feet and elongated,'' Burns says. "Then his follow-through gets long and he overstrides. Subsequently, he can overthrow his target. We're working on getting him compact.'' At this point, the No. 1 pick in the draft represents a bigger a challenge for the Falcons' coaching staff than he does NFL defenses. Senior writer Dan Pompei covers the NFL for The Sporting News. Email him at pompei@sportingnews.com.

To: Wildstar who wrote (99)	8/9/2001 10:55:39 PM
From: gregor	Respond to of 1332

Two great articles; thanks guys ! I'm surprised that they didn't mention Noel's knee surgery. The first 4 games he's back there handing the ball off to one of the best backfields in college football. They will bring along the passing game very slowly for him. Unlike many, I am more confident in the OL than most. Can't you see every team we prepare for packing the inside 'box' with 8 players. I would still hate to be a defensive coordinator for an opposing team; especially without a few game films to go to school on. Va Tech is going to be a very hard team to prepare for. Got a pop quiz for you . It stumped about 10 guys at my 35th HS reunion. We were all having a mental block of sorts. The place kicker that set Big East scoring records . It took one of the wives to remember the name .Be honest. How long did it take you to remember. NO Not Chris Kincer. Not Jimmy Kibble...The other guy, You know played at Pulaski County High School just like Kincer...You know , you know .............Gregor