Head First

Sporting News, The, Dec 6, 1999 by Sean Deveney

At 6-4, 220, Marshall quarterback Chad Pennington has the size scouts love. But it's his mental muscle that makes him the nation's top quarterback for the best unbeaten team not named Florida State or Virginia Tech.

The magnetic green dots are in formation on the white board in the offensive planning room of the Marshall football office.

Five linemen, three wideouts, a slot receiver, a tailback and a quarterback. That last dot is Chad Pennington, who is standing next to the board, armed with a red felt marker, drawing a defense. The last guys he draws are labeled, "FS" and "SS," denoting the free and strong safeties on the defense. "If we're expecting them to come out in a cover-two, like this, but instead they come out like this.... "Pennington says. He rearranges the safeties before continuing, "Now they're in a cover-three. But it's not a big deal because I can just change the receivers' numbers a little and have them run four verticals instead of sending the back into the flat."

Now he draws four straight lines, the receivers' routes, breaking some off into square-ins and slants. "You see?" he says in his soft Tennessee drawl, his brown eyes imploring. He really wants you to see, but all you can make out for sure from his drawings is that poor "FS" and "SS" don't know what they're in for. Pennington can see you don't quite get it. "We're not changing the Pythagorean theorem here," he says. "We just adjust. We take what the defense is giving us. It's simple."

Simple is a relative term. Marshall runs a complex, pro-style offense. Thundering Herd coaches rarely call plays. They call packages and leave it to the quarterback to call the play in the huddle. Even the huddle is an approximation--about 70 percent of the plays wind up getting changed by audible at the line.

It's a seat-of-the-pants operation, and the pants are Pennington's. For him, it is a simple offense. He has a strong arm and deft touch, having thrown for 3,515 yards and 34 touchdowns this season. He's the difference-maker for an unbeaten team, and he is as capable between the ears as he is between the hash marks, which is evident during his impromptu coaching lesson. His physical skills make him a certain first-round NFL pick this spring, but his mental skills--he carries a grade-point average of 3.8--make him the nation's top quarterback. He is the only serious candidate for a Heisman Trophy and a Rhodes scholarship.

Pennington settles behind center Jason Starkey for the first series against Western Michigan at Waldo Stadium, scanning the defense. He had watched film and expected the cover men to play 6 or 7 yards off in a zone. But they're not. They're pressing just across the line in man coverage, hoping to throw off Pennington. No problem. As though he were drawing on the white board back in the Marshall offices, Pennington makes a few adjustments at the line and goes on to record 339 yards on 27-of-40 passing in a 31-17 win a couple of weeks ago over the first-place team in the MAC West.

"I was shocked," says receiver Nate Poole. "Every time they came up into a man (coverage), I was like, `What are they doing?' They know he's just going to audible. It was like they had never seen Chad play."

"That's what separates Chad," says Marshall assistant coach Mark Gale, who recruited Pennington five years ago. "When he watches film, he's not just watching. He's studying. He is able to transfer what he's seen on tape to what's on the blackboard to actually doing it on the field with bullets flying."

It is mostly Marshall's bullets that have been flying this season. The 11-0 Herd features an underrated defense, running back Doug Chapman and a receiving corps that boasts NFL prospects James Williams and Poole. It's averaging 37.1 points a game and is No. 10 in TSN's poll. If Marshall beats Western Michigan in the MAC title game Friday, it is guaranteed a third consecutive trip to the Motor City Bowl, where the Herd has become a regular.

Pennington is not a one-man orchestra, but he is the star conductor.

"He's a coach on the field," says Miami (Ohio) coach Terry Hoeppner. "He has a lot of choices to make in that offense, and he usually makes the fight one. Whatever you do defensively, he'll find a way to beat you."

"We have a lot of good players, but when we get into a jam, we know who to look to," says senior offensive tackle Mike Guilliams. "He's intelligent, and he knows how to play both games, the physical game and the mental game. He leads verbally and by example."

The key, Pennington says, is to keep his best weapon--his brain--active while getting his teammates' adrenaline going. If 10 Herd players are playing on emotion, that's fine, as long as Pennington is thinking clearly and keeping his emotions in check. No matter what is going on around him, Pennington keeps things simple, divided into green dots and red squiggly lines.

"I can study film and plays all week, but it's different during a game," he says. "The emotions are high, the crowd's going crazy. You've got to step out of that and be calm. You've got to think rationally, which is hard because it's not always a rational game. It's different on Saturdays."