Columnist: Casey Dick worth rooting for in ‘08
If you’re looking for a pampered athlete to cheer for this season, Arkansas quarterback Casey Dick is not your guy, writes Sporting News columnist Matt Hayes.
No, you see, Hayes writes, Dick’s excursion through four offensive coordinators at Arkansas has the senior seen as anything but pampered, which was first pointed out in a Northwest Arkansas Times article, published June 8.
On a side note, should we really count it as four offensive coordinators considering Gus Malzahn was sidelined halfway through the 2006 season and Houston Nutt was always involved with the quarterbacks?
But I digress. Here’s what Hayes had to say:
Want someone to root for this fall? Here he is: the mistreated athlete.
When Arkansas made the bold move last December to pull coach Bobby Petrino away from the NFL, the first person I thought of was Dick, the guy who couldn’t get a break in his first three seasons. Now he’s set up for everything to finally fall his way.
No one develops quarterbacks like Petrino. No one sees the game, understands defenses and calls plays like Petrino. No one prepares quarterbacks and puts them in better position to succeed.
Hayes draws upon Petrino’s days at Louisville when the Cardinals ranked in the top 10 nationally — and No. 1 in one season — in total offense.
Eight months ago, Dick was pretty good at handing off. Eight months from today, Dick will be rising on NFL draft boards.
“Casey will be successful because he works hard at it,” Petrino says. And because — as much as anything — he has learned to persevere.”
It truly would be amazing if Casey rises on NFL draft boards with a breakout year in 2008. Dick will need more consistency in the pocket if he and Hayes expect a professional career.
Casey’s high school coach Tom Westerberg in Allen, Texas had some interesting takes on Dick’s lack of consistency in an article I wrote in April.
“He’s better any time he gets to play the whole game and he doesn’t have to go in on fourth down against a team like LSU after [running back Darren ] McFadden has played quarterback for a few plays, ” Westerberg said. ” Then Casey has to go in and throw a pass to save the game. He had more pressure on him than any quarterback in the country to come in from the sideline and be expected to convert. He was in a tough situation, and I just didn’t think that was fair from an offensive coordinator standpoint. ”
Yet, fans grumbled. He can’t hit the open man. He never hits a swing pass out of the backfield. He stares down receivers too long, fans said.
“From my standpoint, when you’re only running a two-receiver route, you’re going to stare down a receiver somewhere on the field, ” Westerberg said of the offense ran under Houston Nutt at Arkansas. ” He never really had a whole lot to work with on the different side of the field. I never saw that from the offense. “
2 Responses to “Columnist: Casey Dick worth rooting for in ‘08”
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It will be interesting to see if the tranformation that Dick has undergone thus far with Petrino carries onto the field in the real games this coming fall. Frankly, I wouldn’t have given him a chance to be the starting QB when Petrino was announced as Head Hog.
Now that he has had a terrific spring and has proven to no one more important than himself that he is capable of being the field general, I wish him the best.
GO HOGS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Three years of Houston Nutt’s offensive schemes have not been helpful, but if Casey is going to be the guy, now is the time.
The kid was a talented player in high school and worked mostly out of the spread offense. I would also totally agree with his former coach. Asking a quarterback to come into a big game to complete a long ball out of a pop warner, two receiver formation on 3rd and forever is fundamentally unfair.
Bring ‘em home, Case. GO HOGS!