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 Battle of the Bulge Mountaineers' QB outdid McNown, McNabb in '98
Posted: Sunday August 15, 1999 02:39 PM
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. (AP) -- Marc Bulger pulls up to the West Virginia football complex and slides out of his red Jeep, a model without doors or solid roof. "When I look at that thing, I just close my eyes and say, `Oh, brother,'" coach Don Nehlen says. Bulger's protection, it seems, is suspect. Just like when he's on the field. The top quarterback in the Big East and holder of 21 school records returns with thoughts of duplicating his finest season. But he'll have to do it with a new line and starters at nearly every skill position. "We hope he's the guy that can plug the dike," Nehlen said. "When you have a kid as polished as Marc, he might be able to sneak us through one or two that we might not get if we didn't have a guy like him. But we have to find a way to help him." Bulger got lost in last year's bounty of quality quarterbacks. His rating topped higher-profile players such as UCLA's Cade McNown and Kentucky's Tim Couch. His 3,178 yards passing were 1,000 more than Donovan McNabb's at Big East rival Syracuse, and his 27 touchdown passes beat McNabb by five. Yet Bulger appeared on nobody's Heisman Trophy list. Nehlen was betting on genetics when he recruited a 6-foot-1, 160-pound Bulger out of Pittsburgh's Central Catholic High School -- Dan Marino's alma mater. Bulger's father, Jim, was Joe Theismann's backup at Notre Dame in the early 1970s. "When we recruited him, most people thought we were crazy," Nehlen said. "We saw his dad was 6-5 and thought we'd take a gamble. We thought he'd grow. If his dad was 5-7, I'm not sure if we would have recruited him. "He's gained 52 pounds and grown an inch and a half. If he would have stayed 150 and never grown, we'd have made a mistake." This year, Bulger is changing his uniform from No. 10 to No. 4, his father's number. "I never played football when I was real young," he said. "Marino was my favorite NFL quarterback. But when people talk about football, since I didn't play, I talked about my dad playing at Notre Dame. That was basically always the conversation." Bulger's loyalty to his father is evident in the Notre Dame Alumni Association plate on his Jeep. Pittsburgh is about 70 miles from Morgantown, and Bulger's idea of a fun weekend is usually spent away from college. "Once in a while we'd go up there and hang out with his dad," said reserve linebacker Brian Lorenz, one of Bulger's five roommates last year. Nehlen has built his offense around Bulger with three- and four-receiver sets. This time, Bulger won't be complemented with a running game. Amos Zereoue, the school's all-time leading rusher, skipped his senior season for the NFL. His three potential replacements have a combined 15 carries in college. Also gone are the two best receivers in school history, Shawn Foreman and David Saunders. Bulger will be hard pressed to match last year's 410 points scored by the team. But a schedule that includes six teams with losing records last year gives the Mountaineers hope for a fifth straight bowl. The one knock on Bulger is his scrambling ability. Unlike Jeff Hostetler and the razzle-dazzle of Major Harris a decade ago, Bulger rarely runs with the ball. Many figure he doesn't need to with his quick dropback, rifle arm, and his receivers' timing routes. "What you see with Marc is what you get," Lorenz said. "He's cool, intelligent, doesn't make too many mistakes. That's pretty much the way he is off the field. I've never seen him get rattled in the four years I've known him."
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