Coach QA: Lewerkes skills impress

When quarterback recruit Brian Lewerke committed to Michigan State in April, two coaching staffs were surprised - the one at Michigan State, and even the one at his home Phoenix (Ariz.) Pinnacle High School.

But Lewerke's high school head coach, Dana Zupke, isn't shocked that the Michigan State's core principles appealed to his rising senior quarterback.

Zupke expands on that topic, and others, during today's Q&A with SpartanMag.com publisher Jim Comparoni.

(Note: This interview was conducted prior to last week's rankings controversy. We didn't feel compelled to get back in touch with Zupke for his thoughts on the matter. The rankings controversy doesn't change the player that Lewerke is, how Zupke perceives him, or what Michigan State thought of Lewerke when the Spartans offered a scholarship. This is an interview about Lewerke, not Lewerke's ranking):

Jim Comparoni: When Brian Lewerke committed to Michigan State last month, he said, among other things, that Michigan State "just felt like the right place to be." That commitment took some people by surprise. Did you know the commitment was coming?

Phoenix Pinnacle head coach Dana Zupke: "I was absolutely very surprised that he made a decision. Pleasantly surprised, but surprised. In the conversations I had had with Brian up to that point, he said he wanted to make his decision before the season maybe late July. But it obviously came quicker, after he visited Michigan State.

Brian keeps a lot of his conversations pretty brief. It was just, 'Yeah, I had a good visit. I liked it a lot.' It wasn't gushing but you could tell that he was genuinely happy with his visit. But Brian is very good at keeping things to himself with a good poker face.

This is totally my personal opinion, but I think for Brian, in his heart, he knew he wanted to go to Michigan State and it was hard for him to keep telling other coaches he was interested if it wasn't going to be true.

I think he was so impressed with Coach Dantonio and Coach Salem and the whole program that I really think he decided, 'I have to get this done.' I think it was a case of, 'This feels right, this is the right place to be. Why carry this on any longer?'

JC: In your discussions with him and your observations, what do you think it was about Michigan State that made it feel "right" for Brian?

DZ: Brian is a big sports fan and I know that he has had Ohio State and Michigan State in the picture as two of his favorites, just as a fan. I think there was a definite love for football back there in that part of the country for certain schools. And then the other criteria, what the opportunities are like, what the coaching staff is like, I know for a fact that how the program carries itself is huge for Brian.

We deal with Coach Salem's brother and the character education program that we are heavily involved with out here. I know that's a big part of their program at Michigan State.

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We have had a little more intimacy with that program and what Michigan State's program is all about and I know those things matter a lot to Brian and his family so I think that was a big part of it too.

JC: Before we go any further, I have to ask you about Brad Salem's brother and the character education program that he runs out there in Arizona for coaches.

DZ: He is the president of a company called Character Matters. It's a character education program.

I think every high school football coach in America believes they are instilling character in kids, but this (what Salem's company provides) is the playbook for teaching character to kids. That's what Wade has done for my program and for me. I know enough about Brian that that's a big part of what he saw with Michigan State.

JC: Did that open the doors for Michigan State with Brian? Did you speak a lot with (MSU quarterbacks coach) Brad Salem prior to the commitment?

DZ: Actually no. Very little. Right before they offered him, Brad contacted me and said they were very interested in him. Brad and I had a conversation after Brian committed. Brad just said how excited they were to have Brian committed, and what a good fit he thought he was, and we scheduled other visits and conversations for May.

JC: Brian had offers from Florida, UCLA, Arizona State, Arizona and others. When college coaches spoke with you about Brian, what were the things they said they liked about him?

DZ: First and foremost, people start with his release. He gets a lot of attention because that ball comes out so fast. At every level, those windows get tighter.

It's the same thing that everybody knocks Tim Tebow for, it's that wind-up. It costs him too much time in the pocket. Whether that's real or perceived, that's the first feedback that I hear: man, that kid has a great release. You see that ball and it punches out of there so fast. And it's effortless. It's the best I've ever seen.

He is such a treat to watch as an athlete. Even his ability to run the ball, it just looks effortless. It's a beautiful thing to watch because the kid doesn't look like he is really straining, and it's not that he isn't putting forth great effort, he just looks effortless.

So coaches talked about the release, the mobility. Duke's quarterback coach was out to see him and was fortunate enough to see Brian throw on the run. He was really pleasantly surprised to see Brian's ability to throw the ball on the run, and seeing his mobility in general. Seeing that athletic kid back there that can deliver the ball.

JC: Were you surprised when the scholarship offers started coming in for him?

DZ: I wasn't surprised at all. ASU offered him before he started in a varsity game, they were so impressed with him at a camp. UCLA had seen him throw in the summer but didn't have any film so they waited until he had a couple of games under his belt (last fall as a junior), and once they saw a couple of games they knew he was the real deal.

JC: Do you think Brian was surprised by the offers and attention?

DZ: I think he was very excited about those offers coming through but he never let it go to his head.

JC: What about Brian's arm strength?

DZ: I would rate his arm strength as the best I've seen in high school. The guy has a lot of arm strength.

We have had some pretty good quarterbacks out here in Arizona and I haven't seen too many who can flat out throw the ball like he can. He can throw to the wide side of the field, he can throw a 20-yard deep comeback and nobody is going to get a jump on that. I mean he'll put it on a rope.

JC: What did you see in Brian's development last season?

DZ: In week three we played Hamilton High School. They are a perennial powerhouse. They usually send about five or six guys to Division I every year. We had to play there.

In Brian's first two games, he played capably. Going into that third week against Hamilton, he started the game with nine straight incompletions, including some drops and things, against a very, very good defense. He followed that up with 10 or 12 straight completions in the second half. Right before our eyes, you saw this kid grow up.

Hamilton is a very big, physical team, and the plays he made with his feet were excellent. We run zone read option and Brian is asked to carry the ball and he really ran hard and physical and made a lot of plays with his feet. He really took a leap in that game. That's when he started having games in the high 200s and a 300-yard game.

Against our rival high school, Horizon High School, he had 300-plus yards passing and four or five touchdowns and just absolutely shined.

He gets tagged a lot as a pocket passer, but he is very capable as a runner and a lot more mobile than most people realize.

JC: On film, it seems like he demonstrates a lot of touch on the ball. When your team puts trips to one side, he finds the No. 2 receiver on the post, or drops it in the bucket to him in the back corner of the end zone, throwing with touch out to 40 yards, off of either foot - the ability to throw downfield with touch while having a scramble-to-throw mentality seems uncommon. And then he can zip it into the proper areas of zone coverage on-time ...

DZ: He is really good at seeing space. I think he reads very well at pre-snap.

At times he is throwing into some really tight windows and the accuracy shows.

Where I really saw growth from his sophomore to his junior year was that ability to change those throws up. Kids that have such strong arms when they are young, they just want to zip everything in there. Brian has learned to play with a lot of other tools in his tool box.

JC: On film, there are several passes when he is getting into his trigger before the receiver is open, as the receiver is even with a DB. It appears that he is throwing guys open, as they say. That probably speaks to his ability to anticipate.

DZ: I think that's one of the hardest things to teach young quarterbacks. We speak with the ASU staff and they talk about the struggles that they have when they get quarterbacks coming into their program. Early on, the young quarterbacks want to see that guy open before they release the ball. Brian has a quick release so he can get away with it a lot of times but he doesn't rely on that because he does see the open space. It's a reflection, I think, of our program and what our quarterbacks coach instills into him, and Brian buys into that and he has learned that, boy, that really does pay off. You don't have to see that they are open in order to throw them the ball, you have to anticipate that they are going to be open, based on the leverage that you're seeing.

A lot of times, that ball is coming out when the receiver is still stepping on the toes of the defender rather than the receiver being two or three steps behind the guy.

JC: Michigan State coaches have placed increased emphasis on quarterbacks being able to create a play when the original structure of the play breaks down. It appears that Brian Lewerke is a player who can deliver that at the high school level, whether he is throwing on the run to his left, or the right, or off the wrong foot…

DZ: That's his athleticism. He throws so well on the run. He can throw off the back foot if he has to. He throws off the wrong foot because he can makes such corrections with his arm. That's part of what makes him special.

He is very good at extending plays, very good throwing on the run. Those are things that you look for in today's game and I don't think it's any mistake that Brian got a lot of attention because of that.

JC: What about goals for next season, and preparation during the summer with 2014 in mind?

DZ: I think Brian would say he wants to win a state championship, along with the rest of his teammates. I think that's part of the recruiting decision, to get it finished, to be able to focus on trying to win a championship. That's a big goal.

We were 9-3 last year and lost in the quarterfinals to the state runner-up. We are a pretty young school; we opened in 2000. I've been head coach for 11 years and we have reached the playoffs for seven straight years, but the monkey on our back is we haven't been able to get past the quarterfinals. I think that's what Brian and the guys are pointing toward during off-season work.

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