ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Friday, April 11, 1997 TAG: 9704110050
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B-1 EDITION: METRO
COLUMN: JACK BOGACZYK
SOURCE: JACK BOGACZYK
The NFL seemingly has hundreds of ways of measuring a prospect. Players go through a mental and physical gantlet before draft day. Then, it's the wait that's excruciating.
It was simpler for Jim Druckenmiller back in 1985. He was a scrawny kid in suburban Allentown, Pa. He never had worn shoulder pads. He was a baseball, basketball and soccer player. His friends played football. One day, his dad, Jim, asked him why he didn't.
It turned out to be a million-dollar question.
Preseason practice for the Northampton peewee league already had started. Druckenmiller reported and was told he had to make weight - 115 pounds - to play.
``I must have been about 110,'' Druckenmiller recalled Thursday from the Virginia Tech campus. ``Every time I was weighed, it was in full equipment, and I made it.''
That was more than 100 pounds ago. From eighth-grade gridiron rookie to potential NFL first-round quarterback pick in the April 19 draft, Druckenmiller has gotten where he is through effort and opportunity.
``I think what's happened to me should give everyone, every kid, hope,'' said Druckenmiller, the Hokies' erstwhile quarterback who graduated in December. ``There's no easy road in anything you do that's worthwhile. But if you bust your butt, sometimes a light will shine to show you which road to go.''
What shined was Druckenmiller's performance in two years as Tech's starting QB. It's a position he likely never would have won had not Tech's offensive coordinator of 1994, Gary Tranquill, moved to Michigan State the next season. Late in the '94 season, as Maurice DeShazo was finishing his college career, Tranquill told a reporter that Al Clark - Druckenmiller's successor next season - would be the '95 starter.
Druckenmiller, 24, is ranked first among NFL quarterback prospects. He is expected to be drafted anywhere from the middle of the first round to early in the second. If he goes lower - and it won't be much lower - the Pennsylvania rifleman says he won't be disappointed. After all, before he went to prep school at Fork Union, the schools that wanted him were East Stroudsburg, Lycoming and Kutztown.
His high school career? ``Nothing stood out,'' he says matter-of-factly. Not only did he never expect to be attracting such NFL attention, he didn't even expect to take a half-hour to handle the media rush on a conference call Thursday.
``I think it's a dream for me just to play in the NFL,'' he said.
Since the Orange Bowl, Senior Bowl and scouting combine workouts in late February, Druckenmiller has gotten the most attention from New Orleans, Miami, Atlanta, Seattle, San Francisco and Arizona. He has ``no clue'' who will pick him or when. A report from San Francisco said if Druckenmiller is available when the 49ers pick 26th, they'll take him.
In the past few weeks, the visitors to Tech's campus to size up the 6-foot-43/4 quarterback have included Super Bowl champion coaches Mike Ditka of the Saints and Jimmy Johnson of the Dolphins.
``It's been overwhelming,'' Druckenmiller said. ``Those are the guys I remember seeing coaching on the field. Those are the guys I remember in the [telecast] studio. Seeing Jimmy Johnson step out of a car, seeing Mike Ditka walk up with a big, fat cigar, to have them take a look at me ... to hear it from their mouths, it's encouraging.''
What's also encouraging is that Druckenmiller has seemed to handle all of this hoopla without being smug. He's deceived some people with his 4.95-second speed [40 yards] and shocked some with his strength, but he remains unspectacularly steady and heady on and off the field.
Those are the main reasons he guided the Hokies to a 20-4 record and at least a share of Big East Conference titles the past two seasons. He just followed the advice of Rickey Bustle, Tech's offensive coordinator who is as responsible as anyone except the QB himself for where Druckenmiller rates with the NFL.
``He [Bustle] said, `Don't try to do anything fancy,''' Druckenmiller said. ``That's Jim Druckenmiller football.''
Druckenmiller has been compared favorably to recent Buffalo retiree - and future Hall of Famer - Jim Kelly, but growing up, Druckenmiller had no favorite team or player. ``As a kid, I had a Redskins helmet, a Cowboys helmet, a Steelers helmet,'' he said. ``I went to a couple of Eagles games. I liked the 49ers and Joe Montana when they were in those Super Bowls.''
He said the optimum experience would be for him to sit a year or two behind an established quarterback - a Steve Young, Dan Marino or John Elway - and be groomed to play. He knows how to wait. In his first two Tech seasons combined, after his prep year and a redshirt season, he threw 38 passes.
Sometimes, not only do good things come to those who wait, sometimes great things do.
LENGTH: Medium: 88 linesby CNB