Heavyweights Lean to Lighter Side : Big Linemen Discover Size Isn’t Better When Handling Smaller, Quicker Foes

At 6 feet 5, and not a pound over 387, George Burge thought he was on his way to the NFL. He was a starting offensive tackle for Mater Dei, one of the top high school teams in Orange County. And though he weighed twice as much as most of his teammates, Burge was not embarrassed by his girth.

“I was knocking guys over, and no one was really saying anything about my weight,” he said.

But in the fifth game of Mater Dei’s season, Burge met a linebacker he couldn’t knock over.

“This guy from Tustin was speed-rushing me all night,” Burge said. “He had three sacks, and I was holding him, grabbing him, jumping offsides, doing anything I could to keep him away from the quarterback. I’m sure they just said, ‘Go around this fat guy.’ That’s pretty much what they did.”

Burge said the film session that following Monday was not pretty.

“Coach (Bruce) Rollinson got in my face that day and said, ‘You’ve got to lose weight or you’re going to keep getting beat.’ That’s the first time anybody had ever said it quite that way to me.”

Burge didn’t lose any weight that year, but he did lose his starting job and his desire to play football.

That was three years ago. Now, Burge is a svelte 280 pounds, a starting right tackle for Rancho Santiago College and an NCAA Division I college prospect.

Simply put: Burge discovered that bigger is not necessarily better.

“I used to think, ‘I’m 300-plus, I can go pro,’ ” he said. “ ‘That’s all you need.’ Now, I realize that it’s mostly speed and technique. Without it, you’re nothing.”

Loara’s Stephen Watson, at 6-5, 350, is the largest high school football player in Orange County and one of about 20 county players who weigh more than 300. Watson is slowly learning the pitfalls of the 300-pound club, whose members are often not yet athletic enough to handle smaller, quicker opponents.

“Actually, it’s kind of a disadvantage because I’m so slow,” Watson said. “I’ve pretty much learned to live with it, but it’s a real pain right now.”

Watson might be slow in comparison to most offensive linemen, but for a 350-pound guy, he can move.

“He’s a fine player,” Esperanza defensive coordinator Bill Pendleton said. “He’s one of the few kids at that weight who’s mobile. He was one of the top two or three linemen we played against last year.”

Watson, only a junior, and Magnolia senior Bobby Matthews (6-5, 330) are two 300-pounders who have Division I college potential. But many members of this year’s 300-pound club are too large for their own good.

Arizona Coach Dick Tomey said he is aware of this year’s class of 300-pounders, but he didn’t seem too interested in them.

“We haven’t recruited many 300-pounders,” he said. “Most of them don’t move well. We would prefer a smaller player who could gain the weight.”

A perfect example of that type of player is Arizona’s Rob Waldrop, considered by coaches to be one of the top five linemen in the country. Waldrop weighs close to 300 pounds now, but he was a quick, athletic, 6-2, 250, in high school.

“The most important thing is, is he athletic,” said Tomey, whose team is undefeated and ranked 11th in the nation by The Associated Press.

Dave Ogas, head coach at Rancho Santiago and a former NFL linebacker, agrees.

“I’d rather have the athlete than the big kid,” said Ogas, whose biggest offensive lineman weighs 275. “Kids who can’t run are of no use to me.”

Magnolia Coach Bill Friedrich, who has coached Matthews for three years, said, “Kids who can run always give you an advantage. Speed and quickness are much better assets. But there’s also nothing you can do to compensate for a mismatch in size.”

And then there are the few exceptional players who have size, strength and speed. Ohio State defensive tackle Dan Wilkinson and Dallas Cowboy defensive tackle Russell Maryland both were obese in high school, but their college coaches took a chance on them because they showed enough quickness and athleticism to warrant a scholarship.

Maryland reportedly dropped 50 pounds while at Miami and went on to be become the first pick in the NFL draft. Wilkinson has reportedly dropped 45 pounds and now weighs 305. NFL scouts are rating Wilkinson, a sophomore, as a possible No. 1 draft pick.

Watson doesn’t have the speed of a Wilkinson, who ran a reported 4.87 40-yard dash in high school while weighing 350. Watson, who runs a 5.5 40, said he would like to decrease his weight and his time in the 40.

“I plan on doing some serious dieting and working out so I can lose 40 pounds,” he said. “I’d like to get my 40 time down to 5.1.”

But Watson realizes neither task will be easy. Watson, like his father, has always been bigger than his peers. His ability to eat earned him the nickname of “Chili” in second grade.

“I used to take chili to school in a thermos nearly every day, and my friends thought it was bizarre,” said Watson, who weighed 260 in sixth grade and 335 as a freshman at Loara. “So they started calling me ‘Chili.’ I prefer it now. I sign it on my documents. I figured why make enemies over it, so I went along with it.”

John deFries, Loara’s coach and nearly a 300-pounder himself, empathizes.

“A lot of times, I think kids can’t help themselves,” he said. “Their parents are big, so they are big.”

DeFries coaches two other 300-pound players, Roy Bengochea (6-4, 313) and Tony Daddario (5-10, 300). Bengochea is a starting guard, and Daddario is a backup center.

Burge said his weight, which has reached 398, was in the unhealthy range before he listened to Howard Stern and began shedding pounds.

Howard Stern, the controversial talk-radio host?

“He was tearing this man up on television telling him how fat he was,” said Burge, who was watching Stern on a Nutri-System commercial. “I was sitting there with my mother, and I was real embarrassed. But I felt like he was actually talking to me.”

Before Stern’s message hit home, Burge said he had never seriously considered dieting.

“There was no reason to lose weight,” he said. “No one had ever said it was wrong. So I ate a lot of junk food. I’d go to McDonald’s and eat a Big Mac, a Quarter Pounder, Filet of Fish sandwich, fries and some Chicken McNuggets.”

Those eating habits continued until Stern’s railing convinced Burge to go on a 1,500-calorie diet in the spring of 1992.

“The weight was just falling off,” said Burge, who said he lost an average of eight pounds a week during a six-month period in 1992.

Burge, who had taken a year off from football, won a starting job that year and has held it this season.

“I feel comfortable and fast,” he said. “I feel like I can go out and (block) linebackers now.”

Like Burge, Matthews began his high school football career as a large, but essentially immobile, player. But recently, he has begun to emerge.

Friedrich, Matthews’ coach, said Matthews is finally growing into his body.

“The skeletal muscular development is behind with these big kids,” Friedrich said. “With a lot of these guys, nothing happens until they grow up inside.”

Though Matthews has come a long way, Friedrich said certain types of players still give Matthews fits.

“His problem has been small, quick kids that he can’t find, and that’s his coordination deficiencies,” said Friedrich, who noted that Oregon State, Fresno State and San Diego State have shown interest in his lineman. “He’ll be able to block some people and help move a pile, but if he’s asked to block a Lawrence Taylor-type, he’s in trouble.”

Watson said he has more problems with strong and agile linemen like Travis Kirshke, The Times Orange County lineman of the year last season, who is a freshman at UCLA.

“Against guys like Travis Kirshke, I don’t have a whole lot of fun,” Watson said. “He threw me around like a rag doll.”

Watson said he’s aware of his potential, but he’s cognizant of what could happen if he continues to take his size in stride.

“With my size, I can go somewhere,” he said. “It’s time to mature and take this to another level. I kind of feel like I have to. I’m here living in an apartment with my mom and I don’t really feel like I have any other opportunities in life.”

Then again, opportunities can come knocking in strange ways, or from strange talk-show hosts. Just ask Burge.