By RANDY GONZALES

rgonzales@dailynews.net

Mike Garrison is so nimble with his feet, perhaps he should be the quarterback on "Dancing with the Stars" and not Kurt Warner.

Garrison, the senior quarterback for the Fort Hays State University football team, displayed his pocket presence in Saturday night's 45-20 win over Western State (Colo.) College. Time after time, Garrison danced around in the pocket, waiting for an open receiver.

After the final dance in the season opener, Garrison finished with 248 yards passing and two TDs after a slow start.

"... You had some guys at Mike's feet, he had some good composure at times," Fort Hays coach Kevin Verdugo said at Monday's weekly news conference. "I thought it was a big key for him."

Verdugo said Garrison "got better at it as he played last year."

The hard work in practice has paid off, too.

"That's something we do every day, we do pocket movement drills," Verdugo said.

Against Western State, Garrison found the open man time after time.

Verdugo said Garrison "did some nice things to the backs where his feet were good."

Being calm and cool in the pocket takes time, Verdugo said.

"When you move to a different level, the speed of the game's different," Verdugo said. "It's like a VCR on fast forward."

"Eventually, once you get used to the speed of the game, it slows down. ... It's in slow motion, it's so much clearer."

Time to celebrate

Verdugo told his players that it was OK to celebrate after a win. After beating Western State, there wasn't much elation in the locker room.

"I told them we've got to enjoy the win a little bit more," Verdugo said. "It was kind of funny; we get in the locker room, they weren't jumping and cheering.

"They were a little bit disappointed in themselves," he added.

"I think they felt they weren't as crisp as they needed to be. ... The one thing I'm going to impress upon them ... is they've still got to enjoy the win."