West Virginia Blog

September 25, 2009

West Virginia Recap
BY: Jason Nafziger

After beating Liberty and East Carolina, WVU lost to Auburn on the
road.
Stats so far: WVU is 23rd with 5.25 yards per rush attempt and 14th with 9
yards per passing attempt. Overall, they have scored 32.7 points and gained
485.3 yards on offense per game. Defensively, they are 21st with 2.67 yards
allowed per rush attempt and 60th with 6.5 yards allowed per pass attempt.
Overall, they have allowed 27 points and 312 yards per game.
Coming up: The Mountaineers take on Colorado, Syracuse and Marshall and
could easily win all three.

Jason Nafziger writes about Pro and College Football at
http://onfootball.wordpress.com

July 28, 2009

Looking Ahead: West Virginia
By: J. Davisson

The dog days of summer have arrived, but luckily for us football geeks, the end of July means that the kickoff of football season is but weeks away. For West Virginia, fall camp will commence on August 7th, led by second-year head man Bill Stewart. Soon there will be plenty of news nuggets and quotes emanating from Morgantown, but for now let’s recap the off-season and try to find out exactly where the Mountaineers stand going into camp.

Special teams worries became apparent last season. WVU dropped out of Phil’s Top 40 special teams rankings for the first time in 6 seasons. The Mountaineers received solid placekicking and punting from Pat McAfee last season, but the kickoff coverage team was particularly haunting. This team must find a replacement for McAfee’s triple duty of place kicks, punts, and field goals.

Senior Scott Kozlowski has game experience at punter.“Koz” was a gifted punter in high school, averaging 43.6 yards per attempt his senior year, and grabbed the starting spot as a redshirt-freshman in 2006. A bad shank against Louisville landed him in the doghouse, and McAfee grabbed the punting duties and held on for the next two-plus seasons. McAfee had also mastered the “rugby punt” technique which Rich Rodriguez and staff favored. Persevering for those two seasons on the bench leaves little doubt in most Mountaineer fans’ eyes that “Koz” has the mettle to be as effective as needed in the 2009 season.

Somewhat more up in the air are the placekicking and kickoff duties. Redshirt freshman Tyler Bitancurt was signed out of Virginia and redshirted last season, and is expected to handle placekicks and is especially talented at kickoffs. Josh Lider is a senior who transferred in from Western Washington when that school dropped its football program, and he will have an opportunity to compete for the starting job and provide depth. Either kicker will have a lot to live up to as McAfee is the all-time leading scorer in Mountaineer history.

On offense, Jarrett Brown takes over as the full-time starter, after patiently waiting for three years behind the legendary Pat White. Brown has seen significant game action in each of the last three seasons, as White missed time with injuries each season. At 6’4” and 221 pounds, Brown is a bigger specimen than White and also has a bigger arm. I expect the renaissance in the passing game that offensive coordinator Jeff Mullen brought in last season to continue, but I also expect that WVU will remain a run-first team. One fact looming large is that Brown will make his first road start at Auburn in week three.

The backup quarterback situation is sketchy at best and another major topic of discussion heading into the season. Brown is the only QB with any game experience. Mountaineer fans were stoked with true freshman Geno Smith, PS#4 out of Miramar, Fla. Unfortunately within his first week on campus he injured his foot in a non-football related accident and has been sidelined. His status for fall workouts is still questionable at best, which could lead to a redshirt year for Smith. The likely understudy will now be Pat White’s brother, Coley. He will have to prove that he has credentials beyond being the brother of an all-time great, but all the reports from Morgantown are optimistic.

Sophomore wide receiver Bradley Starks was a high-school quarterback and may be best suited to step in should anything happen to Brown in the early going. However, the more time Starks has to split between the two positions, the further detriment there is to his growth as a receiver, so I’m sure the coaching staff will want to find out early on in camp where he can have the most impact.

Another factor eating away at WVU fans this off-season is the indefinite suspension of WR-RB Jock Sanders. Sanders was the X-factor in the offense last season and he is the second-leading returning rusher and receiver and should be a favorite to handle punt and kickoff return duties. Sanders was suspended in February after a DUI charge and there has been absolutely no indication from Stewart and company of when or even if Sanders will return to the team. The sooner this situation is settled the better, and hopefully by the beginning of fall camp we will have an idea of Sanders’ availability.

While Sanders’ and Starks’ status in the receiving corps may be shaky, Brown will have two large, solid targets to throw to – Senior Alric Arnett, who had a breakout season in 2008, leading the team with 466 receiving yards and 13.3 yards per catch. Arnett had his best performance in the bowl game against UNC where he grabbed seven passes for 93 yards and added two beautiful touchdown receptions. At 6’2” Arnett is a nice big target, but an even-bigger target for Brown is 6’8” senior Wes Lyons. The PS #44 has fallen short of expectations in his first three seasons, with a total of 22 receptions and no touchdowns. WVU has to find a way to throw the ball up for this guy, who is a good seven to ten inches taller than any starting CB in the Big East. Lyons hauled in two TD in the spring game and that has to be a good sign.

Another exciting big target for WVU fans is 6’2” true freshman Logan Heastie (PS #16). Heastie was in for spring drills and will challenge Lyons and Arnett for time at the outside receiver spots. Another highly touted freshman receiver, Deon Long, did not qualify academically. The coaching staff will need to find another receiver or two to step up during fall camp to provide some depth.

Along the offensive line, only one full-time starter returns--senior RT Selvish Capers. C Eric Jobe and LG Josh Jenkins were part-time starters a year ago, and youngsters Don Barclay at left tackle and Jeff Braun at right guard are going to be called on to fill in. Barclay suffered a broken fibula in the spring but all indications are that he is 100% headed into camp. Going into last season, Phil rated WVU as the #4 OL unit in the country but they were a huge disappointment. Dave Johnson is in his second season as the OL coach, after three straight seasons with a different coach this can only help the progression of these young men. WVU is transitioning from the smaller, athletic linemen preferred by Rodriguez and staff to using traditional, larger but less-mobile linemen. The offensive line that was believed to anchor the team going into 2008 is a huge question mark going into 2009.

Many Mountaineer fans expect this team to be anchored by the hard-hitting defense, especially early on in the campaign. Jeff Casteel has been in charge of the 3-3-5 alignment at WVU for eight years, a system that is often maligned by fans but has served the Mountaineers well. Junior nose tackle Chris Neild came into his own last season and could be a force in the middle that this team hasn’t really had in previous years. With ends Scooter Berry, Larry Ford, and Julian Miller in the fold, the defensive line could be one of the top-performing units on the team.

Reed Williams returns to anchor this team from middle linebacker, after sitting out 2008 after shoulder surgery. It remains to be seen if he can return to his 2007 form when he led the team with 107 tackles. No complications have been reported and Williams should be good to go this season. WVU does not have the big, hulking linebackers that you will see at some programs but they counter with speed from each position. I look for WVU to go after passers a lot more this season than in the past, almost certainly topping last season’s disappointing total of 25 sacks.

Quinton Andrews was a three-year starter at bandit safety, but did not see eye-to-eye with Stewart and company, and will finish out his career under Terry Bowden at North Alabama. But the Mountaineers have plenty of experienced safeties – sophomore Robert Sands, junior Sidney Glover, and seniors Nate Sowers and Boogie Allen saw action in all 13 games last season.

Brandon Hogan, another former HS QB, was moved from WR to CB last season, and although he pines to return to the offensive side of the ball, he quickly became a star defender, recording three interceptions, seven passes broken up and 60 tackles. He missed the bowl game due to personal reasons but there have been no indications that he will miss any time this fall.

We all know there is no clear-cut favorite in the Big East. Every team has its obvious weaknesses, but to me there are three keys for WVU to stand out above the rest and win the conference championship.

1. Health – Championship teams are often healthy team, but WVU does not have a lot of proven depth, especially at QB and along the OL.

2. Offensive line play – As I mentioned above, this unit has a lot to prove, and must have everyone healthy. I don’t have a lot of insight to add here, but early in the season we should be able to see how this unit will perform.

3. Coaching – Some are still convinced that Stewart is over his head and he had some questionable game management in Year 1. This team is still the most talented in the conference and Stewart cannot afford to be out-coached by his colleagues. While Stewart and staff have surprisingly taken WVU’s recruiting to a new level, they will have to prove that they can steer the team on Saturdays.