Scarlet Knights Improved
October 06, 2003 04:22 PM | General
October 6, 2003
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – West Virginia University football coach Rich Rodriguez believes his team will be facing a much improved Rutgers squad Saturday afternoon at Mountaineer Field.
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| West Virginia coach Rich Rodriguez believes Rutgers is a vastly improved team from a year ago. (All-Pro Photography/Dale Sparks) |
The Scarlet Knights come into this weekend’s game with a 3-2 record, having defeated Buffalo, Army and Navy and losing to Michigan State and Virginia Tech.
Last week Navy upset No. 25 Air Force and both Michigan State and Virginia Tech are listed in this week’s national rankings.
Heading into this year Rutgers has only managed to win three of 23 games under Coach Greg Schiano and have lost 23 straight Big East games going into Saturday’s game at West Virginia.
But Rutgers has made dramatic improvement, particularly on offense where the Knights have advanced in almost every significant category.
The most notable changes are in points per game (31.6 ppg this year compared to 13.9 ppg last year), rushing yards per attempt (3.5 ypa compared to 1.5 ypa last year), rushing yards per game (146.8 ypg compared to 51.7 ypg last year), passing yards per game (215.6 ypg compared to 162.3 ypg last year) and third-down conversion percentage (43 percent this year compared to 29 percent last year).
Rodriguez has taken notice, “To me it’s a completely different team. They’re a lot more athletic on both sides of the ball. All of the skill positions on offense they’re more athletic and every guy on defense runs better and is more athletic.”
Rodriguez believes a lot of their improvement also has to do with the fact that they now have three years playing in Schiano’s system.
“I think they are believing in what they’re doing,” he said. “The first year we played them it was a typical first year. You’re still learning your system and you’re still getting your identity. Now they’re establishing what they want to do, they’ve already won three games this year and they’re playing with confidence. It’s like night and day. The athletic ability and their comfort with the new system are the two biggest improvements.”
Rutgers’ two primary ball carriers last year, Marcus Facyson and Clarence Pittman, are still around but have been supplanted by Justise Hairston and Brian Leonard.
Hairtson leads the Knights with 356 yards on 89 carries for an average of 4.0 yards per carry. Leonard has gained 260 yards, including 76 last week against Virginia Tech. He is averaging 5.5 yards per rush.
Quarterback Ryan Hart saw action in just five games last year splitting time with Ted Trump and Ryan Cubit. Hart has seen almost all of the snaps this year and has completed 82 of 142 passes for 1,063 yards and seven touchdowns.
Rodriguez knows his team will have to exhibit the same kind of effort and intensity showed in last week’s 22-20 loss at Miami to defeat Rutgers this Saturday.
“Rutgers is much improved,” said Rodriguez. “Our players know that and our coaches know that. They did a great job against us last year, particularly defensively, and we’re going to take a good shot from them and we’re going to have to be ready to play.”
After reviewing the Miami game tape today and going over corrections, Rodriguez says all talk about the Hurricanes will be placed on the shelf in favor of Rutgers.
“After today’s meeting and after the film it’s strictly about Rutgers,” he said. “I don’t want our players to be asked about Miami, I don’t want them to talk about it and I don’t want our coaches to talk about it other than the fact of correcting things we did wrong in that game.”
West Virginia, 1-4, hasn’t won since defeating East Carolina, 48-7 on Sept. 6.
Rodriguez mentioned Monday that his team came out of last Thursday’s game relatively healthy and everyone who made the trip to Miami should be available this weekend.
“Scott Gyorko and Fred Blueford both had stinger problems,” said the coach. “We’ll limit their contact this week and they should be fine by Saturday. Other than that we came out of the game relatively healthy which is pleasing because it was a really physical ball game.”
Saturday’s game is parents weekend and tickets are available by calling the Mountaineer Ticket Office toll-free at 1-800-WVU GAME or by logging onto www.wvugame.com.
