Blueford Out
November 10, 2003 04:14 PM | General
November 10, 2003
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – West Virginia University football coach Rich Rodriguez announced Monday during his weekly media conference call that senior defensive end Fred Blueford will be sidelined for the remainder of the season with a knee injury.
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| Defensive end Fred Blueford was injured in the first half of last Saturday's game at Boston College. (All-Pro Photography/Dale Sparks) |
Blueford sustained the injury in the first half of last Saturday’s game at Boston College, “He will be done for the rest of the season. I really feel bad for him and he’s one of our seniors up front on defense,” said Rodriguez.
Blueford appeared in eight of nine games and had 21 tackles and a pass breakup. Junior Jason Hardee is expected to move into Blueford’s starting spot.
Also, Rodriguez says starting right guard Jeff Berk is “day-to-day” with turf toe. Berk will not practice Monday night.
West Virginia is facing a Pittsburgh team that is coming off a big, 31-28 victory over Virginia Tech last Saturday night at Heinz Field. The Panthers (7-2) are a perfect 4-0 in Big East play and have moved up to No. 16 in both the latest ESPN/USA Today Coaches and AP polls.
After West Virginia, Pitt has games remaining against Temple and Miami and is looking at capturing its first league title since the Big East began round-robin play in 1993.
Rodriguez is thoroughly impressed with the Panthers and particularly wide receiver Larry Fitzgerald. The third-year coach believes Fitzgerald is talented enough to win the Heisman Trophy.
“Not only his production, but also the fact that he is one of the leaders on the football team and the way he plays without the ball and the way he conducts himself,” said Rodriguez. “He’s everything you would like to see in a Division I-A college football player.”
And while the coach is nervous about trying to devise a game plan to limit Fitzgerald, he is also aware of the fact that Pitt has plenty of other good players that can beat you as well.
“They’ve got a lot of weapons,” he said. “You look at their team and I think they have 15 senior starters: seven or eight on each side of the ball. Not only do you have Fitzgerald but they’ve got (Rod) Rutherford who is playing lights out. He’s a tremendous player and they’ve got a great tight end (Kris Wilson). (Princell) Brockenbrough is another excellent receiver, their fullback (Lousaka Polite) and their tailbacks (Brandon Miree and Jawan Walker) are both good players, too.
“They’ve got experience up front,” he continued. “You’ve got a team on both sides of the ball that is experienced and talented and that’s a pretty good combination when you add that to a coaching staff like they have. That’s why they’re ranked in the Top 25.
As a WVU player and now as a coach, Rodriguez has developed a great respect for Pitt and the importance placed on the “Backyard Brawl.”
Rodriguez says being so close to Pitt is the primary reason the game is such a big rivalry, “They’re just up the road an hour and a half away. We recruit against each other. A lot of our players know their players from high school and we cross paths a good bit. I think it has always been an important ballgame for both programs and it’s a fun rivalry.”
The last two WVU-Pitt games have been decided by a touchdown or less. Rodriguez admits that last year’s game up at Heinz Field was one of the best college games he’s ever been involved in.
“I thought last year’s game was one of the best college football games as far as being well-played and playing hard that I’ve ever been associated with,” he said.
Briefly ...
“I don’t think there will be any problem getting our guys focused,” he said. “They know what a great challenge it is. Obviously we’re going to have a big crowd and it’s a national TV audience against a great football team. It’s going to be a good situation as far as getting them ready and prepared but we’ve got a lot of work to because if we play like we did this past weekend there is no way we will win the Pitt game.”
“I thought he would at least play that well and he’s probably mildly disappointed that he didn’t play better,” said the coach. “He’s a calm guy and he’s been in the system for two years now and he understands what we want. One of his greatest attributes is that he’s a competitor. That’s why he’ll play a lot of football for us here.”
Junior Rasheed Marshall is expected to start Saturday’s game against Pitt.
“I was blocked out by some of our other guys on the sideline and I was thinking about what overtime plays do we want to run,” he said. “It was just a game where we kept letting them go in there and make some plays. Fortunately we had to have some guy make a play for us at the end and our little linebacker Scottie Gyorko made the play and we got out of there with a win.”
