Misery in Madison
August 27, 2003 05:01 PM | General
August 28, 2003
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – Last year’s second-quarter performance at Wisconsin remains vivid in the memory of senior defensive back Lance Frazier.
Frazier is one of seven returning West Virginia defenders who took part in that 15 minutes of horror that resulted in 27 Wisconsin points and turned a pretty good football game into a rout.
“The one thing I wish I could change for last year would be the second quarter of Wisconsin,” said Frazier. “They really exploited our defense in the second quarter.”
With West Virginia implementing a new defensive scheme and coming off a horrible 2001 season trying to stop the run, the Mountaineers paid extra attention to Badger running back Anthony Davis. That, in turn, led to free passing lanes for quarterbacks Brooks Bollinger and Jim Sorgi to take advantage of.
“We just didn’t know a lot about our new defense and our new schemes,” said Frazier.
After two short touchdown runs by backup Dwayne Smith and Davis to start the quarter, Wisconsin added a 43-yard touchdown pass from Bollinger to Jonathan Orr. The Badgers tacked on one more score right before the end of the half when fullback Matt Bernstein bulled his way in from two yards out.
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| Wisconsin defenders Jeff Mack and Jim Leonhard converge on West Virginia running back Avon Cobourne during last year's game at Camp Randall Stadium. (All-Pro Photography/Dale Sparks) |
Mountaineer coach Rich Rodriguez says that second quarter turned into a snowball for his young defense.
“We didn’t react well to adversity up there in the first half and we gave them some big plays on defense,” he said. “It was simply a poor performance on our part in the first half.”
When the two teams left the field at the break, Wisconsin had 248 yards passing and 336 yards of total offense. Rodriguez took matters into his own hands in the locker room at halftime.
“We challenged them at halftime a little bit and they battled back, but the game was already out of hand and we could just never get back in it,” he said.
The Mountaineers did manage to hold Wisconsin to just a field goal for the remainder of the game, and tacked on two second-half touchdowns to make the final score a more respectable 34-17.
And more than anything West Virginia didn’t quit. The seeds of success for the 2003 season were sown during that miserable second quarter in Madison.
“They were hitting our weak points and once we got those corrected it helped us for the rest of the season,” said Frazier.
Wisconsin coach Barry Alvarez agrees, “They shot themselves in the foot. They hurt themselves with penalties and things a year ago, yet you could see that they were a good football team. I think they recognize that now.”
Alvarez is impressed with the way West Virginia recovered afterward and went on to finish the regular season with a 9-3 record.
“To go on and win nine games after our game and play the schedule they played, with the difficulty of their schedule, and play as well as they did. They have a lot of weapons,” said Alvarez.
Aside from having another season under their belts in the same defense, perhaps the biggest difference from last year for West Virginia is the development of junior quarterback Rasheed Marshall.
Marshall was making just his second career start in last year’s Wisconsin game. Although he struggled somewhat in the first half, completing just 7 of 18 passes for 86 yards, he finished strong with 219 yards passing to go with 76 yards rushing.
Alvarez commented on Marshall’s growth in West Virginia’s offense during a news conference earlier this week.
“He’s what you’re looking for to run that offense,” said Alvarez. “He really puts a lot of pressure on the defense. You give him four wide, you have to cover them all down. If they go empty and they take that back out of the backfield, you have to cover him down. That doesn’t leave many linebackers left to play a quarterback draw or if he steps up and runs. So he really puts a lot of pressure on you.”
Rodriguez hinted earlier this week that he may take more risks with Marshall downfield this year to keep defenses honest.
“Until the game comes and we see how they defend us, we don’t know exactly what the method of our attack will be. We’re looking for first downs and how to score points,” he said.
Rodriguez will be looking for plenty of points Saturday against Wisconsin.
Game time is set for noon and the contest will be televised nationally on ESPN.
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