WVU in Rebound Role
September 19, 2003 10:17 AM | General
Thursday, September 18, 2003
The story line of Saturday’s West Virginia-Maryland game will be to see how the Mountaineers can rebound after a very surprising loss to Cincinnati.
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| According to Tony, QB Rasheed Marshall unfairly took a lot of the blame for West Virginia's offensive woes last week against Cincinnati. (All-Pro Photography/Dale Sparks) |
And the story within the story is to see what changes have been made within the offensive unit to move the football. I think the changes that will be made and the changes that need to be made are not as dramatic as some may suggest.
What West Virginia is planning to do is to reduce rather than add to its offensive game plan. This offense does not need more plays: it needs less plays. West Virginia coaches are in the process of eliminating the plays that haven’t been productive and highlight those that have been. This isn’t a new phenomenon college football; most coaching staffs do this after the third week anyway.
The key word for Saturday is RUN.
The biggest and most telling statistic of all is that the Mountaineers are 13-3 under Rich Rodriguez when they run for more than 200 yards. WVU has yet to win in 11 games when it fails to rush for at least 200 yards.
The theme this week is: whether we carry it in a barrel, wheel barrel or a bag we’ve got to get the ball up the field on the ground for at least 200 yards.
After the third week of the season it really surprises me that the major topic of discussion around the water coolers has been West Virginia’s offensive production. That’s the exact opposite of what captured our attention in the preseason.
And yes, you can count me among those who believed that the defense was going to be a work in progress and that the defensive line was going to be one of the team’s weak spots. Therefore it’s surprising that we’re talking about the offensive problems after three weeks.
In a matter of seven days West Virginia went from Bob Griese, Paul Warfield and the ’72 Miami Dolphins to now being the Evansdale Tigers.
To blame one person, to blame one player, to blame one coach or to blame one position is ludicrous. Anyone who has ever played football knows that all 11 players on the field must work together as one and the entire coaching staff needs to be operating as one. It’s not one problem.
Everyone shares the responsibility and that’s why this week it was so important for West Virginia’s coaches to get together and really redefine what it is they do well
I also believe last Saturday’s poor performance by the Mountaineers can be easily overcome. For as nauseating as the offense played against Cincinnati, West Virginia was still a field goal away from escaping that game with a victory. It is always somewhere in the middle -- you’re never as bad or never as good as you think.
I don’t think we’re at the edge of a cliff looking down at a great black hole, we just need to take a few steps back, re-evaluate and go on and play.
Remember this: last year after Maryland we all thought the sky was falling and that the world was done. Then West Virginia bounced back and played extremely well after that point.
To be honest, I think some have overestimated the amount of experience on this year’s team. West Virginia is playing with an extremely small senior class, more than half of the 130 players on the roster are either walk-ons or true freshmen players. So this is a young, young team. Maryland has a substantially larger proportion of juniors and seniors on its roster compared to West Virginia.
Jack Bogaczyk of the Charleston Daily Mail reminded me earlier this week that a football team’s success or failure is really determined in the month of November. What he is really saying is to slow down, because there is still a long ways to go. It’s still too early to start counting wins and losses. It’s way too early to do that because this team is still a work in progress.
Hopefully we can see some improvement this weekend against a pretty good Maryland team.
Make sure you tune in to the MSN radio broadcast this Saturday because there is no live television.
We’ll see you again in two weeks.
