Rodriguez Report
October 15, 2004 02:25 PM | General
October 15, 2004
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – Rich Rodriguez said Thursday afternoon that Mountaineer fans may get an opportunity to see a whole lot more of true freshman running back Pernell Williams.
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| Freshman Pernell Williams finds an opening during Wednesday night's game at Connecticut.
AP photo |
Pressed into action against Connecticut on Wednesday night due to an injury to starter Kay-Jay Harris, Williams ran 16 times for 89 yards and scored the game-clinching touchdown with 4:42 left in the fourth quarter. Williams ran hard and he also managed to hold onto the football at key points in the game.
So, coach, is Pernell in the mix?
“No question. He has put himself in the mix by not only how he has practiced but by also how he played in his first game. He’s does what we ask him,” Rodriguez said.
Williams showed an ability to hit the hole and get positive yardage, and also had a good feel for reading blocks and taking it to the backside where defenders were being blocked. On a couple of runs Williams actually looked strikingly similar to former record-setting running back Avon Cobourne in his ability to jump-cut and get to the backside of the defense.
“He ran hard and he ran behind his pads,” Rodriguez said. “He ran like a veteran as far as following his reads and doing the things that we coach him to try and look for. That is the reason why he’s going to be in the mix as far as getting the majority of the carries.”
Despite being inexperienced, the coach admitted that Williams already has a pretty good feel for the offense and since he is a freshman he might not totally feel the pressure because the expectations are not sky high for him.
“Sometimes when you are a young guy you don’t feel as much pressure because not much is expected of you,” Rodriguez explained. “I want him to have that same mentality. He did enough in the (Connecticut) game that he is going to put some heat on our starters.”
At the very least, Williams’ performance may speed up the recovery time of Harris, who has been hobbled by both an ankle and knee sprain sustained against Virginia Tech. Harris was brilliant in the season opener against East Carolina when he ran for a school-record 337 yards, and was also tough against Maryland running 32 times for 142 yards. But in his other two appearances against Central Florida and Virginia Tech, Kay-Jay gained just seven yards on two carries against UCF and only 22 yards on seven tries against the Hokies.
Jason Colson started in Harris’ place against UConn and finished with a team-best 111 yards and a touchdown on 13 carries, but he had a key fumble midway through the fourth quarter when the Mountaineers were driving that let Connecticut get back into the game.
Colson also ran for more than 100 yards against UCF but once again coughed up the football and that led to the Knights scoring a touchdown to make WVU's margin closer.
Rodriguez has made it well known during his tenure at West Virginia that fumbling the football will not be tolerated.
Third-string running back Bryan Wright, like Harris, has been hobbled by nagging injuries and has had a hard time staying on the practice field.
Those issues could very well lead to more playing time for Williams, a 20-year-old who played high school football last fall at Dayton’s Jefferson High School where he ran for 1,789 yards and scored 23 touchdowns as a senior.
Briefly:
“We discipline them and we talk about it but I’m going to have to keep hammering it home to them,” Rodriguez said. “Every officiating crew is different. I knew that crew was going to call it tight because we’ve had them in the past and I’ve seen them do other games and they call things a little tighter than some of the other crews so you just have to adapt.
“We’re going to get it corrected,” he warned. “It may come to a guy getting benched if he repeatedly makes what I call stupid penalties. I’m not going to continue to play games where West Virginia beats West Virginia. We’re not going to do that.”
“They were loading the box up and had their linebackers in there tight and we did some different things,” Rodriguez said. “We knew we had to get something going with Rasheed. When you get 100 yards out of your quarterback you know that is going to add to your total.
“Rasheed had some nice scrambles where he got loose for some first downs. We’ve got to be able to mix things up because we’ve become one-dimensional in our run game as far as running between the tackles and it can be like putting a square peg into a round hole,” he said.
“He’s a little bit stronger now,” Rodriguez said. “Maybe next week he might be able to go through a full practice. The trainers are optimistic that within the next two weeks he may be able to take the green shirt off. We do expect him to play this year.”
“He was our defensive player of the game. He made some big plays at key times: a couple of third-down stops, a fourth-down stop and an interception,” Rodriguez said. “I’m really proud of him. He’s a really coachable young man; he works hard and he made the most of his opportunity.”
