By John Antonik for MSNsportsNET.com
October 25, 2004
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – Despite suffering a 41-17 loss at Pittsburgh last Saturday, West Virginia coach Rich Rodriguez believes Rutgers will present a formidable challenge for his football team this Saturday afternoon in Piscataway, N.J.
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West Virginia coach Rich Rodriguez believes West Virginia will be facing a fired up Rutgers team this Saturday.
All-Pro Photography/Dale Sparks photo |
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Rodriguez has already issued warnings to his team: “I think they are going to see the film on Rutgers and know that they are a talented team, particularly watching them play against Michigan State and seeing that they’ve got a lot of athletes,” he said. “They played us very tough last year and we were in a battle with them all the way to the end at our place. Our guys will have their full focus on Rutgers and hopefully we’ll have a good week and be ready to go.”
Rodriguez says the biggest difference between this year’s 4-3 Rutgers team and past Scarlet Knight squads is an abundance of athletic players.
“Athletically they match up with everyone pretty well and that’s a concern of ours because they’ve got some guys that can run on defense and they’ve got some outstanding skill players offensively: some of the best skill players in our league,” Rodriguez said.
One of those outstanding skill players is 6-foot-2, 230-pound junior fullback Brian Leonard, who leads the team with 480 yards rushing and is second on the team with 33 catches for 296 yards and two touchdowns.
“He does everything well,” Rodriguez said of Leonard. “There is no question in my mind that he’s one of the better skill players in our league. He plays tailback, he plays fullback, he’s got great hands, he can run the football and he’s also a good, physical blocker. I think every coach in our league would love to have a Brian Leonard and he gives you a weapon on offense from several different spots. He’s a complete football player and obviously they are riding him as much as they can.”
Rodriguez also believes Rutgers coach Greg Schiano (12-30 record) has made steady progress since taking over the Scarlet Knights program in 2001.
“They’ve got a good plan as far as how to build a program and I think they’ve recruited very well,” Rodriguez said. “They’ve got some guys on their team that visited here or tried to visit here and we couldn’t get them to. I think they’ve gotten a tremendous amount of support from their administration for their program. If you look at their media guide you see some of the new facilities they have. They look first-class and look as good as any in our league.”
Rodriguez knows his No. 13-rated team will take Rutgers’ best shot this Saturday. “They are a little bit of wounded animal because they got beat in their last game. We’re playing at their place and with them playing a ranked team I’m sure they are going to be fired up and I’m sure we’re going to get their best effort,” he said.
Briefly:
Coach Rod was happier with his team’s performance against Syracuse last Thursday night, noting his team was focused and excited to play. “I thought we played better in that game than previously in certain spots particularly in the first quarter,” he said. “We knew we were going to get a great effort from the Syracuse Orange and we thought we did take a good shot from them.”
Three areas Rodriguez says his team needs to continue to improve upon is better blocking downfield, eliminating procedure penalties on offense, and improving leverage on their pursuit angles on defense.
Sophomore Erick Phillips had his knee tested again last week and he is still not to the 85-percent mark needed for full clearance. Rodriguez concedes that it will be at least another two weeks before Phillips will be available for action if at all.
“We’ll get him a few reps and ease his way in there but obviously now it’s coming to the point where he may not be able to contribute at all this season,” said the coach.
Despite winning Big East defensive player of the week honors for his performance against Syracuse, Pac-Man Jones has played better games this year, according to Rodriguez.
“To be honest with you I didn’t think his last game wasn’t one of his better games even though he made a few plays. He didn’t get as many opportunities in the return game as we would like,” Rodriguez said.
“He works hard in practice. We’ve used him a couple of times offensively to either use him as a decoy or give him the ball. He’s one of those guys who is an explosive player and you want him to have a lot of touches a game,” the coach continued. “He does so much for us on defense and special teams that I’ve been a little hesitant to use him on offense. If he gets rested or has an opportunity to catch his breath we’ll use him more on offense.”
