High Marks
November 03, 2004 02:17 PM | General
November 3, 2004
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – When Pac-Man Jones left in the second quarter of last Saturday’s game at Rutgers with a high ankle sprain, Dee McCann, the man stepping into his place, had roughly about 100 snaps worth of major college football experience under his belt.
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| Dee McCann saw considerable action last Saturday against Rutgers in place of injured Pac-Man Jones.
All-Pro Photography/Dale Sparks |
“I think I played like 30 snaps in the Virginia Tech game,” McCann says of his most extended duty prior to the Rutgers game.
The Scarlet Knights immediately took notice of number 15 and fired a long pass down the sideline that resulted in a 27-yard touchdown.
“They probably looked at me and said this is a new guy because they had never seen me play,” McCann admitted. “When they threw the pass to my side when they got the touchdown I was in good position but he out-jumped me. So I had to retaliate and bounce back and make some big plays.”
He certainly did. McCann, a 6-foot, 200-pounder from Lucedale, Miss., forced one fumble that Mike Lorello recovered, produced another one in spectacular fashion that he managed to recover himself, and added leaping interception on a flea flicker play that was specifically intended to fool him.
“I was prepared for that,” McCann said of the flea flicker. “I saw it when it happened and I just ran hard and jumped up when the ball was in the air and got it.”
McCann got solid marks from West Virginia coach Rich Rodriguez: “I thought he played pretty well,” said the coach. “He got beat early and really he was in position to make the play, he just misplayed the ball. After that he battled back and didn’t play a great game, but for his first extensive playing time I thought he competed pretty well and made three or four big plays causing turnovers.”
The junior credits hard work in practice as the primary reason for his solid performance against the Scarlet Knights. “All week I did well,” he said. “I was getting prepared as the week went by to get ready for Saturday. Whatever you saw in the game was nothing to the team because they knew I worked hard last week to do what I did.”
Those close to the West Virginia program thought McCann was good enough to step in right away after an outstanding two-year stint at Jones County (Miss.) Junior College. McCann was one of Jones County’s top defenders his sophomore season in 2003, producing 72 tackles, five sacks and three interceptions while earning all-conference honors.
However, McCann came to West Virginia out of shape and that led to a hamstring injury during fall camp that put him further behind.
“He didn’t come here until August,” said Rodriguez. “Normally when you are not in great shape when camp starts you get into good shape so he missed all that. He missed a lot of reps mentally and he missed conditioning. When he finally got healthy and started taking reps he has gradually gotten better every week.”
McCann weighed about 212 pounds when West Virginia was recruiting him and members of the defensive coaching staff warned him that if he didn’t slim down he might wind up at linebacker.
“I wanted to lose weight because I didn’t want to go to linebacker,” he said.
McCann eventually was able to trim down to 200 pounds while becoming a step faster. He consistently runs the forty in the 4.4 to 4.3 range. And being one of West Virginia’s biggest corners allows him to use his size to play physically.
“I’ve got speed and I can jam pretty well,” McCann said.
He says he can easily play either corner position. According to Dee, whose real name is Alton, the boundary corner blitzes a little more while the field corner is required to cover the hot and quick game more frequently.
“Most of the time I get field corner reps so they put me behind Pac-Man. He tells me what to do and whatever formation they’re in and that’s what I did,” he said.
Because McCann played so well last week against Rutgers, look for him to see more action this weekend against Temple – particularly now that Antonio Lewis remains hobbled with a high ankle sprain and starter Pac-Man Jones has been slowed by a sprained foot.
McCann is already a member of every special team, meaning he will get little time to rest this Saturday if Jones can’t go.
“I was tired and toward the end of the (Rutgers) game I was getting cramps. If it wasn’t for the cramps I could have gone full speed on every play,” McCann said.
“I thought he probably got some confidence and we got some confidence in him,” Rodriguez said. “He is going to be a good player and he’s already making some plays for us.”
Briefly: West Virginia’s game against Temple this Saturday is homecoming. Candidates for homecoming queen are: Amanda Archer (New Martinsville), Sara Besche (Georgetown, Del.), Tiffany Johnson (Chesapeake, Va.), Rebecca Orr (Martinsburg) and Kristin Shallenberger (Connellsville, Pa.). There is no live television for Saturday’s game, set to kick off at 1 pm. Good tickets still remain and can be purchased by calling the Mountaineer Ticket Office toll-free at 1-800-WVU GAME or by logging onto www.WVUGAME.com
