Block Party
September 07, 2004 11:15 AM | General
September 7, 2004
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – West Virginia University senior offensive guard Jeff Berk is becoming an old hand at these record-setting rushing games.
 Berk |
 Brown |
 Justice |
 Mozes |
 Watson |
 Harris |
Berk, a three-year starter, has been involved in three of the school’s 10-best rushing performances in WVU history. Berk helped pave the way for Avon Cobourne to rush for a career-high 260 yards against East Carolina in 2002, and also cleared a path for Quincy Wilson to run for a career-best 208 yards against Pitt last season.
Cobourne’s 260 yards were the third-best performance in school history while Wilson’s 208-yard night was the 10th best ever.
West Virginia’s top rushing game came last Saturday night when Kay-Jay Harris rumbled through ECU’s defense for a Big East-record 337 yards with four touchdowns. The performance was the 24th-best in NCAA history and has now catapulted Harris’ name among the nation’s top runners.
But Harris was the first person to admit that Berk, Tim Brown, Mike Watson, Garin Justice and Dan Mozes made things pretty easy for him Saturday night.
“My offensive line did a helluva job,” he said. “I was coming through the line and the first person I ever saw was the safety every time. As we are taught in practice, we are supposed to handle the safeties and I did that all night.”
Berk, who came from a pass-oriented offense in high school, says this is the first time he’s ever blocked for a 300-yard runner. Ditto Dan Mozes.
But Watson says he’s been involved in a couple of 300-yard games in high school blocking for Sultan McCullough, a standout at USC who is now on the Washington Redskins practice squad.
“He was a pretty good runner,” said Watson.
Apparently so is Kay-Jay Harris.
The senior earned mention as the Walter Camp national offensive player of the week, and today was named CNNSI.com player of the week and performer of the week by Fox Sports.
Harris is already one-third of the way to a coveted 1,000-yard season. West Virginia has had a running back reach 1,000 yards in each of the last eight years.
Berk says having a 1,000-yard runner is something the offensive line takes great pride in.
“We’re happy that we break records,” he said. “We broke some records before when I was a sophomore against East Carolina and we enjoy it, we like it that weekend, and we like it at the end of the year, but after that week is over we just try and forget about it. If we continue to think about what we did in the past then you’ll never improve in the future.”
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| Kay-Jay gives some high-fives after his record-setting night against East Carolina.
(All-Pro Photography/Dale Sparks) |
And believe it or not, Berk, Mozes and Watson all said there is room for improvement.
“We had a couple of missed assignments and some things that we need to work on and some things I need to work on. Overall I thought we did pretty well,” Watson said.
“Every grade could be better and we’ve still got a lot of things we need to work on individually,” said Berk. “Once we get all of that stuff down then we will be doing real well.”
Even Mountaineer coach Rich Rodriguez said there were some yards left out on the field Saturday. A holding call nullified an 81-yard touchdown run by quarterback Rasheed Marshall, while missed reads and poor blocking techniques on other plays could have led to even more yards.
Mozes says the goal for the offensive line is to have at least 200 yards rushing every game. Harris had that by halftime Saturday.
Both Watson and Berk weren’t necessarily sure how many yards Harris had, or for that matter, even certain when he was in the game.
“We don’t always know which back is out there,” Berk said. “Unless they score a touchdown and we go and congratulate them we don’t really realize who it is.”
“I was aware that we were gashing them but I wasn’t too aware of who it was necessarily,” Watson added. “I knew we had Kay-Jay and Jason (Colson) running back there.”
Colson, who started the game, finished with 64 yards and two touchdowns on 13 carries. Marshall also netted 41 yards on nine tries.
But it was Harris who caught everyone’s eyes, including Mozes.
“During the game we were thinking that the holes were there and he was hitting them, but after watching the game tape we realized that he was making some really good reads and really good cut-backs that we didn’t realize he was making,” Mozes said. “The free safety was coming up to make the tackle and Kay-Jay was making him miss. That was a big part: him making guys miss as well as our blocks.”
Because Harris is considered a hunter who is always looking for long touchdown runs, that gives blockers an added incentive to stay with their man just a split second longer. Doing so could result in a long TD run.
“If we can make those blocks then Kay-Jay can make us right when he can make those cut-backs,” Mozes said.
According to Watson, he says staying with your man a little longer is just part of doing a good job.
“You try to stay with your person as long as you can no matter who is back there, but knowing that you’ve got Kay-Jay back there who is capable of making big plays gives you that extra incentive to stay on your man a little longer,” he said.
West Virginia was able to comfortably rotate two intact offensive line units during Saturday’s game and Mozes says the second group was actually out on the field when Harris broke the school record.
“That was even a more special thing knowing that the younger guys can step up and help him get the record,” he said.
So, how can West Virginia top its 478-yard rushing performance against East Carolina last Saturday night?
“Get 479,” remarked Watson with an ear-to-ear grin.
Briefly: West Virginia had 11 plays covering 20 yards or longer Saturday against East Carolina … it took the Mountaineers six games last season to equal that total … UCF is playing host to a nationally ranked team for just the fourth time in school history … The Golden Knights dropped a 46-14 decision to No. 1-ranked Florida State in 1995, lost 47-13 to No. 22 Purdue in 1999 and fell 56-21 to No. 15 Miami (Ohio) last season … the Mountaineers remained No. 10 in the AP poll and No. 11 in the ESPN/USA Today Coaches Poll … West Virginia was just 1 of 11 on third down last Saturday against East Carolina, “A lot of those third and longs were because of penalties,” said Rodriguez. “You correct one thing you usually fix the other.”
