Rutgers Notebook
October 09, 2005 01:14 PM | General
October 9, 2005
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| Trickett |
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – West Virginia offensive line coach Rick Trickett wore a big smile on his face and held an unlit cigar in his hand as he talked to the MSN radio crew in the locker room following West Virginia’s 27-14 win over Rutgers on Saturday. Trickett was happy because this was his kind of a game: a slug-it-out, nose-to-the-grindstone mudder.
West Virginia (5-1, 2-0) tried just 11 passes Saturday against an improving Scarlet Knights team, meaning it was up to Trickett’s boys to get down and dirty – which is exactly what they did.
The veteran coach says his unit was able to handle the zone blitzes Rutgers threw at them in the first half because they decided to go right at them.
“Against Pitt they ran what the Steelers use … that fire-zone stuff,” Trickett said. “They were slanting the front and everything. About three years ago Boston College came in and ran that stuff against us and we full zoned it and passed it off which is real hard to do.
“It’s a two-man gap blitz and that’s where the big runs came off of. Traditionally everyone runs away from the fire zone but we’re kind of hard-headed -- we’re going to run right at it.”
Freshman Steve Slaton ran for 139 yards and scored his first college touchdown Saturday against Rutgers. Slaton had runs of 33, 29, 19, 16, 14 and 11 yards and had another 21-yard gain called back on a holding penalty. Jason Gwaltney had a pair of 20-plus-yard runs, fullback Owen Schmitt broke free for a 14-yard gain and quarterback Adam Bednarik had runs of 19 and 13 yards.
But Trickett believes it was Slaton that made the difference on Saturday.
“With that little number 10 I think we found something there,” Trickett said. “He’s got some speed and he hits that thing and has great vision. Then you bring in the other big boy (Gwaltney) and you’ve kind of got a little Thunder and Lightning there. We’ll pound one and let them chase the other one.”
Trickett was hoping Rutgers would blitz even more than they did.
“We ran right at it, got the kick out, over-blocked it and we came out of the shoot. He didn’t run any fire zones in the second half and I was hoping they would,” Trickett admitted. “When they’re going east and west we’re going north and south and we’re going to win most of them.”
Trickett is looking to get some of his younger players some experience but he wasn’t afforded that luxury with Rutgers keeping it to within two scores.
“We’ve got some good young guys and I wish we could get into a situation where I can put a few more of them into the ball game,” he said. “I don’t like to play a lot of guys unless I feel we have this baby wrapped up. We’ve got a real good group of young kids coming along. We’ve got Mike Dent, John Bradshaw, Damien Crissey and Jake Figner, and then Chris Bassler is out for the year. If we had him back he’s was really coming along.”
One freshman, Ryan Stancheck, earned his second start this weekend against the Scarlet Knights. His first start was a memorable one against No. 3 Virginia Tech two weeks ago.
“Last week when we started Stancheck against Virginia Tech I had to go into the locker room and dress him. This week I didn’t have to help him get dressed; he’s coming along,” Trickett said.
According to Trickett, 6-foot-3-inch, 320-pound offensive guard Greg Isdaner is making progress, too.
“Greg Isdaner is a freshman I traveled this week that we hope we can just rep and not play,” he said.
The coach admits junior Dan Mozes is really starting to come into his own at center.
“Mozes is doing a great job for us at center and that’s where he belongs. He gets everybody on the right page and he knows what the defense is going to do. We’ve just got a few growing pains at left guard but we’ll get them ironed out,” he said.
Trickett says having a running back with the vision and speed that Slaton has makes his line that much better.
“We’ve got a little guy that can hit it and get it,” Trickett said. “We haven’t had one that fast around here for a while and my guys like it when they look up to see what’s going on and there goes Stevie running down the field in front of them. He’s a good guy on top of all that: he’s humble and he better stay that way.”
As for his group, Trickett believes they’re continuing to make progress.
“We’ve still got a lot of learning to do; we made a lot of mistakes out there,” he said. “It could have been more but we got a win and 5-1 is not bad with a young football team.”
