Quality Depth
April 25, 2005 10:13 AM | General
April 25, 2005
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – West Virginia’s problems this spring at wide receiver have forced Mountaineer coach Rich Rodriguez to become creative once again.
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| Jason Colson's athleticism and versatility may be utilized in the passing game this fall in addition to carrying the football.
All-Pro Photography/Dale Sparks |
A lack of skilled athletes when he was coaching at Glenville State required Rodriguez to come up with his no-huddle, spread offensive system. Based on his personnel, he then tweaked his schemes to best suit the talents of the players he had.
In a perfect world Rodriguez would much prefer to have a couple of 6-foot-4-inch burners on each side of the field to throw to. But neccessity sometimes is the mother of invention and at the very least, the lack of proven receivers in the program right now has Rodriguez and his assistants thinking outside the box once again.
No Chris Henry or Eddie Jackson to throw to – no problem. Coach Rod will just slip a versatile tailback like Jason Colson out into the slot to give defensive coordinators something else to think about.
With Colson in the slot he can get out in space against slower linebackers and cause big time problems. Or, he can come around the end and take a handoff on a reverse or a misdirection play. Either way, number 24 must be accounted for where ever he lines up. Same goes for Pernell Williams.
“Really in the first seven, eight years of this offense the slot receiver position that we call the ‘H’ is really a tailback and not a wide receiver,” said Rodriguez. “In the scheme of things we’re going to go back to that anyway. In Jason’s case and in Pernell Williams’ case and maybe the case with some of the new guys they will play both tailback in the backfield and what we call the tailback in the slot position.”
The coach can afford to do that because of the impressive collection of tailbacks West Virginia has been able to accumulate over the years. There will be no less than seven quality ball carriers at Rodriguez’ disposal when fall camp opens in August, headlined by Colson.
The Rochester, N.Y., native ran for 706 yards and six scores last year as a sophomore and also caught 12 passes for 120 yards coming out of the backfield. Colson’s size (6-feet-1 inches) makes him a little easier target to locate coming out of the backfield and he probably possess the best set of hands among the running backs on the team.
In one scrimmage earlier this spring Colson ran a beautifully executed seam pattern, reached over the trailing linebacker and made an eye opening catch for a 25-yard touchdown. Even though his impressive athletic ability can be a legitimate weapon in the passing game, Rodriguez says Colson’s primary spot will still be in the backfield.
“He’s still a tailback first,” the coach said.
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| Pernell Williams showed signs of being an effective ball carrier as a true freshman in 2004.
All-Pro Photography/Dale Sparks |
Williams, a 5-foot-10-inch, 195-pound sophomore, proved effective carrying the mail as a true freshman in 2004 running 65 times for 313 yards and three touchdowns. Williams is also evolving as a pass catcher out of the backfield. Those two will pair with veteran Erick Phillips, a hard-charging, straight-ahead runner who gets the team positive yardage just about every time he touches the football. Phillips is still shaking off the rust from knee surgery that wiped out his entire 2004 campaign, but there were flashes of his old form during the spring, too. He also has the ability to catch the football out of the backfield.
Even junior college walk-on Arlen Dorsey showed during the spring that he can be an effective runner who could play for a lot of other college programs.
That group will be joined by three highly rated running back recruits in the fall, two of whom have the speed and athletic ability to play the slot receiver position in addition to lining up in the backfield.
“We think one of our deeper positions is tailback,” he said. “If we’ve got two of them that can make plays and do a lot of things and then it makes more sense to play them and not all of the time do you have to play them in the backfield. We can move them around a little bit and there are a lot of things we can do with our schemes to help us in that regard. We hope that our tailback position will continue to be pretty deep and that will allow us to play guys like Colson and Williams if not behind center, then somewhere on the field.”
Making things even more interesting is the progress that was made by walk-on fullback Owen Schmitt, who Rodriguez says runs like a tailback. Schmitt, a 6-foot-3-inch, 250-pound bruiser, had an impressive spring and will be utilized more than just as a blocking back in the I formation this fall.
“I do think it gives us a little more comfortable feeling that your fullback can be a weapon carrying the ball,” Rodriguez said. “Everybody has been telling me that for years but I think now with Owen in particular we’ve got a guy that has some tailback skills but is big enough to play some fullback.
“First and foremost the fullback is always going to be a blocker first,” Rodriguez added. “In Owen’s case he does have some tailback skills and he’s going to give us another option as far as defenses at least having to play honest. Will we feature the fullback? I don’t see that ever happening but at the same time we’d be very comfortable giving the Owen the football on occasion if he’s lined up at the fullback spot.”
Because West Virginia has recruited so many quality running backs, Rodriguez has no hesitation at all putting two or even three tailbacks in the game at the same time.
“It depends upon what our guys can learn and what schemes or formations we want to feature at a particular time,” he said. “Owen is a guy I feel comfortable enough that if we went two tailbacks in the backfield at the same time in the shotgun we think he play that role as well.”
In addition to throwing to Colson and Williams out of the backfield, Rodriguez sees getting the ball into Schmitt’s hands out in the flat as a very real possibility.
“He’s got good hands and we did a little bit of that in the spring. Because he has some of those skills and our other fullbacks have those types of skills it gives us another play that we can run to put a little more stress on the defense,” Rodriguez said.
Note: Season tickets for the 2005 football season are now on sale and can be purchased by calling the Mountaineer Ticket Office toll-free at 1-800-WVU GAME or by logging onto WVUGAME.com.
