By John Antonik for MSNsportsNET.com
September 17, 2005
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – Notes and quotes from West Virginia’s 31-19 victory at Maryland Saturday afternoon at Byrd Stadium in College Park, Md.
From a distance it appeared that West Virginia was the much more physical team on Saturday, dominating both lines of scrimmage for perhaps the first time since West Virginia coach Rich Rodriguez and Maryland coach Ralph Friedgen took over the two programs in 2001. Even in last year’s 19-16 overtime triumph in Morgantown, the Terps had the upper hand at the point of attack.
“Defensively, we weren’t doing a good job up front,” said Maryland coach Ralph Friedgen. “We can’t get off blocks and make tackles.”
“We just couldn’t seem to win the battle up front,” added Maryland linebacker D’Qwell Jackson. “The front seven couldn’t get a feel for their offense. They just ran the ball down our throats today, and there is nothing you can say to that.”
Rodriguez’ insistence on using two quarterbacks in the team’s first two games paid off Saturday against Maryland. When starter Adam Bednarik left the game with an injury in the third quarter, backup Pat White calmly stepped in and led the Mountaineers to 24 fourth-quarter points.
“It’s good to have two quarterbacks and hopefully Adam will be okay,” said Rodriguez. “But when Pat goes in there it’s like he’s been in there the whole time and he made a couple of big plays for us.”
Penalties, mistakes and inexperience on offense forced Rodriguez to burn all three of his first-half timeouts with 9:42 left in the second quarter.
Jason Gwaltney’s touchdown run when he ran through two tacklers and finished it off with a pirouette into the end zone was the most impressive carry of the day.
“Jason has been brought along a little slower than I hoped but the injury had a lot to do with that in the beginning,” said WVU offensive coordinator and running backs coach Calvin Magee. “Now he’s back into the groove and understands the offense.
“The one thing about Gwaltney is that we’ve got to tell him sometimes that it’s okay not to run into a guy,” Magee added. “He’s always looking for contact. He runs and goes to the guys and tries to run over them. We’re working on that everyday and he’s beginning to understand that.”
Gwaltney finished the game running 12 times for 44 yards and scoring two touchdowns. In three games the true freshman now shows 106 yards and three touchdowns on 28 carries.
Saturday was the third straight week West Virginia has had a different leading rusher and ironically, none of them have been tailbacks. Quarterback Adam Bednarik was the team’s top ball carrier against Syracuse, quarterback Pat White led the team in rushing against Wofford, and today fullback Owen Schmitt was the top ground gainer.
Today’s announced crowd of 52,413 was the seventh largest in Byrd Stadium history.
MSN’s Tony Caridi had the line of the day when he said during the post-game show that Rodriguez’ decision to use fullback Owen Schmitt was the first time a West Virginia coach has given the football to a fullback since the (Richard) Nixon administration.
Junior Dan Mozes settled down in his first-ever start at center after getting off to a rough start snapping a couple of pop ups over the quarterback’s head. Redshirt freshman John Bradshaw took Mozes’ spot at left guard.
“We worried about those two things,” said Magee. “We talked about it and we decided to stick with it and let him play through it. It paid off. I’m sure the pup (Bradshaw) made some mistakes but I’m sure he battled a lot too. You don’t run for that many yards without offensive linemen doing their jobs.”
The Mountaineers were able to piece together three long scoring drives of 80, 57 and 73 yards in the fourth quarter.
“That’s what we’re capable of doing when we don’t make mistakes,” said Magee. “Penalties always kill you and negative plays always kill you. We got them running around a little bit giving Darius Reynaud the ball on some reverses, using the quarterbacks, and then using those two big guys. When we execute and we don’t make penalties we can be pretty good.”
Magee said West Virginia’s strategy on Saturday was to use Maryland’s aggressiveness against them on the zone running play by calling reverses.
“They were flying to the zone action and wasn’t playing the backside and we just caught them with some reverses,” he said. “Darius did a good job, the receivers made some blocks and even the quarterbacks got some blocks.”
West Virginia was much better with its red-zone offense against Maryland after coming into the game converting just four of nine for 44.4 percent.
“It’s good to see us convert once we got down there,” said Magee. “We know we’ve got this great kicker (Pat McAfee) but we want to get touchdowns when we get down there. We concentrated on it, we had a good plan for it and we executed.”
West Virginia is now 31-0 the last 31 times it has scored 30 points or more in a game. The last time the Mountaineers lost a regular season game when scoring 30 or more points was in 1998 when Miami beat West Virginia 34-31 in Morgantown.
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WVU trainers John Spiker and Dave Kerns attend to quarterback Adam Bednarik in the third quarter of Saturday's game against Maryland in College Park, Md.
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Quarterback Adam Bednarik left the game in the third quarter with an injury to his neck that came when offensive guard Jeremy Sheffey was trying to block a defender and accidentally ran into him. Bednarik talked to reporters after the game and said the team training staff will take a closer look at him when they return to Morgantown later Saturday night.
“It was a huge confidence booster for us to be able to come on the road and beat a team like Maryland that is such a great rivalry,” said Bednarik. “It just feels good to be able to get the win.”
First-time starters against Maryland were freshman wide receiver Jeremy Bruce, sophomore wide receiver Vaughn Rivers and redshirt freshman offensive lineman John Bradshaw. There have now been a total of 12 first-time starters this year for the Mountaineers. Overall, 35 Mountaineers have at least one game of starting experience.
Brandon Myles’ 48-yard reception to start the second quarter marked the third-longest of his career. His career long was 57-yard catch at UCF last season. The pass play was the longest for West Virginia so far this season. Myles caught three passes for 52 yards and now shows 11 catches for 185 yards in three games.
Linebacker Jay Henry and safety Mike Lorello were two of the more active defensive players for West Virginia on Saturday. Henry was unofficially credited with a team-high six tackles, 2.5 tackles for losses, a sack and a fumble recovery. Lorello was unofficially credited with six tackles, a tackle for a loss, a forced fumble and a sack.
Eric Wicks’ forced fumble late in the fourth quarter was the second of his career and second of this season. Jay Henry’s fumble recovery was the second of his career and first of the season.
Rodriguez wasn’t kidding when he said earlier this week that both tight end Vernon Davis and linebacker D’Qwell Jackson are going to be future first-round NFL draft picks. Davis finished the game catching five passes for 158 yards including a 73-yard touchdown. Jackson was unofficially credited with 15 total tackles.
Pat McAfee’s 40-yard field goal late in the fourth quarter was the longest of his career. McAfee is now three of five in field goal attempts and is 10 of 10 in PATs.
The win over the Terps at Byrd Stadium marks the first time the Mountaineers won at Maryland since 1997, a 31-14 victory. WVU has now defeated Maryland in back-to-back games for the first time since 1997-98.
