Spring Notebook
March 28, 2006 02:59 PM | General
March 28, 2006
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – Darius Reynaud with a football under his arm has always been a good thing. Last year, the 5-foot-10-inch, 200-pound junior scored two key touchdowns in West Virginia’s Nokia Sugar Bowl upset of Georgia in Atlanta.
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| Darius Reynaud scores his second touchdown on a reverse against Georgia in the 2006 Nokia Sugar Bowl.
Brent Kepner photo |
He ranked second on the team in 2005 with 30 receptions for 297 yards and a team-best five TD catches, while also running nine times for 86 yards and another score.
Three years ago as a high school senior at Hanville High School in Boutte, La., Reynaud ran 236 times for 1,889 yards and 37 touchdowns to lead his high school team to a perfect 15-0 record and the Louisiana state title. Reynaud was named MVP of the state championship game and was courted by several big schools.
Consequently, running and catching the football has always been one of Reynaud’s biggest strengths. This spring, West Virginia coach Rich Rodriguez wants to add blocking to Reynaud’s repertoire.
“Darius with the ball has been a very good player and without the ball he’s been very average,” Rodriguez said. “In fact, it has been less than that. But he’s working on it and I expect him to improve.”
Reynaud admitted Monday that Rodriguez has been in his ear to step up his blocking out on the perimeter in order to help out the running game a little bit more this spring.
“The last couple of practices we haven’t been doing too well as a receiving corps and so our coach told us to come out with a different mindset and I did that (Monday),” Reynaud said.
Reynaud lists improved blocking and better route running as his two big objectives this spring.
“(Blocking) is my weakness,” he said. “My main goal is to improve my blocking so we can get the running game going even more.”
What is not a weakness is his willingness to travel across the middle to catch footballs, or take on much bigger tacklers in space and try and run them over. That, Reynaud says, is a carryover from his days as a high school running back.
“That’s where I get my strength from,” Reynaud said. “It’s just like playing receiver, catching the ball and getting up field.”
The weight room has also played a part in Reynaud’s courage out on the football field.
“My dad is strong so I guess it’s in my blood,” Reynaud said. “I squat 700 pounds so I’m going to use that to my advantage out on the field.”
With a shortage or running backs, Rodriguez has used both Reynaud and Jeremy Bruce some at tailback to reduce the number of reps starter Steve Slaton gets this spring. Reynaud likes the fact that the offense is versatile enough for him to be able to play a couple of positions: whether he’s lined up at slot receiver or in the backfield.
“If you’re a play maker you’re going to get the ball and make plays and that’s what I do,” he said. “Whenever I get the ball I’m going to do something with it.”
Reynaud says making plays is the main characteristic of West Virginia’s offense.
“We can be the best in the country,” he said. “All we’ve got to do is play Mountaineer football.”
Briefly:
“Tyler was a running back in high school and he’s one of the fastest guys on the team and it didn’t look like he was going to be in the mix on defense, so I said what the heck let’s not waste him because he’s a talented guy so we’ll see what he can do on offense,” Rodriguez said.
“Coach Magee has got his hands full with Jetavious Best and Tyler Benoit: two guys that have never played in our offense trying to learn that position.”
“I know I’ve said that a bunch of times but we played more last year than we did before but our goal is to play even more people,” he said. “I’m talking on a regular basis and not just on special teams. But you’ve got to be good enough to win with for us to play you.”
“In our defense you want a lot of guys on that second level in those five positions that are guys can maybe play inside and outside,” Rodriguez said. “They’ve got to be able to play in space against a wide out and yet be physical enough to take on a tight end. That’s kind of what we’ve got with some of our defensive positions.”
