Football Notebook
August 10, 2006 01:13 AM | General
August 10, 2006
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Download Coach Rodriguez's Wednesday comments at MSN's new MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – With sophomore Steve Slaton the obvious No. 1 tailback heading into the 2006 season, West Virginia offensive coordinator and running backs coach Calvin Magee is spending time sifting through video tape looking for a couple of dependable backups.
Senior Jason Colson was productive as a sophomore in 2003 and figures to be in the mix after losing some weight and getting into better shape coming into camp. Jetavious Best has some experience having enrolled last winter and going through spring workouts with the team.
Another possible contender is sophomore Ed Collington, a Penn Hills High School standout in Pittsburgh who sat out last year to concentrate on academics. The Horse, as he was known in high school, has displayed good ball skills and some quickness for a 6-foot, 200-plus-pound back.
“Collington has looked pretty quick in camp so I’m excited about that,” said Magee.
The sixth-year assistant says playing time will be solely up to him and how well he understands the system.
“He can use camp to learn as much as he can because once school starts he won’t be around us all day,” Magee said. “But what has helped him is that he’s been around the guys all summer for workouts.”
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| Ed Collington goes through a drill earlier this week on the practice field above Milan Puskar Stadium in Morgantown, W.Va.
All-Pro Photography/Dale Sparks |
What also helps is the fact that Collington is a physical runner with outstanding quickness – two attributes that always catches the attention of Mountaineer coach Rich Rodriguez.
“Ed is coming along pretty well,” Rodriguez said. “He’s swimming a little mentally but he’s shown some bursts and I think he’s got a chance to be in the rotation at running back if he continues doing what he’s doing.”
Despite sitting out and last playing in the Pennsylvania-Ohio Big 33 all-star game two summers ago, Magee sees little rust from Collington.
“I can’t tell if he’s had any to tell you the truth because he’s looked so good,” he said.
Collington came to West Virginia with impressive prep credentials, making the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Tribune-Review and Harrisburg Patriot teams. Collington ran for 1,700 yards and scored 22 touchdowns his senior season at Penn Hills High School, earning class 4A all-state honors. He had five 200-yard rushing games including a 238-yard performance against powerful Central Catholic High School.
Collington did this despite a nagging shoulder injury that wasn’t fully fixed until last year.
“I wanted to play and I wanted to finish the season,” Collington recalled. “They told me if I wore a brace, there would be a chance it might come out. But I wanted to take that chance and play anyway.”
Collington was beginning to get on the radar screens of college recruiters and knew his opportunity was only going to come if he had a big senior season.
“It was a risk but you have to take chances,” Collington said of toughing out his senior year. “It actually made me a better runner. It made me play tougher.”
Collington says it was difficult sitting out last year and not being a part of a winning team. But he’s over that now.
“The biggest thing you lose from sitting out is the feeling of playing,” he said. “I just want to go out there and play. I want to go out and do my job and do what I’m told to do and do the best that I can.
“The coaches are the ones who make the decisions of whether I play or not.”
With the way he’s performed so far in camp, Collington is doing his part in helping the coaching staff with their decision.
Briefly:
“Jason has been with us for five years,” Magee said. “Guys that have been here five years know how we play. Colson had a rough deal last year naturally because he had the first bad game but he’s got some skills. And you look back to two years ago when he productive in our offense. He seems to have his quickness back.”
“He knows the offense and he’s quicker now,” Magee said. “He looks more confident. Last year he had no clue at this time and he was struggling. Now he’s teaching the younger guys.”
“Jeremy is playing the H right now but we know he can come in and play back up running back. We’re going to pick and choose our times to put him back there,” Magee said.
“The intensity wasn’t what I wanted the whole practice,” the coach said. “It was pretty good at times on both sides of the ball and then at other times it was embarrassingly soft. But we’ll get that corrected.”
“I’m really pleased with the way they’re progressing and they’ve shown some really good things at times and they’ve also made some rookie mistakes,” Rodriguez said. “I like those two and they’re going to be really good players for us. Hopefully it’s sooner rather than later.”
Rodriguez thought about bringing in another walk-on quarterback with the 105 allowed to practice for fall camp but decided it was best to have the players best suited to play this year.
“You have to have really bad luck to get down to the fourth quarterback,” Rodriguez joked. “We may have been there our first year. Now that was bad luck.
“Hopefully Pat will do more tomorrow and as the week goes on he should be back to full-go,” Rodriguez said.
“The biggest question mark for us is left tackle,” Rodriguez said. “If Damien (Crissey) can’t do it then either (John) Bradshaw or Stancheck has to. It will be a couple of weeks before we know that for sure.
“We’re just trying to find the best five up front,” Rodriguez said. “There is little difference between the guard and tackle but not a whole lot. If you can play tackle you can play guard and vice versa.”
