Football Notebook
November 13, 2007 10:36 AM | General
November 13, 2007
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| Rich Rodriguez |
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – Another road game - another hornet’s nest for No. 5-ranked West Virginia when the Mountaineers travel to Cincinnati on Saturday to face the 21st-ranked Bearcats.
Cincinnati is coming off back-to-back victories versus ranked teams and is looking for a third against West Virginia in a game that is already being called “the biggest in school history.”
Bearcat coach Brian Kelly underscored the importance of the West Virginia game by remarking on Monday that “anything less than a Big East championship would be a disappointment.”
West Virginia is getting used to playing these types of games.
Cincinnati is 8-2 under Kelly, rolling up impressive early-season wins over Oregon State, Miami, Ohio, Marshall and San Diego State. Conference wins have followed against Rutgers, South Florida and Connecticut.
Cincinnati’s only two losses of the year came in league play against Louisville and Pitt by a combined margin of 11 points. West Virginia will be facing an opportunistic Bearcat defense that has forced at least one turnover in nine of 10 games this season and six or more turnovers three times against Southeast Missouri State, Oregon State and South Florida.
West Virginia coach Rich Rodriguez is well aware of Cincinnati’s propensity for causing turnovers.
“I know Cincinnati is one of the best in the country at creating turnovers and we can’t afford to have any if we expect to win the game,” Rodriguez said.
West Virginia had a couple of key fumbles in last Thursday night’s 38-31 victory over Louisville and committed a season-high six turnovers in the South Florida loss.
“There have only been two games this year that we’ve not done well. One was a loss and the last game it almost cost us but we were still able to pull it out,” Rodriguez said. “We take a lot of pride in our ball security, not just in games but in practice and we work very hard at it. Sometimes the fundamentals will slip or (the other team) will do a good job of getting a hat on the ball and it will come out.”
Rodriguez says Cincinnati is a well-rounded team and has been impressed with what he’s seen so far on tape.
“They’re very athletic; they’re playing with a lot of confidence,” Rodriguez said. “They’ve completely bought into what Coach Kelly and his staff are doing and it’s going to be a tough atmosphere at their place so we’ve got to be ready to go.”
Briefly:
“Steve (Kragthorpe) talked to the player in question and the player assured them that they were jawing at each other but that he didn’t intentionally spit on him,” Rodriguez said. “I appreciated him calling me and talking about it and he offered to talk to Pat and I said, ‘No that’s fine. You don’t need to do that. I’ll talk to Pat.’ As far as I’m concerned it’s over and I appreciate Coach Kragthorpe giving me a call and talking to the young man in question.”
Safety Eric Wicks was named defensive player of the week for his two second-half takeaways that included a key 44-yard fumble return for a touchdown in the third quarter.
“He’s a great competitor and I think he’s proven that over the last three years. He’s not a real big guy, about 190 pounds, and he’s not afraid to stick it up in there,” Rodriguez said. “He’s got a lot of respect from our team the way he competes each and every day and his leadership ability that he shows in practice each and every day as well is what you want out of the quarterback.”
“The turnovers, particularly dropping the ball, are things that we’ve got to get corrected. There were some execution, fundamental and technique things both offensively and defensively that we’ve got to get better at,” Rodriguez said. “It wasn’t the best performance but at the same time we played a talented team, we got the win and we are certainly not going to apologize for that.”
“We have been pretty solid on defense but in the red zone we have not had the type of success we’d like to have,” Rodriguez said. “Cincinnati is so good in the red zone because they do so many different things offensively and they’ve got an outstanding kicker. I think one of the keys to our success offensively is that we’ve been pretty good in the red zone as well.”
“Most coaches will tell you that the hardest thing to do on defense is to tackle in the open field. You are seeing more and more teams get exposed with that,” Rodriguez said. “Some very, very good defenses can have a bad day tackling in the open field and you’re going to give up some points.”
Defensive coaches are in a bind because they can’t practice open-field tackling during the season due to the toll it will take on a team’s health.
“Most coaches aren’t going to practice live tackling during the season a whole lot because you just don’t want to beat yourself up,” Rodriguez said. “Even that … you don’t know if your guys are going to be as good in space as the guys you are playing. It’s an interesting dynamic. The only thing you hope for is that your athletes are going to be good enough in space. This is not new, but coaches are putting some of their best athletes on defense to try to combat that.”
“What you are seeing now as opposed to when we were running the spread 10-15 years ago, you are seeing a variety of how they are defending it both from the front wise and coverage wise,” Rodriguez said. “Offensively you have got to have an answer. The versions and parts of the spread will always be here but I think teams that can mix it up: go spread and also get into a power game and be able to change personnel and formations that can keep you off-balance will still have the upper hand.
“Those defensive guys are smart, too, so it’s ever evolving like it has been.”
