Simple Yet Challenging
November 15, 2007 09:21 AM | General
November 15, 2007
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| Owen Schmitt |
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – If No. 5 West Virginia is to escape the Queen City with a win over No. 21 Cincinnati in a sold-out, hostile environment on Saturday night, the key to victory will be as simple and as challenging as holding onto the football.
The task seems so simple, but a close look at the fast and aggressive Bearcat defense shows why it is in fact, very challenging.
“When they stand guys up everyone is trying to rip that ball out. They are really good at trying to punch the ball out when they tackle,” West Virginia senior fullback Owen Schmitt said. “They are aware of where the ball is at all times. I’m sure they watch a lot of film to see how a running back or wide receiver holds the ball.”
Cincinnati is 8-2 and in the hunt for the BIG EAST title largely because they are first in the league and third in the country in turnover margin at plus-1.60 per game.
“They are aggressive, and they have an aggressive mentality. They have some veteran players who know how to go after the ball, strip the ball and they do a good job,” West Virginia Coach Rich Rodriguez said. “(Haruki) Nakamura is one of the best I’ve seen. They were good at it last year, and they are even better at it this year.”
The Bearcats have had five games this year in which they have created at least four turnovers, including a season-high eight in a 38-33 victory at South Florida. The Bearcats caused seven turnovers in a home win against Oregon State.
UC is 8-0 when it gets points off of turnovers and 0-2 when it doesn’t. West Virginia is also 41-1 under Rodriguez since 2002 when winning the turnover battle. Judging by those numbers it would appear that turnovers will be where this game is won or lost.
“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. “They feed off that. There is no question that taking care of the football and not giving them easy points or great field position is going to be the biggest key of the game.”
The Mountaineers normally value the football but they have been bitten by the turnover bug in their 21-13 loss to South Florida earlier this season and more recently in last Thursday night’s closer-than-expected 38-31 victory over Louisville.
West Virginia led 31-14 with 6:54 left in the third quarter before four fumbles gave the Cardinals new life. Patrick White fumbled three times on the night, losing two, and Steve Slaton lost his one fumble which allowed Louisville to rally.
A repeat of that hot potato-type performance with the football is likely to put the Mountaineers behind the eight ball in their quest for a fourth BIG EAST Championship in five seasons.
“We need to protect the ball. Last game we had three turnovers - almost four - so we have worked on protecting the ball and not making turnovers,” White said. “They capitalize on things like that.”
While the West Virginia coaching staff always emphasizes ball security in practice, players have been taking more reps with those drills as they prepare for Saturday.
“We have worked on our ball security drills a little more and made sure we have two hands on the ball in traffic,” Schmitt said. “We work on all the points of pressure and securing the ball in the proper hand and stuff like that.”
Linebacker Reed Williams assures Mountaineer fans that Cincinnati won’t be the only defense on the field capable of creating a game-changing turnover on Saturday night.
“We really emphasize it. We do drills every day in practice that really work on the intangibles of trying to get the ball out,” Williams said. “If you keep working on those things in practice it will show up in games.”
“We work on stripping it, poking at it, and having the first tackler make the hit and then having the second guy come up and try to strip it out.”
The Moorefield W.Va., native enjoys the challenge of trying to match up with such a fast and aggressive defense.
“I think our defense needs to feed off of their defense,” Williams said. “We need to do the things that they do to offenses and try to get the ball out of their hands and get it to Pat (White) and Steve (Slaton) and let our guys work.”
On Saturday night West Virginia will try to clear its last road hurdle of the season and in the process, work its way into position for a second BCS bowl in three seasons.
Accomplishing those goals will be as simple and as challenging as just holding onto the football.
