Loose and Ready
December 28, 2007 07:35 PM | General
December 28, 2007
SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. – Count Darius Reynaud among those appreciative of Bill Stewart’s two weeks as the team’s interim coach. Reyanud says he has been enjoying the stress-free, laidback approach Stewart has employed since Rich Rodriguez left for Michigan two weeks ago.
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| Darius Reynaud catches a pass during Friday's afternoon practice at Scottsdale Community College.
All-Pro Photography/Dale Sparks |
“I love Coach Stew. He’s a real good coach,” Reynaud said before Friday’s practice at Scottsdale Community College. “He knows what he’s doing and after he told us that he was going to pass the ball a lot that’s when I started liking Coach Stew a whole lot more.”
Reynaud believes the team will be loose when it takes on Oklahoma on Jan. 2.
“Ever since Coach Rod left we’ve been having a lot of fun. Stew is a laidback coach. He tells us that he’s not going to jump all over us. He says we’re men and we know what to do. We respect Coach Stew and we’re going to have his back on this,” Reynaud said.
Despite often being the third option in an offense that includes Patrick White and Steve Slaton, Reynaud has managed to catch 59 passes for 691 yards and 11 touchdowns this season. He has also run the ball 10 times for 73 yards.
“Every time we watch film we know teams are going to stay in the box and that’s what they did this year and they still tend to sleep on me and I just take advantage of that,” Reynaud said. “I get screens and I get reverses a lot just to get the ball in my hands. Once I get the ball I’m like a running back.”
Reynaud has never really gotten too far away from his running back roots. The former Louisiana all-stater was recruited by West Virginia with the plan of moving him to slot receiver.
“In high school my junior year I played receiver a lot. I’ve got great hands and I just used that. The only thing I really had to learn was running routes,” Reynaud explained. “That was hard to do because I didn’t have to run a lot of routes coming out of the backfield in high school.
“Coach Magee when he was recruiting me told me the quickest way to get on the field was to play slot receiver. I just took advantage of that and learned to play slot,” he said.
Because of his success the last two seasons attacking defenses with bubble screens and reverses, Reynaud has had to deal with linebackers more this year meaning he has to use his quickness and athletic ability to get off the line of scrimmage.
“Sometimes when people play me they try to jam me. When I get off the jam I know I’ve got one on one with the safety,” Reynaud said. “That’s the hardest thing to do is to get off the jam with the linebacker because they’re big, strong guys.”
After sitting out a year in 2004 Reynaud made an immediate impact in 2005, accounting for two touchdowns in West Virginia’s Sugar Bowl victory over Georgia. Reynaud sees a lot of similarities between this year’s Oklahoma team and the Bulldog squad West Virginia faced in Atlanta two years ago.
“They’re a big team, a fast team; they’re in a good conference and they are a good team to play,” Reynaud said of the 11-2 Sooners.
“I think this is the best team we will have played since I’ve been at West Virginia,” Reynaud admitted.
Oklahoma does have a couple of starters out in the secondary and Reyanud believes West Virginia has to test the Sooner DBs to at least keep them honest.
“We knew that they have lost a couple of players in their secondary and we’ve got to take advantage of that,” Reynaud said. “That’s what we’ve been doing out here. Coach Stew came to us and told us to do some extra work in the passing game and right now it’s working out real well.”
Right now, Reynaud says the team is still getting used to Arizona’s arid climate.
“We went real hard yesterday in practice and it was real hard breathing and catching our breath. I am adjusting to that,” he said.
Reynaud is well aware of the situation West Virginia is presently in with an interim coach and an uncertain future. He believes that only increases the stakes when the Mountaineers face the Sooners at the University of Phoenix Stadium next Wednesday night.
“This is going to be the biggest game of the year because of the situation with Coach Rod. That made us real strong because after he left we got together as a team and we’ve been pulling together,” Reynaud said.
