On the Mend
April 03, 2007 02:14 PM | General
“It definitely is frustrating watching other guys out there running around and I’m just standing around watching them. I would like to be out there with them,” Slaton said.
Yet at the same time Slaton realizes the importance of having his wrist healed properly so that he doesn’t have to go through this again sometime later in his career.
“I don’t want to rush into things. I want to give my rehab the full time it needs to heal so I can be back soon,” he admitted. “It’s not 100 percent yet but it’s doing better.”
Do you remember as a kid telling someone that you could beat them with one hand tied behind your back? Well, that’s essentially what Slaton did last year for West Virginia as a sophomore. The Levittown, Pa., resident accounted for 37 percent of the Mountaineers’ offense in 2006, rushing for 1,744 yards and catching 27 passes for 360 yards and two touchdowns.
He did so with an injured right wrist that he first hurt against Connecticut as a freshman and eventually required off-season surgery to correct. If that weren’t enough, Slaton also injured his other wrist during the Louisville game but still managed to run for 156 yards and a touchdown.
It was only after the Pitt victory when he ran for 215 yards and two touchdowns that injuries really begin to take its toll. In his final three games against South Florida, Rutgers and Georgia Tech Slaton ran 44 times for a very un-Slaton-like 166 yards and two touchdowns. He averaged only 3.8 yards per carry.
“It was frustrating but you get around it,” Slaton said of playing with the bad wrist. “I practiced with it during fall camp and I got used to it before I went out during the season.”
Yet Slaton admits it would have been nice having both arms to wrap around the football or to use to catch passes coming out of the backfield.
“You are so much more effective with two hands than one,” he said.
Slaton was by no means overused last year. His 248 carries wasn’t an inordinate amount for a featured back (four runners had more than 300 attempts last year including 335 by Rutgers’ Ray Rice), but doesn’t have any qualms whatsoever sharing the same backfield with Florida prep sensation Noel Devine, who signed with the Mountaineers last Friday.
“We’re going to have a lot of offensive weapons and we just need to take advantage of all of them,” Slaton said.
Slaton has seen some of Devine’s highlight clips on You Tube and is impressed with his raw breakaway speed and cutting ability.
“He is respected by a lot of people and he has a lot of talent and hopefully he comes in and learns the system and can help out,” Slaton said. “He really hasn’t shown too much of a negative or anything to critique about. Everything he does is positive.”
Some have already mentioned that with the addition of Devine West Virginia will now have college football’s fastest backfield. Slaton disagrees.
“I think we already have the fastest backfield,” he said. “(Devine) just adds another piece to it.”
Slaton believes Devine’s ability to get north and south and cut quickly makes him a perfect fit for Rich Rodriguez’s spread offense.
“College is a lot faster than high school but he does what he needs to do to get positive yards,” Slaton said.
Is there a formation Rodriguez could use to take advantage of all of the talented runners West Virginia has?
“I don’t know,” Slaton remarked. “You’d have to take some time to look that up. Maybe split me and Noel out at receiver. We’ve got other talented backs that we are able to use, too.”
For now, Slaton is spending most of his time trying to get a more complete picture of the offense.
“I really haven’t gotten to do too much and just watching things has been real helpful,” Slaton said. “I’m getting a better comprehension of the stuff that we’re already doing in the offense.
“I’m just getting bigger pieces of the whole concept.”
Slaton says a firm time table for his complete return hasn’t been established, but he plans on being full-go by the time two-a-days roll around in August.
“I’m going to talk to the doctors and see how it is when that comes up. You can’t really evaluate that. Some people take a certain amount of time (to heal),” he said, adding that he plans on erring on the side of caution.
