Football Notebook
July 18, 2007 02:56 PM | General
July 18, 2007
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – Last year quarterback Patrick White had a pretty good handle on West Virginia’s offense. This year, Coach Rich Rodriguez expects the junior to know exactly what other teams are doing against him and that could make the Heisman Trophy candidate doubly tough to deal with.
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| Quarterbacks Brian Brohm and Patrick White sit down to do television interviews at Tuesday's Big East media day in Newport, R.I.
AP photo |
“I think the key now is his understanding how other teams are going to defend us,” Rodriguez said Tuesday. “He knows he’s going to get challenged.”
After just two seasons White already owns the Big East rushing record for quarterbacks with 2,171 career yards, and his 1,219 yards rushing last year ranked third in the conference behind Rutgers’ Ray Rice and WVU teammate Steve Slaton.
The next step for White is becoming an even more effective passer, if it is possible to improve on a 65.9 percent completion percentage.
“Some games he’s going to have to make certain throws more often than other games,” Rodriguez said. “The challenge for him is to become even more accurate and to make great decisions.”
Because West Virginia’s offense is so quarterback centric, Rodriguez says more is asked of his signal callers.
“Our quarterbacks are a little different,” Rodriguez explained. “He has to make a decision on just about every snap whether it’s a run or a pass. Pat is such a great decision maker and I’m sure he even wants to be better this year.”
A key component to the passing game will be West Virginia’s remodeled wide receiver corps. After spring practice Rodriguez wasn’t convinced that they were able to come up with a reliable replacement for Brandon Myles, although 6-foot-8-inch sophomore Wes Lyons has the size and talent to do so.
Converted quarterback Nate Sowers has the athletic ability and speed to be a solid college wide receiver, as does Tito Gonzales and Dorrell Jalloh.
Senior Darius Reynaud has caught 69 passes the last two years including seven for touchdowns and is also a threat on reverses. He, too, must continue to improve.
“I’m anxious to see if we can get a couple more guys out on the perimeter outside of Darius Reynaud that can be a guy one-on-one who can win some match ups,” Rodriguez said. “That’s going to be one of our keys offensively.”
There are several youngsters coming into the program that Rodriguez is anxious to get a good look at when fall camp starts on Saturday, Aug. 4.
Junior college transfer Alric Arnett and Solon (Ohio) High School speedster Charles Matthews are two wide receiver additions, but there are others among this year’s group of newcomers that could get a close look at wide receiver, too. Those include athletes Brandon Hogan, Will Johnson and Jock Sanders, as well as touted running back Noel Devine at slot receiver.
Odds and Ends
“Those were two big losses not only because they were returning starters and all-league players but also because they were multiple-year starters,” Rodriguez said. “Dan Mozes has been a starter for four years and kind of led the way.”
Junior Mike Dent is the leading candidate to replace Mozes at center. “Mike Dent is a guy that has been in our program for several years and he’s going to take over at center. He’s got to have a solid year.
“We can’t expect him to be as good as Dan but at the same time we expect a high level of play from all of our players,” Rodriguez said.
The coach is also looking to junior Ryan Stanchek for leadership this year.
“Without us having any senior offensive linemen Ryan Stanchek has got to be the guy – who I think is one of the better linemen in our league – that takes some leadership responsibility along the O-line and make those guys calm and comfortable and making the right calls each and every play.”
“I think we’ve got to get better against the pass,” Rodriguez said. “We did not play well defensively in the latter half of the year as we did in the first half of the year. We tried to address that.”
Rodriguez said his defensive coaches did some things schematically to try and help the DBs. Some of that also involves getting more of a pass rush. The Mountaineers had just 31 sacks last year and didn’t get their first one until the fifth game of the season against Mississippi State.
“Our guys have to get better individually and I think they will,” Rodriguez said. “I think they’ve made a commitment to do that and we’ve got a lot more experience coming back defensively than we did a year ago and we’ve got to have our guys play at a higher level and with more confidence.
“We’re going against some great offensive teams and some great offensive skill players and they’re going to get challenged early.”
