Big Plays
October 07, 2008 05:52 PM | General
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| Pat White |
If you look deep into this week’s West Virginia-Syracuse release you will find a very revealing statistic. It is way in the back just before you get to the team’s depth chart, where I know a lot of you like to go to see who is listed No. 1 and No. 2 at each position.
The stat of the day - easily the stat of the year - is the graphic listing plays of 20 yards or longer in 2008. In past years that graphic used to take up two columns to document all of the long plays made by Steve Slaton, Pat White, Darius Reynaud, Owen Schmitt and Noel Devine.
In fact, last year the Mountaineers had a staggering 72 plays covering 20 yards or longer, including 21 that went for touchdowns.
That’s an average of roughly 5 ½ plays per game. Even Joe Six-Pack can call plays when you know that on average at least five of them are going to go for 20 yards or more.
Well, this year through five games West Virginia has had only 14 plays of 20 yards or longer, and just six of them have gone for touchdowns. So far, those 20-yard plays are averaging out to roughly 2 ½ plays per game.
As for those 50-yard, game-changing, home-run type plays, last year the Mountaineers had 14 of them. Seven went for touchdowns.
This year West Virginia is still searching for its first one.
In all but five games last year West Virginia had at least one scoring play covering 20 yards or longer. And two of the five games in which the Mountaineers didn’t make at least one big scoring play were in losses to South Florida and Pitt.
Incidentally, 29 of those long plays in 2007 came from Mr. Slaton, Mr. Reynaud and Mr. Schmitt.
Mr. Slaton is presently starting for the Houston Texans, Mr. Schmitt is listed second on the Seattle Seahawks depth chart behind Leonard Weaver at fullback and Mr. Reynaud is presently on the Minnesota Vikings practice squad.
As for Pat White, in 2007 he was responsible for 41 plays covering 20 yards or longer. So far this season he has managed to produce seven.
Does anyone detect a trend here?
Coach Bill Stewart on Sunday made reference to the number of underclassmen playing key roles on this year's team. Specifically, he talked about the youth on defense. Against Rutgers last Saturday, seven of West Virginia’s 11 starters on the defensive side of the football were either freshmen or sophomores.
Here is the run down:
Sophomore Starters
Freshmen Starters
After examining depth charts from the past 10 years, no West Virginia defense since then has come close to having that many underclassmen in the starting lineup.
In 2000, the Mountaineers started four sophomores (Jason Davis, David Upchurch, Brian King and Grant Wiley) on a defense that gave up an average of 388.2 yards per game.
Since 2001, the most underclassmen starting on defense was two during the years 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006 and 2007.
If this year's group can stick together, stay healthy, and continue to improve West Virginia could be looking at a pretty special defense down the road.
For those of you professing to know so much about college football, explain these results:
Have a great day!
