On the Same Page
November 02, 2008 12:37 PM | General
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| Chris Beatty |
Bill Stewart said a couple of months ago that it was going to take a little more time than most people expected for everyone in the West Virginia football program to get on the same page. That looks to be the case after the Mountaineers’ pair of runaway victories against two pretty good teams in Auburn and Connecticut.
A once-maligned West Virginia offense has erupted for 69 points in its last two wins against Auburn and Connecticut – statistically two of the best defenses in the country at the time the Mountaineers faced them. The Tigers were ranked among the nation’s top 15 in total defense and scoring defense before the Mountaineers were able to produce 445 yards of offense in a 34-17 victory.
Yesterday against Connecticut, West Virginia once again faced a stout defense ranked 20th in the nation in scoring defense and 24th in total defense. The Mountaineers were able to run for 216 yards and score 35 points – its second highest point total of the season.
Running backs coach Chris Beatty said after Saturday's win that the offensive staff was able to make some second-quarter adjustments that eventually loosened up the Connecticut defense.
“They gave us some problems taking away some of the outside zone (runs) and some things we were trying to do on the perimeter,” he said. “Their number 54 (Alex Polito) was having a big game at the three-technique and he took away some of the things that we thought we would be able to do.
“Then we made a couple of adjustments in the second quarter, just trying to get more vertical and get some things in the pass game.”
Beatty credits a 35-yard pass to Dorrell Jalloh on a wheel route early in the third quarter as a momentum changing play for the offense.
“I thought we were able to hit Dorrell Jalloh a couple of times on some seam routes,” Beatty said. “Then we got between the tackles and got up the field as opposed to east and west so much.”
Jalloh was actually lined up at fullback on the 35-yard pass play, a new formation the offensive staff put in for the Connecticut game.
“It was really more because we had an injury during the week and we kind of thought we could sneak that in and get it by them. That’s not a normal set for us but we figured if we could get it out of a timeout they wouldn’t be able to adjust to it,” Beatty said. “It was pretty much what we thought: they got the safety down and we were able to get Dorrell open on the outside.”
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| Dorrell Jalloh |
The Charlotte, N.C. resident has come on in West Virginia’s last two games, catching a team-best four passes for 53 yards and a pair of touchdowns against Auburn and a team-best five catches for 73 yards against Connecticut.
“He’s one of those exciting guys that you never know what you’re going to get,” Beatty said. “He’s a fun guy to coach and I love having him in my room. He’s been doing a great job.”
Beatty said the offensive performances fans have witnessed the last two weeks is simply a result of everyone getting more accustomed to each other.
“The guys are kind of feeling that they are getting a good idea of what we’re asking from them and I think transition takes some time and I think we’re now getting to a point in the season when you want to start clicking and we’re trying to get to that point,” Beatty said.
Beatty pointed out that some of the younger players are starting to make big strides as well like freshman tailback Mark Rodgers, who got three carries for 11 yards in a mop up role against UConn but also returned a kickoff 44 yards to midfield that set up West Virginia’s first touchdown.
“Mark Rodgers is getting better and better every week and we need to get him some carries,” Beatty said. “It’s tough to do that with Noel (Devine) back there because we don’t want to take him out. But every time Mark touches the ball he’s got a chance of taking it to the house. He’s also getting better each week on those returns.”
Briefly:
Getting off the field on third down was a near impossibility.
Since then, West Virginia is allowing just 263.8 yards per game and only one team, Syracuse (346 yards), has managed to gain more than 300 yards of offense against the Mountaineers. West Virginia has produced back-to-back second-half shutouts against Auburn and Connecticut and has four total second-half shutouts this year. WVU has also been able to create 10 turnovers in its last five games including five in Saturday’s win over Connecticut.
“The defense has done a great job,” Beatty said. “They keep us in the game while we try to figure out what we’re doing and they’ve done that all year really.”
Some teams, for whatever reason, match up better against some teams. Two weeks ago Rutgers bombed Pitt, 54-34, for its fifth straight victory over the Panthers. West Virginia seems to always match up well against Connecticut and Rutgers, while South Florida has fared well the last two years against West Virginia. Louisville appears to have South Florida’s number. That’s probably why the conference hasn’t had an undefeated champion since West Virginia ran the table in 2005.
Of the BCS conferences, the ACC, the Big East and the SEC still have all of its members alive for bowl berths although with one more loss N.C. State, Baylor, Syracuse, Mississippi State and Tennessee go under the bus.
In 2007, five times West Virginia either led by seven points or less or trailed at halftime. In the two games West Virginia trailed last year at halftime, one the Mountaineers pulled out (Marshall) and the other they didn’t (USF).
In 2006, West Virginia trailed five times at halftime and managed to win three of those games – Pitt, Rutgers and Georgia Tech. The two losses were to Louisville and South Florida. Three other times that year the Mountaineers had touchdown-or-less leads against East Carolina, Mississippi State and Syracuse.
So much for fast starts.
The Mountaineers are the only Big East team in the Coaches’ Poll this week, although Pitt is close at No. 28 with 91 votes.
West Virginia has been in 47 of the last 53 USA Today/ESPN Coaches’ polls dating back to Oct. 9, 2005.
Penn State looks to have the clearest path with games remaining against Iowa, Indiana and Michigan State, but the Spartans will give the Lions a stern test in State College for what could be the Big Ten title. Penn State’s trip to Iowa this weekend will also not be a walk in the park.
Alabama has a key game coming up this week against LSU and if it gets by the Tigers, Mississippi State and Auburn it must still mostly likely face Florida in the SEC championship game.
Texas Tech looked awesome against Texas but the Red Raiders have games remaining against Oklahoma State and Oklahoma. If Tech somehow gets through that it still must play in the Big 12 championship game, which proved costly last year to Missouri.
And then there is USC out West, which continues to roll up blowout victories. The Trojans have allowed just 10 points in their last four games and have winnable remaining games against Cal, Stanford, Notre Dame and UCLA.
Florida is averaging 50.3 points per game in its last four wins over Arkansas, LSU, Kentucky and Georgia without a lot of offensive yards. The Gators have remaining regular season games against Vanderbilt, South Carolina, The Citadel and Florida State.
How about one-loss USC playing one-loss Florida in the Dolphin Stadium on Jan. 8, 2009 for all the marbles? It’s not out of the realm of possibility, especially after witnessing the strange twists and turns that took place in college football last year.
