Friday Update
December 26, 2008 01:51 PM | General
December 26, 2008
CHARLOTTE – West Virginia defensive coordinator Jeff Casteel said his coaching staff has spent this week preparing for two different North Carolina quarterbacks.
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| West Virginia coach Bill Stewart talks to reporters before Thursday's practice at Country Day School in Charlotte.
All-Pro Photography/Dale Sparks photo |
Sophomore T.J. Yates is more of a pocket passer and presently ranks seventh all-time in UNC history with 3,612 yards passing. Yates had the Tar Heels cruising along until a broken ankle suffered against Virginia Tech sidelined him for seven weeks. Yates returned for the N.C. State loss and also quarterbacked North Carolina’s season-ending win against Duke.
In the meantime, junior Cameron Sexton came on to lead the Tar Heels to a 5-2 record during Yates’ absence. Sexton leads the team with 1,261 yards passing and nine touchdowns, including a 242-yard performance in North Carolina’s 28-24 win at Miami.
Sexton also had a 238-yard performance in UNC’s 45-24 win over Boston College.
“If one of them gets a hot hand I think they will probably stay with him,” Casteel said. “They’ve got two capable backs and two capable quarterbacks. Going into the year when they lost Yates I’m sure that was tough but the Sexton kid has played well and now they have them both back and they’ve got two experienced quarterbacks.
“I think you have to prepare for both of them,” Casteel said.
Secondary coach Dave Lockwood gives the slight edge to Yates as a pocket passer, but he says both are equally dangerous.
“I think they both have the capability of throwing the ball well,” Lockwood said. “They’ve also got some pretty good guys out there on the outside to catch the ball. It really doesn’t matter who that guy is. As a whole we’ve got to be concerned with not just the quarterback but the wide outs and at the same time they can run the ball, so they present some problems for you.”
Lockwood believes it will be important for the defense to try and confuse whoever is under center.
“Whoever the quarterback is give them a different look and hopefully get them confused and take it from there,” Lockwood said.
Steve Dunlap, one of three West Virginia defensive coaches with prior coordinator experience, said Thursday that it will be important for West Virginia’s defensive backs to get all-ACC wide receiver Hakeem Nicks on the ground after he catches the football.
“The thing he does so well is yards after catch. He has over 1,000 yards of receiving and I would venture to say 40 percent of it is after he catches the ball,” Dunlap said. “Our whole focus and everything we’ve talked about to this point is not to give him yards after catch. He’s going to get his yards, just don’t let him get his yards after catch.”
Dunlap said the defense caught a break with the season-ending knee injury to Brandon Tate, who was ranked seventh in the nation in all-purpose yardage when his season ended against Notre Dame. Tate is a game changer.
“I sure do like the fact that we don’t have to face Tate because then we’d have to deal with two of them because they’ve got Hakeem on the other side,” Dunlap said. “Having both of them would be tough.”
Dunlap sees a North Carolina offensive team that likes to pound the football with the running game to set up the play action pass.
“Traditionally they’ve been a physical team, a big powerful team,” Dunlap said. “They like to run the power play and play action pass. We’re going to have to be on our toes with the play action pass.”
Dunlap isn’t sure if West Virginia will have sophomore bandit safety Sidney Glover ready for Saturday’s game. Glover went down in the third quarter of the USF game with a knee injury after forcing a key first-quarter fumble, and intercepting a pass in the end zone to thwart another Bull scoring drive before the end of the first half.
Glover has become one of the Mountaineers’ most effective back end defenders.
“He’s been trying to get himself ready. He was running a little bit (Wednesday) and it’s probably going to, I assume, be a game-time decision,” Dunlap said. “We really miss Sidney because he’s a physical player. He’s 215 pounds and he’s probably one of the most physical safeties we have. We need him on the field and we need his presence.”
West Virginia has also been practicing without starting corner Brandon Hogan, who is questionable for Saturday’s game.
“We’ll be OK,” Casteel said. “This time of the year you’ve been practicing since August 1 and you’re going to get kids nicked up, but we’ll be OK.”
West Virginia wrapped up pre-game work with a walk through at Bank America Stadium Friday afternoon. The updated weather forecast is calling for cloudy skies and temperatures near 60 degrees at kickoff. ESPN will carry the game live at 1 pm.
There are no tickets remaining for the game.
Note: Be sure to catch Mountaineer Magazine’s Meineke Car Care Bowl Special tonight at 7 pm on regular MSN affiliates throughout West Virginia. The ½ hour show will preview tomorrow’s game with Coach Bill Stewart, Tony Caridi and Dwight Wallace breaking down the match up.
Fans outside of West Virginia can catch the show on MASN in the Capital region at 11 pm tonight and once again tomorrow morning at 10 am. West Virginia fans in New York City can watch the bowl special on Saturday morning on SportsNet New York at 9:30 am.
Fans can also catch the show live on the Internet through MountaineerTV.
