Work in Progress
April 13, 2008 02:37 PM | General
April 13, 2008
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| Jeff Mullen |
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – West Virginia offensive coordinator Jeff Mullen knows there will be better days ahead for his offense. Yesterday, the offense sputtered. On Monday they will learn from their mistakes.
After witnessing a display of penalties and costly turnovers this late in the spring, some offensive coordinators might panic. Some might spend their post-scrimmage media session berating their players. Some might even move players around in attempt to solve the problem quickly.
Jeff Mullen isn’t one of them.
In fact, the Lima, Ohio, native is taking a level-headed approach, realizing that these miscues are just a part of the process that comes with installing a new offense for the first time.
“I learned a long time ago it’s never as good or as bad as it seems,” Mullen said. “Yesterday we had a really good day in practice and I looked at the tape and there were a lot of mistakes. Today it feels really bad and I know there were a lot of mistakes that we have to correct and we’ve just got to coach them a little better.”
The former Wake Forest quarterbacks coach was candid with reporters following the scrimmage, admitting that he wasn’t surprised with many of the miscues in execution given that his staff spent the majority of this week installing the last 20 percent of their offensive game plan.
“I saw this coming a little bit. We put about 80 percent of the offense in the first week. We came back week two and we didn’t put anything else in and we had a little success last Saturday,” Mullen said. “This week we had to put the last 20 percent of the offense and their heads are spinning a little bit.”
The offense ran 76 plays and amassed 395 total yards with the yardage almost evenly split: 184 yards passing and 211 yards rushing. However, there were a handful of illegal motion penalties as a result of Mullen’s desire to change up the cadence.
“We have been trying to mix our cadence up and that’s something that I don’t think has been done in a long time,” Mullen said. “We just have to keep working. It’s spring ball and that’s the time to work on things and evaluate for next fall.”
As Mullen continues to evaluate positions, he is trying to give backup quarterback Jarrett Brown a crash course in the offense. He admits Brown is well behind the other quarterbacks having missed the first week of spring drills and the month previous to that while he was with the basketball team.
“By NCAA rules we’re allowed a few hours a week to meet. We were installing the entire offense before we even hit spring ball,” Mullen explained. “I feel handcuffed when he’s out there because I look down and he may not know a certain play very well.”
Despite the cadences and the installation that took place last week, Mullen says the team must pay more attention to detail and concentrate more to eliminate careless turnovers and unnecessary penalties.
“The biggest things are the false starts, the dropped balls and the interceptions. Those are the things that no matter what kind of play you call, you can correct,” Mullen said. “If you took that out I think we would have had a pretty decent day.”
Of course it wasn’t all bad for the offense on Saturday. Noel Devine saved a sure safety in the end zone, breaking loose for a 34-yard run. Mike Poitier had a 37-yard run early in the scrimmage and Starks made the play of the day, hauling in a 49-yard touchdown pass over the middle from Jarrett Brown as he continues to flourish in his dual receiver role.
“I’ll go back and look at the tape and there is a lot of good out there. There were a lot of third and twos and third and nines that we got,” Mullen said. “We did some good things out there and now we need to go show our guys that. We just need to work to improve. There is no reason to panic.”
There is no need to worry about that with Jeff Mullen running the offense.
Briefly:
“It’s the pro rule except they don’t give you the helmets with the green dots to communicate with the quarterbacks,” said Offensive Coordinator Jeff Mullen. “That makes it a little tougher but I thought we handled it OK on Saturday.”
The biggest change will come following out-of-bounds plays. The game clock will now start when the official marks the ball for play, instead of when the ball is snapped.
This is the third straight year the NCAA has addressed speed of play, as requested by the television networks. A typical college game last 3 ½ to 4 hours. The pro game typically lasts 3 hours.
Head Coach Bill Stewart says Johnson can easily fill out to 235 pounds, which will give him more than enough size to play the hybrid position.
As for Starks, he has the size (6-3, 182 pounds), the speed, and the athletic ability to play the outside receiver spot and put pressure on the safeties. Starks caught a long touchdown pass during Saturday’s scrimmage and looks comfortable working the hashes on slants and curls.
The coaching staff is determined to get their best football players on the field and the redshirt freshman appears to be one of the Mountaineers’ better players. Starks will take more reps at wide receiver during the team’s final three spring workouts next week. Receivers coach Lonnie Galloway hinted Saturday that they may remove the protective gold jersey (no contact) to see what Starks can do in a white jersey next week.
John Antonik also contributed to this report.
