A Complete Runner
October 29, 2009 03:46 PM | General
(3:47 pm)
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| Noel Devine |
Second-year running backs coach Chris Beatty will be the first one to say that Noel Devine is a much more complete running back this year.
Devine is on a pace to rush for nearly 1,700 yards and score 18 touchdowns this season. What stands Devine apart, according to Beatty, are the little things Devine is doing this year.
“He’s just not a runner,” Beatty said Tuesday evening. “Last year, I thought he was a runner. This year he’s more of a complete back. He does better in pass protection. He does a good job in finishing runs and he does a good job in the pass game as a receiver.
“He’s made great strides in that area and he’s going to continue to do that. I think he’s gotten better as a leader, too,” Beatty said.
During last Saturday’s game against Connecticut, two of Devine’s 23 carries went for 118 yards. The other 21 netted just 60.
“When you have a guy like that I think you want to keep feeding him because, I’ve said it before, it’s like Barry Sanders,” Beatty said. “I think he’s averaging like 6 ½ yards. He’s not going to get 6 ½ on every carry. He’s going to get one, two, boom, and then it’s going to be 60. That’s kind of the way it works so you just have to be patient.
“The way we are developing with our O-line being young you want to make sure you’re giving him as many touches as you can because good things are going to happen,” Beatty said.
Because West Virginia has other playmakers in its offense, the offense can absorb an occasional two-yard loss by Devine.
“Something he has gotten better at is not running side to side. Obviously, you want to try and stay on track,” Beatty said. “We’ve got guys that can make up big chunks of yardage when you don’t always have to go four yards at a time.”
West Virginia is likely going to need a big game from Devine on Friday night against a USF team desperate for a victory.
Weekly Word
“It’s hard to run away from them when one is on each side,” admitted Beatty. “There is not a lot of wiggle room, plus those guys in between aren’t too bad either. We’ve got to make sure we run down hill against them. Hopefully, we’ll get a piece of them and square them up so that our guys can do what they do.
“They’ve got a lot of guys that can run people down,” Beatty added. “They’ve got great athleticism on the defensive line. Playing next to Selvie, even I think I could get a sack or two because everyone is making sure that they take care of him. He’s that good.”
Why not? Dunlap asks.
Dunlap also wrote about how important Devine has been to the Mountaineers during crunch time in the fourth quarter, citing his 56-yard game-winning touchdown run last weekend against Connecticut.
Well, I decided to take a deeper look at Devine’s fourth quarter performances. Five of Devine’s 10 rushing touchdowns this year have come in the fourth quarter. Devine is also averaging 6.5 yards per carry in the final quarter.
And here is what Devine has done during the fourth quarter for his career: 138 attempts, 963 yards, 7.0 yards per carry average and 11 touchdowns.
Yep, those are some pretty good crunch-time numbers.
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| Bob Huggins |
“I don’t like the fact that it’s not on the floor,” said Huggins. “I think it leaves too much to interpretation. I think if you have a line on the floor you know whether you are outside it or not and I think it’s awful hard without a line on the floor.”
In theory, the no-charging zone extends from the backboard to the front of the rim.
I make few predictions - and even fewer of them come true - but I am going to make one now: Syracuse is going to knock somebody out of the league race this year. Thankfully, the Mountaineers already have the Orange behind them this year.
“If you look at a lot of staffs that stay together they kind of learn what each other is thinking a little bit and they are thinking along the same lines,” he said. “I think that’s what happened (against Connecticut). Dave Johnson has an idea here, I have one there, Doc has one or Lonnie has one. Then Jeff does a great job of putting it all together and obviously he has his own ideas, too.
“When you work together and you’ve been together, you can make some adjustments because you can anticipate a little bit better than last year because we didn’t always know what Jeff wanted - or what Coach Stew wanted for that matter.
“Plus we know our players better,” Beatty added. “We know their strengths and what they do well and we know what we don’t do that well so we can anticipate some of the things that defenses try and do and have a plan for them ahead of time.”
The ESPN.com Week 8 power rankings are out and four of the five college football experts have West Virginia in their Top 25.
Can you guess which one left the Flying WV off his list?
Now, if Lane Kiffin is to be believed, it looks like I am going to have to study up on SEC football officiating:
http://espn.go.com/blog/ncfnation/post/_/id/11282/kiffins-comments-fan-conspiracy-flames
I’ll let you know if another grassy knoll exists down in Tuscaloosa.
Are you kidding me?
Can you name the last Big East team to beat Cincinnati?
That’s right, Connecticut last year - and the game wasn’t even close. UConn rocked the Bearcats, 40-16, in Storrs. Add or subtract nine points from Connecticut’s schedule and the Huskies are 7-0 this year.
That’s before you even begin talking about how badly the Huskies wanted to win last Saturday’s game for Jasper Howard.
Those are just a few little nuggets of information for some of you nattering nabobs of negativism running around out there.
This week, Stull shows up near the top of the list of NCAA QBs with a 161.09 passer rating right behind Boise State’s Kellen Moore and Notre Dame’s Jimmy Claussen.
Stull has completed 67.4 percent of his pass attempts for 1,654 yards and 16 touchdowns. He has thrown only four interceptions.
ESPN college football analyst Robert Smith even threw Stull’s name into the hat for Heisman Trophy consideration.
Of course, Pitt is not the only school with a few brain-dead football fans. Just 75 miles south down I-79, Bill Stewart is now 16-5 in must-win games after the Mountaineers’ hard-fought, 28-24 victory over UConn.
For those of you going without coffee today, Bill Stewart has coached 21 career games at West Virginia.
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| Steve Dunlap |
“I went back and watched the play a couple of times and our guys got their doors blown off,” my buddy complained.
I figured, what the heck, I’ll ask Steve Dunlap about it Tuesday evening.
“Yeah, I was talking to (former Mountaineer assistant coach) Dave McMichael about that play after the game and he said that No. 29 came from their track program,” Dunlap said. “He runs about a 4.3. Funny thing is Dave didn’t mention that to me before the game.”
And now you know the rest of the story.
Enjoy your weekend!
