Developing Depth
March 09, 2009 04:31 PM | General
March 9, 2009
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – Chris Beatty is getting used to seeing empty chairs in his team meeting room.
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| Slot receivers/running backs coach Chris Beatty will have empty chairs in his meeting room once again this spring.
All-Pro Photography/Dale Sparks photo |
Beatty, who coaches the running backs and slot receivers, presided over a thin running backs corps last year when he arrived before the start of spring practice. This spring, Beatty is extremely thin at slot receiver since the announcement that starter Jock Sanders has been suspended for spring practice and possibly beyond.
The two-deep roster handed out to the media last Thursday had just two players listed for the two slot receiver positions: Jack Crow and Carmen Connolly. Typically a team needs to have five or six players ready to go by the time the season starts.
“It’s tough. It’s one of those things where you want to make sure you are getting quality reps,” Beatty explained. “I remember last year, Brandon Hogan was playing slot at that time and he had 74 snaps in one spring scrimmage. You don’t want to be taking that many snaps. You want to try and develop your depth as you go but that goes back to recruiting.
“When we get the guys in here in the fall there will be some catching up,” Beatty said.
The situation will improve dramatically when touted recruits Stedman Bailey, Deon Long and Tavon Austin get on campus. Austin, a high school running back, is said to be versatile and explosive enough to play both positions if needed.
“We’ve got a good group coming in and we’ve got several guys that we have our eyes on this year,” Beatty said. “We know we’ve got to get more guys in our room with more depth and more talent and hopefully in the future that won’t be a problem.”
To get through this spring, Beatty said the coaching staff is going to have to do the best it can until the new guys arrive.
“Mark Rodgers is going to play a little bit in the slot. He played there during camp and then we kind of identified him as being our primary backup to Noel (Devine),” Beatty said. “He’ll play a little more at the slot but when you put him at slot there is a lot less depth at running back. You’re robbing Peter to pay Paul.”
In the meantime, Beatty said the lack of numbers will force the team to alter things schematically in order to maintain high-level practices.
“The tight end is going to be involved a lot more instead of going 10-personnel," Beatty said. "Now you go 11 with the tight end in the game or a fullback in the game and take that extra slot receiver out. That’s going to help Tyler, Will Johnson, Ryan Clarke and those guys, but we’d like to be able to spread the field more.
“For us we probably need it because we need to get downhill a little bit more,” Beatty added. “There is some good and some bad, but it is what it is.”
Personnel issues aside, Beatty is excited about this spring because West Virginia has its entire offensive coaching staff returning intact. Last year at this time, most of them were living out of suitcases trying to learn their way around town and learn about established players who had established themselves in a different offensive system.
“You go out last year and you didn’t know exactly where to be in practice and where everything fit, much less what did Jeff (Mullen) want? What did Stew want? It’s a lot more comfortable feeling to be able to go out and know, ‘OK, this is where I fit and this is what we’re trying to get accomplished,’” Beatty said. “Just the coaching part of it is much better not to mention the players – knowing the players and knowing where their strengths are and what they need to improve on.
“Having been on different staffs I know the feeling of all those other staffs. It’s a tough time trying to get to know each other in such a short amount of time before the start of spring.”
In some respects, the offensive coaches have had the unfair burden of being asked to duplicate in five months what it took the previous coaching staff five years to develop.
“Fans are fans and that’s what makes them great,” Beatty said. “We’ve had so much success you almost forget that when Rich got here it was a little bit tough for them. They weren’t 11-1 in the beginning. You look at Florida. Urban Meyer got there and they said that stuff’s not going to work in the SEC. Well, it works pretty well right now since he’s been able to get the people that he wants to run his system.”
Beatty continued with his point.
“Having talked to some guys who coach in the pros, they say it takes a good two years to have everybody understand a system,” Beatty said. “You go into a West Coast system – Brett Favre played in the West Coast here so he should have no problem there. Well, every system is different and it takes some time to learn where everything is and the adjustments off that.”
West Virginia’s impressive passing performance in its 31-30 Meineke Car Care Bowl victory over North Carolina opened eyes on many levels. Beatty expects that to continue to pay dividends when the staff goes out to recruit wide receivers.
“It gives you a chance,” Beatty said. “A lot of times people in the past were so used to seeing what they did here. We keep telling them, ‘This is what we want to be.’ And they sit back and they say, ‘OK, when we see it on the field then we’ll believe it.’ Finally they got a chance to see it a little bit. There were flashes during the season but it all kind of came together during the bowl game.”
The team’s first spring workout is scheduled for Tuesday, March 24. Unlike past years, the Mountaineers will practice straight through to the Gold-Blue Spring Game April 18 instead of taking a week off for spring break.
