CHRONICLING ECU & C-USA SPORTS
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from the 'ville
Thursday, September 21, 2006
By Al Myatt |
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Loaded WVU has reason to
take Bucs seriously
ECU has some weapons of
its own, including a formidable 12th man
©2006 Bonesville.net
All rights reserved.
West Virginia is viewed as a contender for the
national championship as it exists in the Bowl Championship Series in
college football. East Carolina stands as the immediate roadblock to those
aspirations.
The Mountaineers have 15 starters returning
from a team that won the Big East Conference in 2005 and edged Georgia 38-35
on a gutsy late-game fake punt in the Sugar Bowl.
Nine of those returning starters from an 11-1
team that lost only to Virginia Tech are on offense and coach Rich Rodriguez
has to like the fact that two of his top skill personnel — quarterback
Patrick White and running back Steve Slaton — are just sophomores.
An unbeaten season appears possible. Former
Big East powers Miami and Virginia Tech, of course, have left for the ACC.
There are still potential slip-ups at Louisville on Nov. 2, at Pittsburgh on
Nov. 16, and at home against improving Rutgers on Dec. 2.
The Mountaineers are off to a 3-0 start in
2006 and are currently ranked No. 4 in the nation. They are riding high
following a 45-24 dismantling of Maryland in a nationally-televised Thursday
night game on ESPN in which Slaton ran 21 times for 195 yards with two
touchdowns.
"There's a difference between a Top 20 team
and a Top 5 team," said East Carolina coach Skip Holtz. "A Top 20 team has a
lot of strengths but a Top 5 team doesn't have any weaknesses. That's what I
see when I watch this West Virginia film."
Holtz said Mountaineers center Dan Mozes is
exceptional on an offensive front that is the driving force for a WVU team
that leads the nation in rushing.
"Quickness, athleticism," said Holtz when
describing the Mountaineers blocking front. "I think Dan Mozes is one of the
best centers that I've seen on film. He may be one of the top three I've
ever seen watching film.
"It all starts right there. They have two very
fine offensive tackles. The whole thing with them up front is they're so
quick and they're into the zone scheme and they can get on the edge so
quick. They get a gap and then you take two guys like White and Slaton and
the power of (fullback Owen) Schmitt. They can stretch a defense and all
they need is a little seam.
"They create the holes that get White and
Slaton into the second level and once you get into the secondary, then
they're so athletic and can do so many things. They don't need a very big
gap as quick as they are.
"It would be their athleticism, their
quickness and their understanding of the schemes that they run is what makes
them so good. It's a very talented group and it's probably one of the better
offensive lines I've seen in a long time watching college film."
Holtz noted that the Mountaineers are
averaging a relatively paltry 137 yards passing but added, "They're
completing 75 percent of their passes. When you run it like they do, you
don't need to throw it that much."
Holtz noted WVU's statistical domination in
three home games and the athleticism of its secondary in his appraisal of
the Mountaineers, who are three-touchdown favorites for Saturday's 4:30 p.m.
game in Greenville, which will be shown nationally on ESPN 2. Gary Thorne
will do the play-by-play, Andre Ware will handle the analysis and Todd
Harris will be the sideline reporter.
Despite West Virginia's impressive
credentials, there are still factors that should make East Carolina fans
optimistic as they enter Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium.
The first is that ECU played the Mountaineers
close last season in Morgantown, the Pirates rallying from a 20-6 deficit at
the half to lose 20-15.
"They competed from start to finish,"
Rodriguez said the of 2005 matchup. "They played extremely hard and didn't
give up anything easy. When we did score we kind of grudgingly got it down
there.
"That's a credit to their staff and they've
got good players. Their quarterback (James Pinkney) can run and throw. Their
tailback (Chris Johnson) is a very, very fast guy. He's outstanding.
"They've got one of the best wideouts we play
all year in Aundrae Allison. He could play for anybody. And they've got big
guys up front if you look at the O-line. You know 6-foot-6, 320 (pounds),
6-7, 330. We've had problems with big guys with us getting off blocks, so
we've got a lot of concerns."
Holtz is hesitant to compare this year's game
to last year's.
"A year ago defensively, we did play very
well," said the Pirates coach. "I'm sure that that's something that they're
watching that film today and talking about that game from a year ago.
They're definitely not going to come in here overlooking East Carolina.
They'll come in here and I'm sure they're ready to put on a show and show
how good they are."
Still, this is WVU's first away game this
season. The Mountaineers will enter an environment that was influential in
ECU's 35-20 comeback win over Memphis last week.
"We're going to take everybody's best shot on
the road, I'm sure, being ranked," Rodriguez said. "Our guys have got to
understand that."
There was a strong consensus regarding the
crowd's role as ECU erased a 20-7 Tigers lead in the Pirates' first home
game last Saturday night.
"The crowd supported us greatly," said
Allison, who had nine catches for 124 yards with a touchdown. "That helped
totally. It was a big advantage to us. On the critical downs, especially
third down, they got real loud. They probably got Memphis a little
mind-boggled in some cases and that helped us out."
WVU leads the series 15-2, but both ECU wins
have been in North Carolina — 30-23 in Charlotte in 1999 and 23-20 in
Greenville in 1995.
Several more factors keep a West Virginia walk
from being a sure thing.
ECU leads the nation in takeaways with 11,
including six last week against Memphis. Defensive scores can be the stuff
that upsets are made of and the Pirates returned two interceptions for TD's
last week.
Another encouraging aspect for ECU is that
Johnson ran for 106 yards and two scores last week. If the Mountaineers
can't sell out in pressuring and defending the pass because ECU's running
game keeps the offense out of certain passing situations, then Pinkney and
Allison and the underrated remainder of the receiving corps will be all the
more effective.
ECU is 7-1 in games played on Sept. 23,
including a 34-17 win over Syracuse in Greenville the last time the Pirates
played on that date in 2000.
West Virginia may be No. 4, but ECU fans still
have reason to believe.
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02/23/2007 12:30:42 AM
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