MORGANTOWN - They could have been the moments that shattered Brandon Hogan's psyche forever, coming as they did in such relatively rapid succession during what amounted to the infancy of his born-again career.
Two plays, inarguably among the most defining of West Virginia's early-season football struggles, centered on Hogan and Hogan alone. Stationed squarely on the island that cornerbacks know is their own, he had failed miserably.
And he knew it.
On East Carolina's first possession of a Sept. 6 game with West Virginia in Greenville, N.C., the Pirates faced third-and-9 at the Mountaineer 42-yard line. WVU went to its nickel defense for the first time that day, which meant Hogan, a reserve cornerback, was on the field for the first time. Jamar Bryant, lined up as an inside receiver, went straight at Hogan, who was in man-to-man coverage. Bryant faked inside and then cut immediately out on a corner route. Hogan, with his eyes on the quarterback and not the receiver, lost a step right away and Bryant easily caught what would wind up as a 35-yard pass to the WVU 7. East Carolina scored two plays later.
Then late in the first half, after West Virginia had recovered somewhat and trailed just 10-3, ECU had the ball deep in WVU territory after a Jock Sanders fumble. Only 47 seconds separated the Mountaineers from going into the locker room with a very workable seven-point deficit when 6-foot-4 wide receiver Alex Taylor ran a quick fade route to the end zone at a smaller cornerback. In the end zone, Taylor both outmaneuvered and outjumped the 5-10 Hogan for a touchdown and a 17-3 lead. That was more than enough for the Pirates, who went on to win 24-3.
Keep in mind this was the same Brandon Hogan who until showing up for preseason practice just one month earlier was a slot receiver. In high school he was a quarterback, a running back, a wide receiver and a free safety. He had spent his first season at West Virginia as a slot receiver and sometimes as a kick returner.
Never had he played cornerback until West Virginia's coaches decided - virtually at the last minute prior to the start of camp - they would try Hogan there to see if he could help alleviate a woeful lack of talent and experience at the position.
By all rights, it seemed that if the experiment was not a failed one then at least it was going to take a lot more time before Hogan was truly ready for the big stage.
Well, as it turns out, a lot more time was roughly a week or two.
"Everybody wanted me to fire that kid at East Carolina,'' West Virginia coach Bill Stewart said this week. "A redshirt freshman. First [significant playing time] on the road. A pretty good opponent. Some pretty good daggone receivers down there. The kid made a mistake. He peeked into the backfield and then got beat on a fade. I'm never going to throw a young man under the bus who is trying to learn the game.''
Fast forward now through everything that Hogan has done since that debacle at East Carolina. A week and a half later he was back as the nickel back and rotating with Kent Richardson at cornerback in the base defense. A week after that, he was in the starting lineup.
And after he and fellow cornerback Ellis Lankster helped limit the nation's leading receiver, Marshall's Darius Passmore, to just four harmless catches for 39 yards, Hogan will be back in the lineup Saturday when the Mountaineers (2-2) play host to Rutgers (1-3) in the Big East opener.
These days, it's hard to wipe the smile off Hogan's face.
"I never doubted myself. I just worried about what everybody else thought of me,'' Hogan said. "I was trying to just get back and show people that I wasn't the Brandon that ...''
Hogan stopped for just a moment, much like he had done on that third-down play. Then he tried to relate just where he was mentally that day in Greenville.
"I had just gotten into to the game at ECU and the play was called on me, the first play,'' Hogan said, referring to the third-and-long pass. "And then I gave up that big touchdown. But the coaches really gave me some backbone. They still believed in me and that helped me out a lot.''
Hogan was, in fact, lifted for a time after that. The first time the Mountaineers went to their nickel package in the second half at East Carolina, Keith Tandy was the third corner. But that was designed to avoid shaking Hogan's confidence any more than it had already been - rather than giving up on him.
Quite the contrary, by the time West Virginia played at Colorado a week and a half later, Hogan was splitting time with Richardson in the regular defense. By the Marshall game he was one of two new starters in the secondary, along with true freshman free safety Robert Sands.
So much for shaken confidence.
"When I first got [to defense], I didn't feel like I belonged there. I felt like I was an offensive guy,'' Hogan said. "Now things are clicking. Now I feel like I belong on defense. But I never had a doubt in my mind. I never had a doubt. After [the ECU game], I just wanted to prove myself and show everybody I could play that position and be great at it.''
Great, of course, is a fluid term as far as cornerbacks are concerned. Even the best ones aren't perfect. They get beat sometimes, just as Hogan will no doubt be beaten again as he was at East Carolina.
This week, for instance, he and the rest of the secondary have to contend with perhaps the best 1-2 wide-receiver tandem in the Big East in Tiquan Underwood and Kenny Britt. Rutgers' third wide receiver, junior Tim Brown, caught a 72-yard touchdown pass the last time the Scarlet Knights played in Morgantown, and tight end Kevin Brock is the team's second-leading receiver.
But Hogan and the rest of the secondary appear to be coming together quite nicely. In the first two games of the season and then the first five minutes of the third game at Colorado, opposing passers completed 52-of-77 attempts (67 percent) for 605 yards and three touchdowns. In what amounts to virtually the same amount of playing time since then (55 minutes and overtime at Colorado and the Marshall game) opponents have completed 29-of-59 attempts (49 percent) for just 202 yards and no touchdowns.
"[Hogan] came up big. He and Ellis came up big,'' Stewart said. "I hope they can do the same thing this week against Rutgers, against Britt and Underwood, as we did against the two guys from Marshall.
"What can you say? Passmore's as good as we'll see. That young man is a great, great, quality player, and Brandon Hogan and Ellis Lankster played lights out. They really did. I just hope they get better. And they will.''
Reach Dave Hickman at 348-1734 or dphickm...@aol.com.
MORGANTOWN - They could have been the moments that shattered Brandon Hogan's psyche forever, coming as they did in such relatively rapid succession during what amounted to the infancy of his born-again career.
Two plays, inarguably among the most defining of West Virginia's early-season football struggles, centered on Hogan and Hogan alone. Stationed squarely on the island that cornerbacks know is their own, he had failed miserably.
And he knew it.
On East Carolina's first possession of a Sept. 6 game with West Virginia in Greenville, N.C., the Pirates faced third-and-9 at the Mountaineer 42-yard line. WVU went to its nickel defense for the first time that day, which meant Hogan, a reserve cornerback, was on the field for the first time. Jamar Bryant, lined up as an inside receiver, went straight at Hogan, who was in man-to-man coverage. Bryant faked inside and then cut immediately out on a corner route. Hogan, with his eyes on the quarterback and not the receiver, lost a step right away and Bryant easily caught what would wind up as a 35-yard pass to the WVU 7. East Carolina scored two plays later.
Then late in the first half, after West Virginia had recovered somewhat and trailed just 10-3, ECU had the ball deep in WVU territory after a Jock Sanders fumble. Only 47 seconds separated the Mountaineers from going into the locker room with a very workable seven-point deficit when 6-foot-4 wide receiver Alex Taylor ran a quick fade route to the end zone at a smaller cornerback. In the end zone, Taylor both outmaneuvered and outjumped the 5-10 Hogan for a touchdown and a 17-3 lead. That was more than enough for the Pirates, who went on to win 24-3.
Keep in mind this was the same Brandon Hogan who until showing up for preseason practice just one month earlier was a slot receiver. In high school he was a quarterback, a running back, a wide receiver and a free safety. He had spent his first season at West Virginia as a slot receiver and sometimes as a kick returner.
Never had he played cornerback until West Virginia's coaches decided - virtually at the last minute prior to the start of camp - they would try Hogan there to see if he could help alleviate a woeful lack of talent and experience at the position.
By all rights, it seemed that if the experiment was not a failed one then at least it was going to take a lot more time before Hogan was truly ready for the big stage.
Well, as it turns out, a lot more time was roughly a week or two.
"Everybody wanted me to fire that kid at East Carolina,'' West Virginia coach Bill Stewart said this week. "A redshirt freshman. First [significant playing time] on the road. A pretty good opponent. Some pretty good daggone receivers down there. The kid made a mistake. He peeked into the backfield and then got beat on a fade. I'm never going to throw a young man under the bus who is trying to learn the game.''
Fast forward now through everything that Hogan has done since that debacle at East Carolina. A week and a half later he was back as the nickel back and rotating with Kent Richardson at cornerback in the base defense. A week after that, he was in the starting lineup.
And after he and fellow cornerback Ellis Lankster helped limit the nation's leading receiver, Marshall's Darius Passmore, to just four harmless catches for 39 yards, Hogan will be back in the lineup Saturday when the Mountaineers (2-2) play host to Rutgers (1-3) in the Big East opener.
These days, it's hard to wipe the smile off Hogan's face.
"I never doubted myself. I just worried about what everybody else thought of me,'' Hogan said. "I was trying to just get back and show people that I wasn't the Brandon that ...''
Hogan stopped for just a moment, much like he had done on that third-down play. Then he tried to relate just where he was mentally that day in Greenville.
"I had just gotten into to the game at ECU and the play was called on me, the first play,'' Hogan said, referring to the third-and-long pass. "And then I gave up that big touchdown. But the coaches really gave me some backbone. They still believed in me and that helped me out a lot.''
Hogan was, in fact, lifted for a time after that. The first time the Mountaineers went to their nickel package in the second half at East Carolina, Keith Tandy was the third corner. But that was designed to avoid shaking Hogan's confidence any more than it had already been - rather than giving up on him.
Quite the contrary, by the time West Virginia played at Colorado a week and a half later, Hogan was splitting time with Richardson in the regular defense. By the Marshall game he was one of two new starters in the secondary, along with true freshman free safety Robert Sands.
So much for shaken confidence.
"When I first got [to defense], I didn't feel like I belonged there. I felt like I was an offensive guy,'' Hogan said. "Now things are clicking. Now I feel like I belong on defense. But I never had a doubt in my mind. I never had a doubt. After [the ECU game], I just wanted to prove myself and show everybody I could play that position and be great at it.''
Great, of course, is a fluid term as far as cornerbacks are concerned. Even the best ones aren't perfect. They get beat sometimes, just as Hogan will no doubt be beaten again as he was at East Carolina.
This week, for instance, he and the rest of the secondary have to contend with perhaps the best 1-2 wide-receiver tandem in the Big East in Tiquan Underwood and Kenny Britt. Rutgers' third wide receiver, junior Tim Brown, caught a 72-yard touchdown pass the last time the Scarlet Knights played in Morgantown, and tight end Kevin Brock is the team's second-leading receiver.
But Hogan and the rest of the secondary appear to be coming together quite nicely. In the first two games of the season and then the first five minutes of the third game at Colorado, opposing passers completed 52-of-77 attempts (67 percent) for 605 yards and three touchdowns. In what amounts to virtually the same amount of playing time since then (55 minutes and overtime at Colorado and the Marshall game) opponents have completed 29-of-59 attempts (49 percent) for just 202 yards and no touchdowns.
"[Hogan] came up big. He and Ellis came up big,'' Stewart said. "I hope they can do the same thing this week against Rutgers, against Britt and Underwood, as we did against the two guys from Marshall.
"What can you say? Passmore's as good as we'll see. That young man is a great, great, quality player, and Brandon Hogan and Ellis Lankster played lights out. They really did. I just hope they get better. And they will.''
Reach Dave Hickman at 348-1734 or dphickm...@aol.com.
