CHARLOTTE, N.C. - If Bill Stewart were a betting man - launch no investigations, NCAA, he's not - he would wager that the defensive philosophy West Virginia sees from North Carolina Saturday won't be anything new.
CHARLOTTE, N.C. - If Bill Stewart were a betting man - launch no investigations, NCAA, he's not - he would wager that the defensive philosophy West Virginia sees from North Carolina Saturday won't be anything new.
It may not be a full-scale sellout to stop the run, but at least cheating toward putting an extra defender or two closer to the line of scrimmage is pretty much standard operating procedure for Mountaineer opponents this season.
Which means, again, West Virginia will have to try to throw the football when the Mountaineers face North Carolina in Saturday's Meineke Car Care Bowl.
The question, then, becomes the same as it has been all season long: Can WVU do it?
"Well, I would imagine they'll try to do that. I would try to do that,'' Stewart said Tuesday, just as his team was beginning its first practice of the week here. "If they can do to us what Cincinnati did to us and what South Florida did to us [in 2006 and 2007] and what Pitt did a year ago, we're going to have our hands full.
"Now, that being said, our passing game's gotten better - maybe not statistically, but we've gotten better in games. And if they try to do that then maybe we can have a little Auburn on them or UConn or Louisville and spread them out and do some things.''
Indeed, the Mountaineers have had some success throwing the football this season, although usually in spurts. The three examples Stewart cited - games against Auburn, Connecticut and Louisville - were by far the team's best offensive performances of the season, save for a 48-point afternoon against outmanned Villanova in the opener.
In all three, the pass was a key element. In some cases, the passing numbers weren't big - at Louisville, for example, quarterback Pat White completed just 6-of-11 passes for 122 yards - but in every instance the Mountaineers passed to either take advantage of a defense that loaded the box or to successfully stop opponents from doing so.
"We've had some success throwing the ball and not letting people load the box,'' Stewart said. "Auburn, UConn, several games we made some plays that made teams pay for loading the box.''
CHARLOTTE, N.C. - If Bill Stewart were a betting man - launch no investigations, NCAA, he's not - he would wager that the defensive philosophy West Virginia sees from North Carolina Saturday won't be anything new.
It may not be a full-scale sellout to stop the run, but at least cheating toward putting an extra defender or two closer to the line of scrimmage is pretty much standard operating procedure for Mountaineer opponents this season.
Which means, again, West Virginia will have to try to throw the football when the Mountaineers face North Carolina in Saturday's Meineke Car Care Bowl.
The question, then, becomes the same as it has been all season long: Can WVU do it?
"Well, I would imagine they'll try to do that. I would try to do that,'' Stewart said Tuesday, just as his team was beginning its first practice of the week here. "If they can do to us what Cincinnati did to us and what South Florida did to us [in 2006 and 2007] and what Pitt did a year ago, we're going to have our hands full.
"Now, that being said, our passing game's gotten better - maybe not statistically, but we've gotten better in games. And if they try to do that then maybe we can have a little Auburn on them or UConn or Louisville and spread them out and do some things.''
Indeed, the Mountaineers have had some success throwing the football this season, although usually in spurts. The three examples Stewart cited - games against Auburn, Connecticut and Louisville - were by far the team's best offensive performances of the season, save for a 48-point afternoon against outmanned Villanova in the opener.
In all three, the pass was a key element. In some cases, the passing numbers weren't big - at Louisville, for example, quarterback Pat White completed just 6-of-11 passes for 122 yards - but in every instance the Mountaineers passed to either take advantage of a defense that loaded the box or to successfully stop opponents from doing so.
"We've had some success throwing the ball and not letting people load the box,'' Stewart said. "Auburn, UConn, several games we made some plays that made teams pay for loading the box.''
In other games, the Mountaineers had pass plays open and didn't connect. Dropped balls or poor passes arguably led to two of West Virginia's four defeats, including a handful at Pitt and a trick play at Colorado.
North Carolina is likely to try and do the same thing, but in order to do it successfully, a team has to have cornerbacks who can lock down West Virginia's wide receivers without help. If a team has that, its safeties can then cheat toward the line of scrimmage and provide run support.
The teams that have given WVU the most trouble have had those corners. Does North Carolina?
"Well, their safeties are tremendous,'' Stewart said. "That's not to say their corners aren't, but the corners we've been playing have been pretty tough. When you have the corners that Cincinnati had, that South Florida had the last two years and Pitt had last year, it makes it tough for us to throw.''
North Carolina's best cornerback is 5-foot-9, 185-pound sophomore Kendric Burney, who was a second-team All-Atlantic Coast Conference pick and a two-year starter. On the other side is 5-10, 185-pound junior Jordan Hemby. Between them they have three interceptions this season, all by Burney.
The hope for West Virginia, of course, is that its passing game has gotten better after a full season of working on it. Statistically, that's hard to justify, given that the Mountaineers actually passed for fewer yards per game this year (135.3) than last (159), but total yards are not the most important thing. What is important is presenting a viable passing option to loosen things up for White and Noel Devine in the running game.
White is convinced that West Virginia has a better passing attack now than a year ago, despite statistics to the contrary.
"It was a new system for us and we had to get used to it,'' White said. "We worked hard all year to get to where we are. But we still can perfect it. I think we did a pretty good job of it.''
Reach Dave Hickman at 348-1734 or dphickm...@aol.com.
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