MORGANTOWN - For the most part, West Virginia's football team has not been critically injured by special teams play this season. But the Mountaineers haven't necessarily helped themselves very much in that area, either.
MORGANTOWN - For the most part, West Virginia's football team has not been critically injured by special teams play this season. But the Mountaineers haven't necessarily helped themselves very much in that area, either.
That's something that could spell the difference between a strong finish and a weak one as WVU heads into its final two games of the regular season.
West Virginia (7-3, 3-2 Big East) is in the middle of a two-week gap in the schedule before playing host to Pitt (8-1, 5-0) a week from Friday and then visiting Rutgers (7-2, 2-2) on Dec. 5. Statistically speaking, neither the Panthers nor the Scarlet Knights are especially strong across the board in special teams, either.
As far as special teams problems are concerned, West Virginia's major woes are generally confined to kickoff coverage, the same thing that plagued the team a year ago when it finished near the bottom of the NCAA in that department. While the average return by opponents has dropped from 30 yards last season to just less than 23 this year, that still is good enough to rank only No. 90 out of the 120 Football Bowl Subdivision teams.
In other special teams categories, the Mountaineers are better and, in some, statistically superb. For instance, in net punting WVU is No. 14, in punt returns No. 31 and in kickoff returns No. 43. In punt return coverage WVU is No. 63 (roughly middle of the pack). Tyler Bitancurt has missed only one field goal all season, but has attempted only nine - just five in the past nine games. And punter Scott Kozlowski is fourth in the country in average per kick, 45.5 yards.
All of those, though, are just statistics and they don't tell the real story of how effective West Virginia's special teams actually have been lately. The bottom line in special teams play is not yardage, but field position. And while there have been occasional games in which the Mountaineers excelled in changing field position, last Friday's 24-21 loss at No. 5 Cincinnati was not one of them.
That's what has to change in the final two games of the season.
The most glaring shortcoming in the Cincinnati loss was on kickoffs. The Mountaineers received five kickoffs and handed the ball to its offense only once beyond the 20-yard line, that on Cincinnati's pooch kick in the final minutes when Tavon Austin caught the kick at the 15 and returned it 21 yards to the 36. That gave WVU good field position to drive just 64 yards for a touchdown.
But of the other four kickoffs the Mountaineers fielded, two went into the end zone for touchbacks and Austin bobbled the other two and was tackled on his 8- and 18-yard lines. That gave West Virginia's offense fields of 92, 82, 80 and 80 yards to navigate. On none of those possessions was WVU able to dig out of its hole and score.
By contrast, West Virginia kicked off four times to Cincinnati and the Bearcats returned all four - to the UC 49, the WVU 42, the UC 36 and the UC 38. The final one was West Virginia's on-side kick with 39 seconds to play, so that one really doesn't count.
MORGANTOWN - For the most part, West Virginia's football team has not been critically injured by special teams play this season. But the Mountaineers haven't necessarily helped themselves very much in that area, either.
That's something that could spell the difference between a strong finish and a weak one as WVU heads into its final two games of the regular season.
West Virginia (7-3, 3-2 Big East) is in the middle of a two-week gap in the schedule before playing host to Pitt (8-1, 5-0) a week from Friday and then visiting Rutgers (7-2, 2-2) on Dec. 5. Statistically speaking, neither the Panthers nor the Scarlet Knights are especially strong across the board in special teams, either.
As far as special teams problems are concerned, West Virginia's major woes are generally confined to kickoff coverage, the same thing that plagued the team a year ago when it finished near the bottom of the NCAA in that department. While the average return by opponents has dropped from 30 yards last season to just less than 23 this year, that still is good enough to rank only No. 90 out of the 120 Football Bowl Subdivision teams.
In other special teams categories, the Mountaineers are better and, in some, statistically superb. For instance, in net punting WVU is No. 14, in punt returns No. 31 and in kickoff returns No. 43. In punt return coverage WVU is No. 63 (roughly middle of the pack). Tyler Bitancurt has missed only one field goal all season, but has attempted only nine - just five in the past nine games. And punter Scott Kozlowski is fourth in the country in average per kick, 45.5 yards.
All of those, though, are just statistics and they don't tell the real story of how effective West Virginia's special teams actually have been lately. The bottom line in special teams play is not yardage, but field position. And while there have been occasional games in which the Mountaineers excelled in changing field position, last Friday's 24-21 loss at No. 5 Cincinnati was not one of them.
That's what has to change in the final two games of the season.
The most glaring shortcoming in the Cincinnati loss was on kickoffs. The Mountaineers received five kickoffs and handed the ball to its offense only once beyond the 20-yard line, that on Cincinnati's pooch kick in the final minutes when Tavon Austin caught the kick at the 15 and returned it 21 yards to the 36. That gave WVU good field position to drive just 64 yards for a touchdown.
But of the other four kickoffs the Mountaineers fielded, two went into the end zone for touchbacks and Austin bobbled the other two and was tackled on his 8- and 18-yard lines. That gave West Virginia's offense fields of 92, 82, 80 and 80 yards to navigate. On none of those possessions was WVU able to dig out of its hole and score.
By contrast, West Virginia kicked off four times to Cincinnati and the Bearcats returned all four - to the UC 49, the WVU 42, the UC 36 and the UC 38. The final one was West Virginia's on-side kick with 39 seconds to play, so that one really doesn't count.
But on those first three, Cincinnati's field was just 51, 42 and 64 yards long. Two of those the Bearcats turned into touchdowns and the third resulted in a three-and-out.
Field position following punts was not much different as far as West Virginia was concerned, and it could have been much worse with a few different bounces of the football.
The Mountaineers received only three punts from Cincinnati and none were returned. All three came down at roughly the WVU 10-yard line. Brandon Hogan fair caught the first one at the 9, then gambled and let the next two go. Both took straight bounces into the end zone for touchbacks, but any other kind of bounce would have left the Mountaineers pinned deep. With fields of 91, 80 and 80 yards after those three punts, West Virginia didn't score on any of those possessions, either.
On the flip side, the Mountaineers - who punted six times - did pin Cincinnati deep twice when one punt was downed at the 1-yard line and Kozlowski put another out of bounds at the 10. But Mardy Gilyard also returned punts for 14 and 8 yards, and those four punts that weren't downed inside the 20 gave the Bearcats field position at their 27, 22, 25 and 41 yard lines. Cincinnati scored a touchdown after one of those exchanges (from the 27) and missed a short field goal after another (the 25).
To sum it up, West Virginia took possession after a punt or a kickoff eight times with an average field position of its own 19-yard line. On only one of those eight possessions - with the best field position after the pooch kick - did the Mountaineers score (the other two TDs came following a missed field goal and a turnover).
By contrast, Cincinnati took possession after a punt or a kickoff nine times (excluding the on-side kick) with an average field position of its 30-yard line and three times beyond the 40. The Bearcats scored all three of their touchdowns on kicking changes of possession after starting with significantly better field position than they gave the Mountaineers.
Looking ahead, Pitt is one of the worst teams in the country in net punting (No. 99). The Panthers are No. 60 in kickoff returns, No. 75 in punt return coverage and a woeful No. 106 in punt returns, but are one of the best in kickoff coverage (No. 16). Rutgers is strong in net punting and kickoff coverage (No. 26 in both) and punt return coverage (No. 10). In the return game, the Knights are No. 48 in kickoff returns and No. 77 in punt returns.
The bottom line, though, is not nearly as much the pure numbers as it is the field position those numbers create. For West Virginia to improve its chances of winning in its last two games, it has to do a better job than it did at Cincinnati.
Reach Dave Hickman at 304-348-1734 or dphickm...@aol.com.
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What I'm saying is this. WVU was way overrrated coming of the Fiesta Bowl win. They had some talent in certain areas. Pat White. He was all world. We all loved him. They had the O-Line but had a new line coach and a new scheme and so many new coaches.
This takes time. I understand in this society it's the "let's win now" philosophy. We want our food now through the drive-up window. We have movies on demand. We can buy our cars online. We can do pretty much anything instantly at the touch of a finger. But you can't replace a coaching staff overnight.
Perhaps some coaches have done it. I'm not saying it can't be done. But it's not the rule. It's the exception.
And for those that question Stewarts intelligence. How mature is that? Come on. The guy is class.