Post by cviller on Oct 8, 2007 9:54:08 GMT -5
By Jack Bogaczyk
Daily Mail Sports Editor
SYRACUSE, N.Y. -- And before the seventh game, they rested.
The football bible, according to West Virginia Coach Rich Rodriguez, pretty much went according to chapter and verse in the Carrier Dome Saturday.
In reaching the midway point of Rodriguez's seventh season on his alma mater's sideline, the 8th-ranked Mountaineers (5-1) returned to form with a performance the likes of which a once-proud Syracuse program hadn't endured in 118 years of football.
After WVU's demoralizing loss to South Florida, the sagging Orange (1-5) provided a get-well card for the Mountaineers, not to mention timely gifts (turnovers in SU territory) for Rodriguez's 100th career coaching victory.
In a 55-14 scorching, West Virginia scored the most points in history by a visitor to Syracuse. No matter whether it was in the dome, or old Archbold Stadium, or the campus Oval more than 110 years ago.
The SU points-allowed high for a visitor had been 49, by No. 5 Penn State in 1973 and top-ranked Miami five seasons ago.
It wasn't so much the score, but how WVU accomplished it, becoming the first to win six in a row in a 55-game series history. The Mountaineers romped with a balance not often seen by an offense that usually literally runs to victory.
So, after six games in 36 days -- four of those on the road -- WVU heads into an open week that starts a season's second half to be played over eight weeks. Although the Mountaineers are .500 (1-1) in the league, the midterm grades are good.
Offensively in the dome, WVU found not only a balance, but a rhythm it hadn't shown. It also prospered because senior fullback Owen Schmitt was a bigger part of the plan.
Opponents increasingly are defending gaps wider than the tackles against WVU. That's why tailback Steve Slaton hasn't gotten untracked in recent games. Schmitt's pounding presence confounded such schemes by Syracuse.
A similar tact may have helped West Virginia in the loss at USF. Schmitt played only 47 of 86 offensive snaps against South Florida in an atmosphere when the precocious Mountaineer freshman backs and Slaton mostly were thwarted because the Bulls (and Syracuse for that matter) are playing more defense sideways with speed, rather than up the gut.
As to the aforementioned balance, WVU hasn't been so evenly productive in victory since a September 2004 triumph at Central Florida. Of 486 yards against the Orange, the run-pass split was 251-235.
Give WVU an A-minus offensively in the first half of the season. Other than six turnovers in the loss at USF and maybe a second-guess to use more power football more often, how do you quibble with an attack that averages 504 yards and 43 points per game?
Defensively, the Mountaineers have improved significantly from a year ago. The unit has more depth, more talent at more positions and plays better and with more consistency as a unit.
After allowing almost 337 yards per game last season, the average is down to 261.5 this year. Take away two busted coverages on long touchdown passes in the last two games -- the average in two Big East dates is 180 per game -- and seven turnovers forced.
That said, Jeff Casteel isn't satisfied.
"I'd say the grade is about a C-plus," said Casteel, the WVU defensive coordinator. "We're improved, but we have a lot of room to get better. We've got to go out and keep working at it."
WVU's defense was considered the Achilles heel before the season, with pundits saying it was the "D" that would prevent WVU from being a national title contender.
Now that the Mountaineers are seemingly out of the race for the Bowl Championship Series National Championship game, the defense is preventing plenty of other things.
On special teams, coordinator Bill Stewart likes most of what he's seen. He gives the field goal and point-after unit an A, and the FG/PAT block unit "a B-plus minimum." The punt return team gets an A-minus to a B-plus, and the kickoff return unit at C-plus.
And the kickoff coverage unit?
Stewart made a vile sound, saying, "I don't know how you spell that in the newspaper, but that's what the grade is. It's not to where we want it to be or need it to be, nowhere close.
"At this point I'm frustrated with it ... damn frustrated. There's just so much scheme-wise you can do. You can bloop ‘em, you can squib ‘em, but sometimes you've got to get off a block and not run around the block, you know?"
Stewart refused to use the NCAA change in moving back kickoffs 5 yards to the 30 -- creating more returns -- as an excuse.
"Last year we were first in the league, one of the best in the country, at 17.1 (yards allowed per return)," Stewart said. "What are we this year? (22.0)."
It's a small problem to have. Syracuse, in a recent 15-season span (1987-2001), averaged 8.5 wins per season. The Orange has 21 wins, total, in the last 5 1/2 seasons, and it's obvious things aren't getting better.
For WVU, with a weekend off before a Mississippi State visit, the midterm mindset is way north of South Florida -- again.
