Post by cviller on Oct 3, 2007 12:52:01 GMT -5
By Mike Casazza
Daily Mail sportswriter
MORGANTOWN -- As difficult as it was for West Virginia Coach Rich Rodriguez to live through Friday night's loss to South Florida, it was more traumatic to relive it on film with his team.
"It was a long review session," Rodriguez said Monday. "We had numerous mistakes we have to get corrected, particularly on offense. It's not just the six turnovers, but a lot of poorly executed plays.
"It was really disappointing to see. The guys understand that and know you don't have a chance to win a game with six turnovers and a lack of execution, particularly against a good team on the road."
The road to recovery begins in practice today as the Mountaineers (4-1 overall, 0-1 Big East) prepare for Saturday's noon game at Syracuse (1-4, 1-0).
ESPN Regional (WCHS locally) will televise the Big East's Game of the Week from inside the Carrier Dome.
"There are two perspectives," Syracuse Coach Greg Robinson said. "One is now they feel like their backs are to the wall. The other is that I don't worry much about how they are. It's mostly about us."
Should WVU right its wrongs in practice, it figures to give Syracuse a number of problems, primarily with its running game. Despite netting just 188 yards against the Bulls, the Mountaineers are No. 3 nationally at 323.2 yards per game.
The Orange are No. 111 out of 119 major college teams in rushing defense and allow 231.4 yards per game, the main reason the total defense is No. 111 at 484.8 yards per game.
Syracuse has surrendered 302, 290, 378, 73 and 286 rushing yards this season. The 73 came against Louisville, when the Cardinals were forced to abandon the run and rely on the pass to erase a pair of two-touchdown deficits in the second half.
A year ago, the Mountaineers hit Syracuse with 457 yards rushing in a 41-17 victory. That, though, was with quarterback Patrick White running for 247 yards. White's status for Saturday's game is uncertain.
"The key is to minimize big plays," Robinson said. "They're going to make plays, but the key to the whole thing is to minimize them. We didn't do that last year. They made five or six plays that were a big, big difference in the football game. We've got to get everyone involved. It takes 11 guys to do it the right way."
The Mountaineers averaged 10 yards per carry and had five runs of at least 20 yards, including touchdowns of 69 and 40 yards by White and 52 by running back Steve Slaton.
USF, however, had an answer that wasn't too complicated, but proved too effective for WVU.
"You are put on an island out in space against them, but there's a lot more to it than that," Bulls Coach Jim Leavitt said. "We kind of tried to stay on our feet and tackle well."
The Mountaineers couldn't spring a big play against USF as Rodriguez watched his team make many uncharacteristic mistakes in technique. Eventually, the mounting errors made things even more difficult.
"(The Bulls) were pretty athletic up front, but I think some of it was our guys' fundamentals," he said. "I don't want to say we panicked up front because our guys have some experience, but we didn't play as well and we pressed a bit at times and forgot about our fundamentals."
The Mountaineers will be reintroduced in practice this week, when they work on things they already knew and had done well up until they unraveled against the Bulls' relentless defense. It is that which upset Rodriguez the most.
"We made more mistakes in one game than in the other four combined," he said. "That was kind of baffling."
Robinson, though, was not concerned with what mood the Mountaineers might enter Saturday's game.
"It's not about them, it's about us," he said. "If West Virginia had won, I think they'd be motivated to come in here and keep things going. Now that they lost, they know what they've got to get done.
"I can't try to figure out the psychology of their team. I have to expect they're going to be at they best. The way we look at things is that we have to be at our best."
