BearcatReport.com - Kelly says WVU will be a challenge

November 13, 2009

Scott Springer
BearcatReport.com Staff Writer

Despite the national accolades being placed on Brian Kelly and the never-ending quarterback flip-flopping UC takes on a team it's only beaten twice Friday night.

Oddly enough, both Bearcat wins in this series have come in Morgantown. Rick Minter beat them in 2003, 15-13 and Coach Kelly was victorious last year in the 26-23 overtime escape from self-destruction.

The message here?

Despite UC's apparent edge this season and talent; the Mountaineers are still a 7-2 football team with a lot of tradition. (The loss to USF two weeks back 30-19 though is a little puzzling based on the dismantling Rutgers handed the Bulls Thursday night 31-zip.)

By now, you know that Zach Collaros is starting once again for the Bearcats at quarterback. One reason could be that it gives Tony Pike more time to heal up and get ready for Illinois on the 27th. Another could be that it's tough to yank a guy who just threw for 480 yards. Somewhere in the middle lies the truth.

Be it Pike or Collaros, UC still must answer the bell on this crisp autumn night of Friday the 13th (where undoubtedly Nippert Stadium will have more hockey masks than the Cyclones downtown).

Last year nearly turned to horror in Morgantown. This year?

"Preparing for West Virginia's a lot different than preparing for Connecticut," said Coach Kelly. "This is a 'race for space' against West Virginia. With Jock Sanders on the perimeter, Noel Devine, (Jarrett) Brown, those three guys alone make up for about 95% of their offense."

While that may be true, this isn't the West Virginia of Pat White and Steve Slaton that used to steamroll many an opponent. This team is good but just doesn't have the "pizzazz" that prior Mountaineer teams have had on either side of the ball.

"Defensively, they run the 3-3-5 defense, not something you see every week," said Kelly. "(They're) athletic up front. Scooter Berry is back, (Julian) Miller leads with the most sacks-veteran defense. It should be an exciting ESPN game. Sold-out stadium, 'Ring of Red" game, from our standpoint-- another great challenge."

Just like last year's game was a great challenge as the Bearcats had gotten to where they played West Virginia close (28-23 loss in '07) but still couldn't topple the weapon that was Pat White. Then, after blowing a big lead at Milan Puskar Field, they come back in overtime and beat what had been the powerhouse of the Big East.

"It was that one defining win for us to move forward and talk about being a Big East contender," said Kelly. "I said the Big East championship last year went through Morgantown, and I really felt that. We had to sooner or later breakthrough and that was certainly a breakthrough for us."

Of course starting a game with a "bang" is always a plus and Mardy Gilyard did just that running back the opening kickoff 100 yards in the opening seconds of the game.

"(It) got us off to a great start," said Kelly. "I think that in any game that you go into getting off to that good start is crucial. It was a momentum burst, it was, 'Hey, we can do this!', it was a confidence-builder it was all those things. Then the way we overcame adversity at the end, going into overtime and winning on the road-I think those two things---winning the game and the way we did it really allowed this program to continue to move forward."

Now, the Bearcats move forward with this WVU game, then another home date with Illinois and then the regular season finale at Pitt. The two home games are sold out, and UC's allotment of Pitt tickets is gone as well. So, if you're going to try and watch UC's unpredicted BCS run in person, you may have to get creative.

"We can't control the scenarios in front of us," said Kelly of the BCS race the Bearcats are in the thick of. "What we can control is if we win our football games, we've got two Top 25 teams on our schedule. Two out of our last four games are against top 25 teams (WVU and Pitt). I think that says a lot about our schedule and if the thing falls the right way, we'll be in pretty good shape."

The task at hand involves stopping Jarrett Brown, another scrambling quarterback who can heave it downfield if necessary. Brown has waited in the wings watching Pat White be dominant and now the senior gets his chance. Unfortunately, White set the bar very high for Brown.

Kelly compares the two....

"Pat White was a very special player," said Kelly. "He had the ability to run the football and pick up three or four yards to keep things alive and keep the chains moving. Brown is a big, physical kid but he's not Pat White relative to his ability to run the ball. Factor in Pat White's speed, athleticism,
accuracy at throwing the football...that's just hard shoes to fill."

For those of us that watched White dismantle UC 38-0 at Nippert in '05, the talent level of the Mountaineers then was substantial.

"I think the offense is different because Pat White's not there," said Kelly. "Jock Sanders is on the perimeter catching a lot of balls. He's in the backfield running the football. Noel Devine is a stronger runner than he was last year. Yeah, you lost a Pat White-but Devine and Sanders are outstanding players."

That said, last year in Morgantown UC held White to 41 yards on the ground and Devine had just 58. He appeared "dinged up" in WVU's 17-9 win over Louisville, but is expected to play Friday night.

"We played our butts off," said Kelly of shutting down Devine last season. "I wish I could say it was schematic, but we just flew to the football. He's a tough guy to contain. He's run by everybody in the conference. It's 'tick, tick, tick, tick,boom!' with him. He might get three yards, one yard and then he's gone."

Given that Connecticut's Jordan Todman racked up 162 on the Bearcat defense last week, you can't feel too confident that Devine will be shut down. Or, Jock Sanders for that matter who picked up the slack for Devine vs. Louisville with 66 yards.

"We gave up the big run against Connecticut," admitted Kelly. "We can't give them (WVU) those 46-yard runs. If we do, we're going to be obviously in a dogfight. You've got to defend inside out. Inside is Devine, out is Sanders. (And) Brown has thrown the ball more than Pat White and has been pretty effective in doing so."

Should the Bearcat defense "hunker down" and hold the Mountaineers off for a complete four quarters, UC will have its first 10-win season in 58 years and it's first 10-0 mark.

Who says 13's an unlucky number? A Friday the 13th win keeps the unblemished record alive and should the Bearcats "run the table" (including bowl game) they'll finish 13-0.

And then what??

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