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MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – Louisville coach Steve Kragthorpe was joking Monday morning on his Big East coaches’ teleconference that he has a full-blown quarterback controversy after his No. 3 quarterback Will Stein led the Cardinals to a 21-13 victory over Arkansas State last Saturday.
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| Noel Devine ran for 154 yards on just 13 carries in last year's 35-21 victory over Louisville.
David Miller photo |
Stein was a late replacement for junior Adam Froman, who was injured in the loss to Cincinnati. Junior Justin Burke was also injured in the Cincinnati game after opening the season as the starter against Indiana State.
“We have a quarterback controversy now,” Kragthorpe chuckled. “We have three guys that have won games. We had one before with two and now we’ve added a third guy to the mix. We’ll just wait and see during the week of practice how much Justin and Adam can do.”
Stein completed 20 of 39 passes for 232 yards in last week’s eight-point victory over Arkansas State.
“Will performed extremely well for us. I was proud with the way he stepped up and played,” said Kragthorpe. “When somebody goes down somebody gets a chance to step up and perform and Will did a great job of performing in his first college start. He is certainly in the mix and all three of those guys, hopefully we’ll have available, and then we’ll just make it a game-day decision in terms of which guy we start.”
West Virginia coach Bill Stewart admitted it’s a problem trying to determine which quarterback to prepare for. Froman and Burke are both taller pocket passers while Stein is a shorter, more mobile quarterback.
Statistically, Froman has had the best season completing 62 of 97 passes for 751 yards and three touchdowns. Froman is also completing a far greater percentage of his passes (63.9 percent) than either Burke or Stein.
“I am worried sick about their passing game,” said West Virginia coach Bill Stewart. “It’s hard to prepare for three people, but if they are preparing three people then they really have a hard task.”
The WVU defense has been vulnerable to the pass of late, giving up 378 yards and a pair of TDs to Connecticut and allowing 232 yards and three touchdowns to USF quarterback B.J. Daniels last Friday night. Daniels completed three passes of 45 yards or longer against West Virginia’s secondary.
“They did give up some big plays but I think a lot of that is because of the fact that USF was running the ball as well as they did,” explained Kragthorpe. ‘They were commanding a little bit more secondary help in the run front and that put those corners out on an island a little bit more.”
Louisville’s offense has been a little more skewed to the pass under Kragthorpe, especially since running back Victor Anderson suffered a knee injury that forced him to miss the Arkansas State game. However, Kragthorpe said Anderson’s condition is improving.
“I think Vic’s closer and it will be how he goes during the week of practice and how much work he can get in terms of the physical part of taking contact,” Kragthorpe said.
Anderson is the team’s top ball carrier with 480 yards and five touchdowns. Last year as a freshman he ran for 1,047 yards and scored eight touchdowns. Kragthorpe believes a healthy Anderson will give Louisville a better opportunity to exploit West Virginia’s pass defense.
“I think one of the keys in being able to take those shots down the field is being able to create a defensive structure where they have to involve those safeties in the running game,” explained Kragthorpe. “If you can’t run the football then they can sit back and play cover two all day.”
On the other side of the ball, Kragthorpe is concerned about containing West Virginia running back Noel Devine, coming off his worst rushing performance of the season at USF when he could manage only 42 yards on 17 carries. Kragthorpe thought South Florida did a great job at the point of attack and also took away Devine’s ability to make cut-back runs.
“They did a nice job of containing him and defending the edge on the defensive front with their linebackers and safeties,” Kragthorpe said. “And they were very disciplined of staying home on the backside and making sure he didn’t get those big cut-back runs like he is famous for.
“He does such a good job of stretching the field and then sticking his foot in the ground and getting back north-south and making some plays that way,” Kragthorpe added.
Kragthrope said in order to keep Devine bottled up, the defensive linemen have to do their job up front as well.
“Penetration is the key to where either the front-side run gets knocked down or when he goes to cut back, the tacklers are there in a position to get him before he gets into an open space,” Kragthorpe said.
Kragthorpe’s biggest concern is the health of his secondary where his defensive coaches have had to make adjustments on the fly at right cornerback. Four different players have made starts there, including safety Chaz Thompson last Saturday against Arkansas State.
“I think (converted wide receiver Andrew Robinson) has got a chance to be available and I hope he is because he really played well for us against Southern Miss,” said Kragthorpe. “I thought Chaz Thompson really did a great job of moving over there and that’s one of the flexibilities that he provides us. He can play both safety and corner.”
Perhaps Louisville’s most versatile defensive player is junior linebacker/safety Brandon Heath. Last week, Heath returned an interception for a touchdown against Arkansas State and he shows 28 tackles, 3 ½ tackles for losses and a pair of picks.
“He’s been a little banged up for us throughout the course of the middle part of this year but I think he’s getting back closer to full strength,” said Kragthorpe. “He’s a guy that kind of plays a hybrid position for us on our linebacker crew and he can also play safety.”
West Virginia has also been battling injury problems on defense. Defensive tackle Scooter Berry played sparingly in the Auburn and Syracuse games after injuring his shoulder against East Carolina. He has since been suspended for violating team rules.
Middle linebacker Reed Williams has been hindered with toe and shoulder ailments and Stewart admitted Tuesday that it is now a matter of how much pain Williams is willing to play with.
“He’s his own best doctor,” Stewart said.
Stewart also indicated Tuesday that safety Sidney Glover got nicked up in the South Florida game and there is some concern if he will be ready to go on Saturday. The same goes for safety Nate Sowers, who missed the USF game with a calf injury suffered during practice leading up to last week’s game.
“Our serious injuries are at a minimum,” said Stewart. “Injury wise we’re in pretty good shape - unless something unforeseen happens this week.”
West Virginia has won two straight against Louisville, including a 35-21 victory at Papa John’s Cardinal Stadium last year. Overall, the Mountaineers are 8-2 against the Cardinals.
Louisville’s last victory against West Virginia came in 2006 in Louisville when the Cardinals were ranked in the Top 10 under former coach Bobby Petrino. Since taking over for Petrino in 2008, Kragthorpe has led Louisville to a 14-18 recording that includes a 3-5 mark this season.
Louisville’s three wins this year have come against Indiana State, Southern Miss and Arkansas State. Louisville is just 1-9 in Big East play under Kragthorpe – the one victory coming against USF last year.
“We have a tough opponent coming in here this week that has everything to gain and nothing to lose,” said Stewart. “Our backs are up against the wall much like our last opponent was last week in their home arena.”
Kickoff is set for noon. The game will be televised as the Big East Game of the Week (Mike Gleason, John Congemi and Quint Kessenich).
Tickets are still available and can be purchased by calling the Mountaineer Ticket Office toll-free at 1-800-WVU GAME or by logging on to wvugame.com.
on defense we need to get to the quarterback more. rush the quarterback on his throwing side and flush him so he has to throw against his body. use more run blitzes on running downs, but keep someone keyed on the back and tightend so they can't dump the ball and break a play when we get pressure on the QB. on offense we need to get Noel in space, maybe out of the slot or use a lead blocker and a tightend or two. We can also pass out of that formation and give JB max protect and just go with two wide outs. Then Noel can be a safty valvle along with the TE. BE MORE AGGRESSIVE!!!
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We need the secondary to step up. They have been getting beat all year. Their is a ton of talent back there. Also if the line can create holes Noel should be able to have a field day.
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On the offensive side, WILL YOU PLEASE STOP RUNNING DEVINE UP THE MIDDLE ! Noel is one of the best offensive weapons in the country, but running into the teeth of a Big East defense when they are fresh (like the first quarter) will get you killed. Let him run wide and find a hole or a sliver in the line. On the defensive side lets try a lot of black coffee for the secondary, and if you could place a statue of Eric Wicks(or Soupy Sales for that matter) in the middle of the field twenty or so yards down from the line of scrimmage he would have at least ten picks in the game. I hate to sound so down on the old blue and gold (we love you guys) but it's time to tighten up.
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I agree 100% with gp woody. WVU needs to be more aggressive ESPECIALLY WITH OUR CBs. We are giving them 9 yard windows. Is it any wonder why all the passing is working for teams playing against us? Yes, our D-line needs to get in there, but we can't give WRs that much room especially since we have speed. Come on Casteel...use that speed and be aggressive. It's not failed us in the past. Get it done this weekend. Let's GOOOOOOO...Mountaineers!!
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I couldn't agree more with TDB4WVU and gp woody. Especially the bit about the corners giving 9 yards before applying any pressure to the WRs. I don't claim to be a football guru, but when the WRs can get into their routes near the marker before the corner even moves, its a first down every time. That seems to be the common trend in opposing passing games. I also agree with getting to the QB more. They seem to have all day to find an open reciever streaking across the field for the first down, and against UCONN, a big touchdown pass. We now have nothing to lose, and we need to win out to salvage any chances at the BCS. We need to go out and play sound football for an entire 60 minutes. Let's go Mountaineers!
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I believe the coaching staff at WVU is very good and do a great job of calling plays, preparing the team to play and having them motivated to play when they step out onto the field. Do I wish the team was playing better, yes. However, it is way to easy to be an arm chair coach and critizes every aspect of the game. For example, Noel Devine went 77 yards against Auburn on a counter play which went into the interior line around the tackle hole. You have to exploit the middle of the line occassionally, the blocking could be a little better but that does not mean that you should not have a game plan which includes running right at 'em occassionally. The defense is unique and presents special problems for any offense. Most of the time WVU is rushing 4, or 5 players not just the three down linemen. The Defense has a speed advantage with five D backs, look at all of the four and five wide out formation that are thrown out by everyone these days, the speed allows you to match up better.(speed kills) Do I wish the DBs played better, yes! The point I am trying to make is that the problem is not the defensive and offensive strategies employed by Stew and Crew. Looking to far ahead can cause big problems. Louisville is the next opponent; let us beat them then we can look at the schedule and see who is next up.
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LETS GOOOOOOO MOUNTAINEERS!!!!!!!!! BE LOUD AND INTIMIDATING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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What ever happened to all the Blitzing of the past? It seemed to work well for the Mountaineer defense,and played havoc on offenses. I too agree that speed kills. So lets gooo Mountaineers and don't look ahead and don't look back.
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I agree that we need to stop running Devine up the middle every time. With his speed it's completely unnecessary. We have alot of speed, offensively and even defensively. I hope that we can pick this game to start using it. It looks to be that Louisville could make this a passing game for them. I hope Coach Stew and the boys can come out with a plan for a good pass defense. LET'S GOOOOOO MOUNTAINEERS!!!! =)
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