West Virginia: A team in transition

West Virginia is a team that’s in the middle of a big transition this year. They have lost nine players on offense including Pat White. On the defensive end they have lost six players including playmaking linebacker Mortty Ivy, a player that did everything from blitz to drop back into coverage. The biggest challenge for this team and coach Bill Stewart is to replace Pat white their biggest offensive weapon, and best player. West Virginia has always been known as a power in the Big East, but that’s in question unless a few players can come in and contribute right away.

On offense although this team lost Pat White they still have star tailback Noel Devine. Devine a star running back out of Florida was said to be too small and couldn’t make it in division I. Well in his first two seasons at West Virginia he has proven people wrong and in his second year as the fulltime starter he will look to take the next step and look to pick up the slack left by pat white. Last year he came in after the loss of Steve Slaton, Houston Texans, and contributed immediately and picked up the slack for the loss. No one expected him to come in be the guy as a sophomore. He came in and the offense didn’t lose a beat although losing 4 games they were not his fault. Those losses were more on injuries than anything else.

Replacing Pat White’s production will not be easy. It’s going to be hard to replace 4,385 rushing yards, First in NCAA career quarterback rushing, 47 rushing touchdowns which are second in WVU history, 6,000 yards passing and 56 touchdowns. Its hard to list all of the accolades that White accomplished at WVU. Pat White came in as a freshman in the first game of his freshman year and never looked back. He immediately became a colt hero and made people forget about Rasheed Marshall who left just a year before. Pat White all but shattered Marshall’s rushing records. Pat White turned down being drafted 3 times to the MLB to end up in the NFL with the Miami dolphins.

Jarret Brown is the player with the weight of the world on his shoulders. The entire school is hoping he can take over for Pat White well at least for this year. Jarret Brown is a senior from West Palm Beach, Florida and has been the backup for the past three seasons. A duel-threat quarter back who has a very strong arm and is very quick and strong for a quarterback. The big question with Brown is can he make an impact great enough where the loss of Pat White wont effect the offense to where the team loses games. Obviously no one expects him to be Pat White that would be completely unfair, but for West Virginia to be a contender they need him to be a big contributor next year. Brown got a lot of experience last year coming in for White when he was hurt. He filled in admirably, but West Virginia still lost some of those games so there is still some doubt to whether or not he can be the guy in this offense.

My prediction is this offense struggles at first in the beginning of the year with Auburn looming large in the second game of the season. After a few games Brown should have gotten his feet wet enough where the team rallies around him and they win some games. They will need to rely on Devine to carry them for the first couple of games and hopefully he does not wear down to where he cannot make it through the whole season.

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The defensive side of the ball should be ok with eight returning starters. The big loss is Mortty Ivey who was the do everything guy. He was a very quick and hard nose player who will be missed on this defense. This team will have a very mature defense however with lots of junior and senior starters which should mitigate the loss of Ivey. With guys like Scooter Berry and Quinton Andrews, both starting since their freshman year, they have two guys who will pick up the slack in the leadership department and the production department. Although their defense seems to give up a lot of yards, this team is based on the theory of bend but don’t break. They give up a lot of yards but not a lot of points. They have a very experienced secondary and with Andrews manning the safety position they should be ok. They still run the 3-3-5 which does not help against the run so everyone needs to help out.

My prediction is this defense could be better than last year although I have never liked their scheme it does confuse quarterbacks when they drop back to pass. The biggest question is can they stop the run and I have yet to see any indication of it working. This is an offensive team and they only need to keep the opponents score in the mid twenties. In the first couple of games however this defense will need to win some games and I don’t know if they can do it.

Overall West Virginia looks like they can be on top again. They just need a few guys step up and take on more of a role in the offense. If guys come in and contribute like Coach Bill Stewart expects then West Virginia will be a threat for the Big East championship again this year. My prediction is they are right there at the end competing for the Big East championship but I believe they fall short with not a dominating defense and the loss of Pat White.

by Timothy Stamoutsos
BigEast-fans.com WVU Correspondent