By Bob Hertzel
MORGANTOWN — The tipoff came at the coin flip.
West Virginia won the coin flip and instead of electing to defer elected to receive.
For all the talk about how the kickoff team was improved, coach Bill Stewart didn’t have enough confidence in it to put it on the field to open the 2009 season.
Good thing. The unit that ranked 111th out of 117 in Division 1-A in defending against returns was anything but improved.
When it finally did have to kick off in what would be an opening 33-20 victory over Division 1-AA opponent Liberty from Lynchburg, Va., Mike Brown fielded at the 6 and returned it 45 yards to the Mountaineer 49, leading to a field goal.
After that occurred, one wondered if athletic director Ed Pastilong might reject the expenses Stewart put in this summer for traveling to pro camps to study their schemes.
Before the day was over Stewart had removed three of the coverage players, saying “If I see No. 41 (Terry Adams, a 5-11, 235 defensive end), you’ll be sitting up there with the Maniacs.”
It reached the point, after Stewart had to try bloop kicks and everything else he had learned in more than 30 years of coaching, that he had kickoff man Josh Lider kicker one on the ground across the field, the ball slithering out of bounds.
That is a considered a penalty and the ball was placed at the Liberty 40, which brought on some mock cheers from the crowd of 57,950.
“I was actually confused when I heard the clapping. I wasn’t sure they knew what was going on,” Lider said. “But when I got to the sideline, there was no cheering. When I got to the sideline it was very different.”
For the day the average kickoff return was 23 yards, which isn’t bad, but it must be noted that it was brought down by bloop kicks that carried only to the 25-yardline.
There were some other special team problems, once having 10 men on the field when returning a punt and Tavon Austin and Mark Rodgers muffing kickoffs, but the day was saved when freshman Tyler Betancurt hit four of four field goals from 38, 35, 45 and 36 yards, and when Scott Kozlowski got off a 55-yard punt that was downed at the Liberty 1.
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Former Mountaineer Darius Reynaud made his presence felt for the Minnesota Vikings as he secured a spot on their roster with an electrifying 81-yard punt return against Dallas on Friday night.
Not so fortunate were offensive linemen Ryan Stanchek and Greg Isdaner, along with defensive lineman Keilen Dykes, who were cut on the final cutdown day.
What’s more, it appears Owen Schmitt’s starting fullback job is in peril in Seattle as he ran with the second team in the final exhibition game.
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West Virginia’s roster has representatives from 17 states and one foreign country — Pennsylvania. Only kidding about Pennsylvania, which last we looked still was home to the Liberty Bell. However, defensive lineman Curtis Feigt, a freshman, comes from Germany.
It is also an experienced roster with 17 fifth-year seniors.
Patrick White may be gone but he isn’t forgotten. A rather unofficial poll, meaning te number of backs that could be seen from the press box when everyone stood for the national anthem, his No. 5 jersey/T-shirt was by far the most popular, followed by Noel Devine’s No. 7 and Reed Williams’ No. 47.
NOTES: Noel Devine surpassed 2,000 career rushing yards in the game, the 15th Mountaineer to reach that plateau … Roberts Sands recorded his first interception as a Mountaineer … WVU is 50-3 since 2000 when it wins the turnover battle … Four true freshmen played in the game — cornerback Pat Miller, linebacker Branko Busick, running back Tavon Austin and safety Terrance Garvin … Safety Sidney Glover, who started 10 games last year, did not play … Wesley Lyons went out with a slight hamstring pull. The scoreboard was a mess, which is rather ridiculous considering the money paid for it and the fact that they had all offseason to get it to work right, but there was a huge black ribbing of lights out across it … Add that to the timing crew failing to stop the clock on a time out that caused a delay in the game and technically the opener was hardly precision … The crew from the USS West Virginia was in attendance at the game … WVU’s captains for the opener were Jarrett Brown, Nate Sowers, Reed Williams and Selvish Capers.
E-mail Bob Hertzel at bhertzel@timeswv.com.
