MORGANTOWN — It was one thing to get beat on a Friday night in Tampa, but Keith Tandy knew it happened before and would happen again.
Such is the life of a college cornerback, be they as smooth and solid a Pacman Jones or still young and learning, as this sophomore is.
In a way, as difficult as it is to accept, it is the easy part of the job.
True, you have to return to the sidelines with six points flashing on the scoreboard and with a coach ready to let you know just what you did wrong – sometimes gently, sometimes with quite an edge.
“You’re not going to panic and go crazy,” cornerback coach David Lockwood said. “That’s the last the kid needs then. He knows better than anyone he got beat.”
You have a support group there, too, teammates who are there to lift you up.
“You pat him on the back and tell him to keep going,” defensive end Julian Miller explained. “You can’t let him get down.”
Even the head coach, who is as mad or madder than anyone, has to show some patience, to swallow the seven points because there is a reason he put you out there as a starter in the first place and that was that you were a step ahead of what was behind you on the depth chart.
“I’m not pleased we gave up touchdown passes, but if I listened to every person in the country other than myself, Brandon Hogan wouldn’t be on the team because I would have thrown him under the bus last season after East Carolina,” Coach Bill Stewart said.
Indeed, a year ago when Hogan was just learning the cornerback business, having converted from the offensive side of the ball, he got caught twice by East Carolina in a devastating loss.
Stewart stuck with him, though, and he has developed into one of the Big East’s best cornerbacks.
Now it is déjà vu all over again. Tandy is a converted offensive player in his first year starting at corner and he was up against a South Florida receiver who was capable of taking advantage of that inexperience.
In the heat of the post-game moment, Stewart did hang Tandy out to dry, saying of receiver Carlton Mitchell and the plays he pulled off to beat Tandy:
"[Mitchell] is just better than [Tandy],'' Stewart admitted."We had to help [Tandy] a little bit.''
But moments later he had calmed down some and was ready to share the responsibility.
"I'm not going to sit here and finger-point at [Tandy], I can assure you that. That's not the way I operate, nor do my coaches,'' Stewart said. "That ballgame did not rest on that little guy because there are 10 other guys out there that can be getting better pressure, break on the ball. It's just frustrating and it hurts you sometimes when they've got a fast guy that can run by you. We're playing the best 11. I don't play favorites. I play the best 11 at all times and that's our best.''
But now it was Tuesday night and that the only physical evidence left of Tandy’s problems was a digital recording of the moment.
The healing process had begun, but the most painful part of it was ahead.
Keith Tandy walked into the room where the Mountaineers’ weekly media interviews are to be held.
No blindfold, no cigarette.
No friends, either.
If you gave a player who had been beaten for a couple of scores in the previous game a list of 20 things he might be doing on a Tuesday night, facing the TV cameras and the scribbling pens would rank No. 20, right behind walking barefoot across a bed of burning coals.
It’s hard enough to be beaten, harder still to watch it on film with the team, but then to go out and explain and your deepest feelings to a group that, quite frankly, isn’t much more forgiving – or informed – than fans, well, that’s tough.
And so they ask and you answer:
• “We have to make sure we don’t make the same mistakes again,” Tandy said. “You’ve got to look forward.”
• “You have to have a short memory. You will mess yourself up for the next play if you let yourself get down,” he said.
• “I got beat on the second play of the game and then he beat me on the same route again,” Tandy added.
• “It sticks with you, but you have to forget. If you don’t, a lot of times they will come back at you again,” he said.
• And finally, “You have to keep your head up if you are going to make a play again,” he said.
When it ended, he still had all his teeth. There were no open wounds.
Painful? Yes. Necessary? Honestly, it is.
His position coach, David Lockwood, was asked how hard such an experience is after having a bad game.
“When all is said and done, it’s just a game,” Lockwood said. “He’s still here. When it’s over, you know it was tough, but you know, too, that you made it through.”
It is then time to move on for no matter what, there is another game to be played and you can only make amends by getting back on that pony and riding it again.
E-mail Bob Hertzel at bhertzel@hotmail.com.
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