MORGANTOWN — College football suffered through a sad, sad day earlier this week when West Virginia University football coach Bill Stewart put a moratorium on the use of trick plays in his arsenal for this Friday night’s monumental battle against the No. 9 Pitt Panthers.
“I learned a long time ago that in big game, fundamentals are the key,” Stewart said. “I even saw a quote like that by (Pitt coach) Dave (Wannstedt). Both coaches are old school and both staffs are doing the same preparation.
“Trick plays will not win this football game. I don’t think they would even alter the outcome. I think fundamentals are the key. What you do in games like this is tie the laces up a little bit tighter, strap the pads down a little bit tighter and go out there and play to the best of your ability.”
Honest, that was Bill Stewart talking, the same Bill Stewart whose offense to this point in the season has been running in neutral, that needs something — anything — to kickstart it to put points on the board.
Basically, you cannot argue with Stewart’s philosophy on this big game. In truth, the major criticism with the offense that his coordinator Jeff Mullen has introduced here has been that has too many bells and whistles and not enough fundamentals, that is based on deception when the best offenses are bases on execution.
But now, folks, this is The Backyard Brawl, West Virginia is an underdog to a team gunning for the Big East championship.
If you are going to pull out the stops and have yourself some fun, the time is now.
The truth is, there is a time and place for trick plays. History is full of them, even West Virginia history.
The consensus is that the greatest victory in West Virginia football history came when the Mountaineers defeated Georgia, 38-35 in the 2006 Sugar Bowl.
And while the Mountaineers built their lead with basic, solid football and speed, the game was secured when punter Phil Brady wrote his name among the folk legends in the state by pulling off a fake punt on fourth and 6 in the closing minutes, gaining 10 yards and a first down and allowing the Mountaineers to keep the ball away from Georgia’s unstoppable offense.
Who can forget how an underdog Boise State team put itself on the football map by pulling off three consecutive trick plays to beat Oklahoma in the 2007 Fiesta Bowl. They ran and hook-and-ladder, a reverse pass and then topped it off with a play as old as the game itself, catching Oklahoma with a flea flicker that turned college football upside down.
Speaking of the hook-and-ladder, a pass play where the receiver runs a hook pattern, catches the ball and laterals to a teammate running past him, these very same Panthers were victimized by such a play run by Utah in the 2005 Fiesta Bowl, Steve Savoy pitching to Paris Warren after a short reception for a touchdown.
The most famous hook-and-ladder probably was the “87 Circle Curl Lateral” at the end of the first half of a 1982 AFC playoff game on which Duriel Harris caught a 20-yard pass from quarterback Don Strock and lateralled to running back Tony Nathan, who ran 25 yards for the score.
The Dolphins also pulled out a game with what came to be known as “The Clock Play”, beating the Jets in 1994 when quarterback Dan Marino faked spiking the ball to save time, then throwing the game-winning pass.
The roster of successful fake plays is never ending, perhaps topped off in the 1984 Orange Bowl when Nebraska Coach Tom Osbourne pulled the old “fumblerooski” play out of his bag of tricks to defeat Miami in the Orange Bowl.
The “fumblerooski” is a play where the ball is snapped but never goes into the quarterback’s hands, the center placing it back on the ground where a guard – in this case All-American guard Dean Steinkuhler picked up the ball and ran 19 yards for a touchdown.
While that play is remembered, what is forgotten is that Nebraska lost that game, 31-30, and the national title with it. The Cornhuskers actually also used the “fumblerooski” against arch-rival Oklahoma in 1979, scoring a touchdown again in a game it lost.
Perhaps the best example of a trick play that didn’t work came back in early 1970s when the NFL’s Washington Redskins ran a play drawn up for them by President Richard M. Nixon, only to lose 13 yards on it, to say nothing of dropping the playoff game to the San Francisco 49ers, 24-21.
E-mail Bob Hertzel at bhertzel@hotmail.com.
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