By Bob Hertzel
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — A day has passed, which is more than Jarrett Brown was allowed to do in the first half against Florida State Friday.
Twenty-four hours, which is enough to begin reflecting on the situation the West Virginia football program finds itself in, reflecting without the emotion that comes from the Gator Bowl defeat and without any of the holiday spirit that may have lingered on after Friday’s New Year’s Day.
The official word will be that there are a lot of teams that would settle for nine wins and a trip to the Gator Bowl, with contending in the Big East. They will tell you they are not satisfied, are not pleased, but can live with the results.
If they can they should fired … and some of them should be, anyway.
Let us first of all look at trends. The Mountaineers were on the verge of a national championship when Rich Rodriguez left.
This past year they weren’t even on the verge of a Big East championship.
The offense scores less points that it did with Rodriguez, the defense gives up more.
Rodriguez’s last team scored 515 points, this year’s team scored 340.
Yes, Rodriguez’s offensive team had more talent in Patrick White, Steve Slaton and Darius Reynaud, no question, but this year’s team had Jarrett Brown, Noel Devine and Jock Sanders.
It was not chopped liver.
The defense on Rodriguez’s last team gave up 235 points, this year’s gave up 282, not nearly as severe a drop off, in fact one that could be explained simply by this year’s team’s inability to control the flow and tempo of games.
But this is about more than just points and yards.
It’s about philosophy. Bill Stewart has often said his best friend in coaching is Wake Forest’s Jim Grobe. When he wanted an offensive coordinator, he went to Grobe and took what he thought was a young, up-and-coming offensive coach in Jeff Mullen.
It hasn’t worked and it’s time to get an experienced, proven successful offensive coordinator from a winning program.
Aspiring to be Wake Forest is not visionary enough to succeed in the Big East and among the predators that reside at the upper levels of college football.
Mullen has had two years. His offense scored 319 points with Pat White at quarterback, 340 this year. It was a flawed offense, one that was intent on passing the ball behind an offensive line that could not pass block.
Jarrett Brown spent most of the season running for his life. His season was shortened almost a full game by a concussion from a hit, his career ended one-half early when sacked just before halftime.
He never had a chance and, to be honest, was not as good a quarterback at the end of the season as he was at the start, regressing perhaps out of fear of the rush, perhaps because he wasn’t coached up as the year went on.
Mullen’s play calling was as lacking as was the results the offense produced.
If he can adequately explain why there were four passes thrown in the first half against Florida State, I think Jarrett Brown would like to hear it.
And if he can adequately explain why Noel Devine, who rushed for 127 yards in the first half, was given the football five times in the second half when a freshman quarterback was running the team, I know Devine would like to hear it.
I know because when asked about it, he responded quite curtly:
“I’m not the coach.”
Devine carried 16 times in a game when he was the heart and soul of the offense. That is an inadequate number of carries in an era when Pitt is running a freshman running back, Dion Lewis, 47 times in a game that carries the Big East championship with it.
Stewart also might begin thinking of turning his special team duties over to an assistant, especially the kickoff return team that consistently put WVU in the position of defending a short field. That they won nine games is a tribute to a defensive unit that seemed to be always overcoming field position problems.
Finally, when Stewart goes to solidify his staff, which must change with the loss of Doc Holliday, who has become Marshall’s head coach, he must think recruiting first. Holliday may take some assistants and certainly will take some graduate assistants, but far more meaningful than that, he is the premier recruiter in Florida.
When one considers that WVU’s best players this year — Devine, Brown, Sanders and safety Robert Sands — all are Floridians, Stewart must bring in someone who can continue that pipeline in the future because Pitt seems to have done a solid job of cutting into the recruiting from Western Pennsylvania.
E-mail Bob Hertzel at bhertzel@hotmail.com.
