The Times West Virginian

WVU Sports

April 29, 2010

WVU’s tight ends big part of offense

By Bob Hertzel For the Times West Virginian

MORGANTOWN — West Virginia University’s next-to-last football practice of spring, 2010, was unlike any other held at Milan Puskar Stadium this spring or, for that matter, any other spring in the past decade.

Working in the passing game, Mountaineer quarterback Geno Smith, who was pronounced out of Friday night’s spring game due to his broken foot that has kept him from any kind of contact work, over and over made classic connections with his tight ends.

Just that he recognized that there was such a thing as a tight end in the offense was a major departure from years past, but that they were running patterns and getting open and being found by the young quarterback was like a dozen new pages had been added to the playbook.

Tyler Urban and Will Johnson were literally gobbling up yardage as Smith time after time hit them in stride, be it on the sideline or over the middle. What’s more, they were catching nearly everything thrown their way, Johnson making the only slipup when he dropped a pass that would have resulted in six points.

Still, it was a signal that things are changing in this WVU offense, that the passing game is expanding with Smith running the show and that opponents are going to have figure out a way to not only stop Noel Devine running, Jock Sanders running short patterns, Bradley Starks going deep, but a pair of nifty tight ends who can both block and catch.

“We’ve seen Jock and Bradley make plays,” head coach Bill Stewart said. “We need to have our tight ends used on a more consistent basis.”

And they will be, offensive coordinator Jeff Mullen vowed.

“It’s a numbers game,” Mullen explained. “You have your five offensive linemen and your quarterback. That leaves five players. You have a running back, and that leaves four players. You want your best four other players on the field.

“In the past, Tyler Urban was young and was not one of our top four players,” Mullen continued. “Now it’s safe to say he clearly is one of the top four other players.”

With the Mountaineers short on wide receivers, the tight ends are figuring in the mix more and more and it is giving a whole different look to the offense, much to their delight.

“I feel like we’re getting a lot more of a role,” Urban said.

Last year he caught just 10 passes for 117 yards and Johnson caught only six for 78 yards, each tight end scoring one touchdown.

Smith, however, seems to enjoy using them in the offense.

“Geno has a gift, I really believe,” Mullen said. “He has a natural vision. A couple of times in one-on-ones today he literally made the receiver break his route off by throwing the ball on his back shoulder. I asked him what he saw and he said, ‘I just felt it.’”

Robert Sands is an All-Big East safety who has spent the spring defending against Smith’s passes and he’s impressed, but more important, he’s been impressed with Smith since he was in the youth leagues in the same area.

“He was making throws like that when he was a little kid,” Sands said. “He made them in the park and in high school. Some guys peak young, but he hasn’t peaked yet. He’s processing everything quickly, making good reads, good decisions.”

He may just make a star of Urban, who is a traditional tight end, or of Johnson, who is more of an H-back who goes in motion more often.

“Me and Tyler are older guys now,” Johnson said, about to enter his senior year while Urban is a junior. “I really think we will be used differently. We’re lining up a lot of different positions and learning a lot of different routes. And Geno, he’s making his second and third and fourth reads.”

Smith really appreciates the skills that Johnson brings to the offense.

“He’s one of the fastest guys on the team and he seems to get open,” Smith said.

And, from what has transpired in skeleton drills this spring, anyone who gets open has a big chance of getting the football thrown to them.

E-mail Bob Hertzel at bhertzel@hotmail.com.

Text Only
WVU Sports
  • Jones nears milestone as Notre Dame visits WVU

    That it is a crucial game in a season that seems to have nothing but, today’s 9 p.m. visit to the Coliseum by a streaking Notre Dame team comes with a historical footnote in the history of West Virginia University basketball.
    Kevin Jones enters the game having scored 20 or more points in nine consecutive games.

    February 8, 2012

  • WVU source: Battle to join Big 12 nearing conclusion

    Indications were growing that West Virginia University’s battle to leave the Big East and join the Big 12 in time for the 2012 season was about to be won, possibly as early as today.
    A source within the Mountaineer athletic department said on Tuesday that the matter was nearing a conclusion and also told the Times West Virginian that West Virginia would be reinstating a golf team to compete in the Big 12.

    February 8, 2012

  • HERTZEL COLUMN: WVU, Irish strikingly similar

    Consider, if you will, that it is Nov. 25 past, that the West Virginia University basketball team is running a routine drill four games into its season, getting ready for the Akron game when Kevin Jones goes down in a heap on the floor, his ACL torn, his season over.

    February 8, 2012

  • WVU source: Battle to join Big 12 nearing conclusion

    Indications were growing that West Virginia University’s battle to leave the Big East and join the Big 12 in time for the 2012 season was about to be won, possibly as early as today.

    February 7, 2012

  • HERTZEL COLUMN - Truck drives Mountaineers to needed win

    Perhaps it is what has kept him going through a West Virginia basketball career with as many turns as a trip to Pineville down in Wyoming County, but Truck Bryant enjoys being Truck Bryant.

    February 6, 2012

  • WVU finds a way, wins in overtime

    Truck Bryant made the headline plays, including a 3-point shot with 3.3 seconds left to play, as West Virginia saved its season with an 87-84 overtime victory at Providence, but the subheads had to be reserved for Deniz Kilicli and a pair of freshman guards.

    February 6, 2012

  • Mountaineers face critical test today at Providence

    The schedule tells you it’s another game in the marathon run that is the Big East season, a trip to Providence to play a team with only two conference victories, but somehow everyone connected with the West Virginia University program knows today’s noon meeting with the Friars is much more than that.

    February 5, 2012

  • HERTZEL COLUMN: Jones on the brink of WVU history

    On the one hand there is yesterday’s Warren Baker, who entered the WVU Athletic Hall of Fame in the latest class for the work he did from 1973 to 1976, and on the other hand there is today’s star Kevin Jones, who has emerged from the shadows of the likes of Joe Alexander and Da’Sean Butler this year to carve his own niche in Mountaineer basketball history.

    February 5, 2012

  • WVU backs out of Florida State game

    West Virginia University has canceled its Sept. 8 football game at Florida State.
    Once again, as they have done with virtually everything since announcing they planned to move from the Big East to the Big 12, they did it behind closed doors, without any announcement or statement.

    February 5, 2012

  • WVU women upset Louisville

    It is foolhardy to put it up there with the Baylors and Notre Dames of the women’s world just yet, but really if you look closely and see potential, much of which came out Saturday afternoon when the Mountaineers upset No. 12/14 Louisville, 66-50, you realize that this team is closer to greatness than it is to mediocrity.

    February 5, 2012