WVU Sports
Mountaineers trying to find spot for Brown
MORGANTOWN — Jarrett Brown's time on the sideline could come to an end in Saturday's 3:30 p.m. home game against Marshall -- and not cost Pat White any of his playing time.
West Virginia Coach Bill Stewart revealed he wants to get Brown, the accomplished backup quarterback, on the field, but not necessarily in a position to remove the starter from the game.
"I don't know where he'll play, but he'll get on the field," said Stewart, who wanted to get Brown in against Colorado. "Not as a fullback, but as an (I-formation) back. I talked to the staff about that and if we can get that big rascal back there, it may be advantageous to us."
Brown, a 6-foot-4, 220-pound junior from West Palm Beach, Fla., said he hasn't taken a handoff since he was 10 years old. He has run for 512 yards and six touchdowns and averaged 6.2 yards per carry in 17 career games.
He hasn't caught a pass or been asked to block, though.
"Anything they ask me to do, I can do," he said. "If they want me to run, I'll run. If they want me to throw, I'll throw. I've got the ability to do both. I can catch.
"I've been playing catch with Pat every day. That's basically like the JUGS (machine). I think I can do it all."
Brown won't be a feature back and might not even get into the game, but there are indeed plans to make use of his ability.
"He's a great athlete and obviously a big guy and we don't have many big guys in our backfield, so he could potentially give us a little bit of a changeup," running backs coach Chris Beatty said. "I don't know how big the package would be for him or if there'd be a package. I think we're still trying to work on exactly what we're trying to do with him.
"But he's too good not to be playing. Just because he's playing behind the best athlete on the team and maybe the best in the nation, that doesn't mean he shouldn't play somewhere else."
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WVU MIGHT have a rather valuable resource at its disposal while preparing for the Thundering Herd. Assistant head coach/safeties coach Steve Dunlap was Marshall's defensive coordinator last year.
"I have not picked Steve Dunlap's brain and Steve Dunlap is not going to tell us any secrets because he's a professional," Stewart said. "I didn't have the staff say, 'Oh, Steve, tell us all you can about their players.' We don't do that. I don't do that. Some coaches do. We coach how you're supposed to coach."
Well, that seems to include consulting Dunlap.
Offensive coordinator Jeff Mullen said he has had "very useful" conversations with Dunlap on "multiple occasions," which goes against Stewart's vow but still makes sense.
"It's like if we played Wake Forest in a couple weeks," said Mullen, who was with the Demon Deacons the previous seven years, first as the offensive tackles coach and then as the quarterbacks coach. "I'd throw them all under the bus. I'd tell them everything (quarterback) Riley Skinner likes."
Mullen said he was kidding, but insinuated such input is functional. Then again, he said even if the information helps, everything changes once the game starts.
"Then the kids have to go perform and we have to make the calls," he said.
Dunlap's information might only go so far. Former Cincinnati Coach Rick Minter was hired as Dunlap's replacement. Offensive coordinator Larry Kueck was fired and replaced by former Toledo Offensive Coordinator John Shannon.
"They have new coordinators on both sides of the ball," WVU Defensive Coordinator Jeff Casteel said. "What they did last year doesn't necessarily pertain to what they'll do this year."
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WHITE, LEFT tackle Ryan Stanchek and running back Noel Devine were named the offensive champions for their work in the Colorado game. WVU ran for a season-high 311 yards with White accounting for 148 and two scores and Devine adding 133 yards.
Linebacker Mortty Ivy, safety Quinton Andrews and defensive lineman Scooter Berry were named defensive champions. Andrews made a game-high 15 tackles, Ivy had 11 and Berry added four and a sack.
Ellis Lankster was the special teams champion. He averaged 21.3 yards on three punt returns with a long of 36 yards and made a key block to free Mark Rodgers for a 36-yard kickoff return.
Parkersburg High School product Matt Lindamood was the offensive scout champion and Joe Rhein was the defensive scout champion. There was no special teams scout champion or a Hammer Award for a big hit.
- WVU Sports
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New York State of mind
Da’Sean Butler was in a New York state of mind.
Seems like he usually is.
Or should that read a New York State of mind?
His home may be in New Jersey but he’s New York through and through, which is good, considering West Virginia is in the midst of what it hopes will be seven games in New York State.
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FURFARI COLUMN: Huggs’ dad excited about WVU success
No one could be happier about West Virginia University men’s basketball success than Charlie Huggins of New Philadelphia, Ohio.
He happens to be a retired high school basketball coach and the father of Bob Huggins, WVU’s third-year head coach.
“We were really excited for him when the Mountaineers won the Big East championship,” the elder Huggins said from his home earlier in the week.
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HERTZEL COLUMN: Overcoming history
For the most part, West Virginia has been a school which ought to give out degrees in athletic disappointment.
Think about it for a minute, for all the wonderful memories the school’s athletic teams have given you, it is countered it with moments of utter exasperation.
• West Virginia went to an NCAA basketball final with the world’s greatest player running the show in Jerry West, yet came out with nothing more than a silver medal.
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Beilein influence still there
It is chic, these days with West Virginia University cutting a bold path toward the upper echelons of college basketball, to disavow all ties to John Beilein, the former coach who pioneered the trail that leads from Morgantown to Ann Arbor, Mich.
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Late game struggles
It has been lost in the glow of a Big East championship, lost in the heroics Da’Sean Butler has brought over and over and over.
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HERTZEL COLUMN - Always be prepared
What Da’Sean Butler did last week in the Big East Tournament was, no doubt, an amazing feat. Some players play and entire career without hitting a game-winning basket, let alone to drop two in within the space of three days on a stage no less than Madison Square Garden itself.
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Marching forward
March, they say, comes in like a lion.
So, too, does Joe Mazzulla.
If baseball had its “Mr. October” in Reggie Jackson, Joe Mazzulla is college basketball’s Mr. March.
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Carey not pleased with team’s bracket
Mike Carey has had enough and he doesn’t care who knows it.
His team has worked too hard and come too far for him to sit quietly any more about the way his team is being treated, both in the Big East and in the NCAA.
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FURFARI COLUMN - Huggins: Decision is ‘totally’ up to Ebanks
Speculation continues to circulate on whether West Virginia sophomore Devin Ebanks will return next season or turn professional.
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WVU opens with Morgan State
If West Virginia was looking for some new incentive it got it out of the NCAA draw that took place on Sunday, one day after they rode on Da’Sean Butler’s shoulders to the Big East Tournament championship.
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New York State of mind
