West Virginia University
Mountaineers Primed To Build On Last Season's Success
By Scott Robertson

Coach Rich Rodriguez enters his third year as head coach already noticing a different attitude surrounding his team. Last season's Mountaineers entered the 2002 campaign amid low expectations, and exceeded even what most players thought the team could do, posting a 9-4 record and berth in the Continental Tire Bowl.

This time around, Rodriguez knows things will be different. For one thing, last season put West Virginia back on the map. No more sneaking up on anyone.

'The thing I get right now is that we are a little more confident coming into the season,' said Rodriguez, an even 12-12 in his two seasons including a 3-8 mark his first year. 'Winning cures a lot of those things. A season like we had last year instills more confidence in the players and in the program as a whole. Our veterans are very confident. The work ethic has been outstanding.'

The veterans may be confident, but they are relatively few. West Virginia has 85 players on scholarship, of that total, 47 are either true freshmen or redshirt freshmen. The Mountaineers return only 10 starters (five on offense, four on defense and a kicker), the fewest of any team in the Big East Conference.

Last year's Mountaineers rode the legs of standout running back Avon Cobourne, who averaged 5.1 yards per carry on his way to 1,710 rushing yards and 17 touchdowns. The Mountaineers ran the ball well all season, but did not throw it with the efficiency Rodriguez would like. Quarterback Rasheed Marshall, who returns as the starter this season, completed 53.7 percent of his passes in 2002, but threw only nine touchdown passes in 13 games and had five interceptions.

'Obviously we had a good year running the football last year,' Rodriguez said. 'That's especially important since teams were lining up eight and nine men in the box and daring us to throw.

'We definitely have to get better in the passing game. Rasheed is in his second year as a starter and we have some talent at receiver, although we're young there. Rasheed did a good job in the spring. He seems a lot more comfortable with what we are trying to do. I think he'll be much better this year.'

Senior

tailback Quincy Wilson will be asked to step in for Cobourne. Wilson carried 140 times for 901 yards last season and scored six touchdowns. Rodriguez called him an exciting runner adding, 'he's been waiting his turn behind Avon. This is his time to shine.'

Wilson says he and the team are ready to build on the success they had last season.

'Our strength is running the ball,' Wilson said. 'Our defense will be a strength, too, especially our linebackers. We all know we want to improve the passing game, and it looks good in the 7-on-7 drills we've done.'

Wilson is excited about taking over for Cobourne in the running game. At the same time, though, he is looking forward to doing his part to help the passing attack.

'As a senior, I want to step in and do the best I can,' he said. 'I'm confident that I can run the ball. The main thing I am working on is trying to be better in the passing game. I want to work on running my routes and my blocking and on being in a good check-down position for Rasheed when he needs me.'

On the defensive side, the Mountaineers will be strong at linebacker and in the defensive backfield, but inexperienced up front. Cornerback Brian King, who had 79 tackles and three interceptions last season, says the maturation of the defensive line will be critical to that unit's success.

'I think one of our strengths is that Lance (Frazier) and I are fifth-year seniors at the corners,' King said. 'We've seen a lot of what the Big East has, and I think that will help the rest of our defense. But (inside linebacker) Grant Wiley is the heart of our defense. He says and does the little things that bring us together.'

Wiley led the team in tackles last year with 153. He also registered 10 tackles for losses, three sacks and pulled in three interceptions.

'We're young on the defensive line,' King said. 'That's a question mark for us. We lost some valuable guys up front last year, but we feel we've got some talented guys ready to step in there and do a good job.'

Rodriguez also is concerned with the defensive line.

'Our experience on defense is in the secondary,' he said. 'Having Grant Wiley back is a big plus, he's one of the better players in the league. But we are inexperienced up front and we're not as big as I'd like to be up there.'

Rodriguez said he was disappointed with the overall play of the Mountaineers' special teams last season. He said the special teams were 'solid, but did not come up with many spectacular plays.'

'We need to be better there,' Rodriguez said. 'We have Todd James back as a punter and (placekicker) Brad Cooper did a great job in the spring. He (Cooper) could be a weapon. But we've got to make some changes in the way we played on special teams if we want to get better.'

Wilson and King also talked of a change in attitude that enveloped the team shortly after a disappointing, 48-22 loss to Virginia in the Continental Tire Bowl to end last season.

'I think that game helped us prepare differently at the start of this season,' Wilson said. 'We were just happy to be there. We spent our Christmas holiday there and kind of looked at the game as a secondary thing. I think we learned a lesson there, when you take the game as secondary, you end up on the wrong end of a 48-22 score.'

King said the players are using that experience as motivation this season.

'We're not going to let that happen again. Winning nine games last year was nice. Our goals are higher than that this year. We want to win six to get bowl eligible, but after that we want to take one at a time. The difference is, we don't want to stop at nine this year. We want to win 10 or more.'