Another mountain for Eagles
Where to start?
High ranking, hot coach, All-Americans, watch list candidates for every major position award including the Heisman, big stadium, raucous crowd?
West Virginia has all of that and more.
Even the band sounds impressive.
The Sporting News called The Pride of West Virginia’s pregame performance legendary.
That’s what the Eastern Washington football team faces today when it takes on the sixth-ranked Mountaineers at sold-out, 60,000-seat Mountaineer Field at Milan Puskar Stadium in Morgantown.
“Playing a program at that level will provide a great environment and experience for our team,” Eagles coach Paul Wulff said. “The atmosphere will be a lot difference than what we are accustomed to, but it will be a good test of where our players see themselves against a team at the highest level of college football.”
Yes, fifth-year coach and WVU alum Rich Rodriguez has it all.
Much of the attention is focused on the offense.
Consensus preseason All-American center Dan Mozes, who is on the Rimington and Outland trophy watch lists, anchors the line. Sophomore Patrick White, who is on the Manning, Maxwell and Walter Camp lists, triggers the attack. Blazing sophomore running back Steve Slaton, on all kinds of watch lists and All-American teams, carries the load.
White completed 57 percent of his passes for 828 yards and rushed for another 952 as WVU went 11-1 last year to finish No. 5. Slaton capped a 10-game, 1,128-yard campaign by being named MVP of the Sugar Bowl. He ran for a bowl-record 204 yards as the Mountaineers beat Georgia 38-35.
The Mountaineers opened this season with a 42-10 waltz past Marshall, pounding out 29 first downs and 485 yards.
White was 10 of 14 for a career-high 168 yards. Slaton ran for 203 yards.
On defense, linebacker Boo McLee is on the Nagurski and Bendarik award watch lists, strong safety Eric Wicks is on the Thorpe and Nagurski lists and linebacker Jay Henry is on the Lott list.
After the way Eastern stumbled in its opener, a 56-17 loss at Oregon State, this game would seem to have the potential to be ugly, especially if the Mountaineers avoid overlooking the Eagles.
“It would be nice if we got up, played well early and didn’t mess around,” Rodriguez said in his weekly press conference on Tuesday. “It would be nice if Eastern Washington turned the ball over like last week at Oregon State. But you can’t count on that so we’re going to try to do whatever we can to win the game. That’s what we’re trying to do. The approach is the same for every game.”
As a coach who got his start at Glanville State, a NAIA school, Rodriguez is well aware of how David approaches Goliath.
“It’s obviously a big game for them,” he said. “You’ve got to play hard. I’ve been on the other side of this. A couple of I-AA teams beat I-A teams last week. Maybe the favorite doesn’t play well and turns the ball over at times. And they’ll be excited and jacked up to play the game.”
For their part, the Eagles are going with all the right intentions.
“I feel confident,” quarterback Matt Nichols said. “We have a lot of great players on offense. We’re real young at our skill positions. I think that one game helped our confidence and got us ready for game speed at the college level. We’re going to be a lot more ready for this game than the last one.”
The redshirt freshman is ready for the environment.
“It’s always been a dream, even the 35,000 at Oregon State,” he said. “When you run out the first time you kind of look at it, but as the game goes on you don’t think about it.”
This isn’t the first Eastern team to play in Mountaineer Stadium.
It was the site of the 1967 NAIA championship Eastern lost to Fairmont State 28-21.
“We are going to go back there and compete and see what happens,” Wulff said. “When you play hard you give yourself a chance to do good things, that’s our goal. We want to get better from our first game. … We fully expect to do well and play good football. We are excited for the challenge.”