MORGANTOWN - Friday night after West Virginia's pass defense was shredded for a series of big plays in a 30-19 loss at South Florida, coach Bill Stewart tried to deflect some of the criticism away from sophomore cornerback Keith Tandy, who was beaten by Carlton Mitchell on two of those deep passes.
MORGANTOWN - Friday night after West Virginia's pass defense was shredded for a series of big plays in a 30-19 loss at South Florida, coach Bill Stewart tried to deflect some of the criticism away from sophomore cornerback Keith Tandy, who was beaten by Carlton Mitchell on two of those deep passes.
"[Mitchell] is just better than [Tandy],'' Stewart admitted. "We had to help [Tandy] a little bit.''
And on Sunday, after having a day and a half to study the issue in depth, Stewart's conclusion was the same.
His point? Tandy was left unprotected and without the kind of help every cornerback needs because the rest of the defense came up short of expectations.
"I'm not going to sit here and finger-point at [Tandy], I can assure you that. That's not the way I operate, nor do my coaches,'' Stewart said. "That ballgame did not rest on that little guy because there are 10 other guys out there that can be getting better pressure, break on the ball. It's just frustrating and it hurts you sometimes when they've got a fast guy that can run by you. We're playing the best 11. I don't play favorites. I play the best 11 at all times and that's our best.''
South Florida quarterback B.J. Daniels passed for 232 yards and three touchdowns and ran for 104 yards in the Bulls' third win over WVU in the last four seasons.
That came only a week after Pitt held Daniels to four completions in eight attempts for 54 yards and two interceptions. Daniels was pulled in the second half of a 41-14 loss.
But against West Virginia, the redshirt freshman was a one-man wrecking crew. Well, at least he was part of a two-man assault. Mitchell caught five passes for 132 yards and moved into second place on the school's all-time receiving list. Pitt had held him to one six-yard catch.
MORGANTOWN - Friday night after West Virginia's pass defense was shredded for a series of big plays in a 30-19 loss at South Florida, coach Bill Stewart tried to deflect some of the criticism away from sophomore cornerback Keith Tandy, who was beaten by Carlton Mitchell on two of those deep passes.
"[Mitchell] is just better than [Tandy],'' Stewart admitted. "We had to help [Tandy] a little bit.''
And on Sunday, after having a day and a half to study the issue in depth, Stewart's conclusion was the same.
His point? Tandy was left unprotected and without the kind of help every cornerback needs because the rest of the defense came up short of expectations.
"I'm not going to sit here and finger-point at [Tandy], I can assure you that. That's not the way I operate, nor do my coaches,'' Stewart said. "That ballgame did not rest on that little guy because there are 10 other guys out there that can be getting better pressure, break on the ball. It's just frustrating and it hurts you sometimes when they've got a fast guy that can run by you. We're playing the best 11. I don't play favorites. I play the best 11 at all times and that's our best.''
South Florida quarterback B.J. Daniels passed for 232 yards and three touchdowns and ran for 104 yards in the Bulls' third win over WVU in the last four seasons.
That came only a week after Pitt held Daniels to four completions in eight attempts for 54 yards and two interceptions. Daniels was pulled in the second half of a 41-14 loss.
But against West Virginia, the redshirt freshman was a one-man wrecking crew. Well, at least he was part of a two-man assault. Mitchell caught five passes for 132 yards and moved into second place on the school's all-time receiving list. Pitt had held him to one six-yard catch.
Two of those catches - a 49-yard touchdown and a 69-yard gain to set up another score - came when he got behind Tandy, West Virginia's first-year starter at cornerback. On the touchdown, Mitchell simply beat Tandy with a pattern. But on the other long play - as well as several other completions during the game - Daniels scrambled around and bought loads of time for his receivers to improvise and get open.
"The one thing on defense, I think mentally you have to contain the [quarterback] as well as physically. You have to know what the guy is going to do and where he is coming from,'' Stewart said. "If you have outside help and you're inside in the 2-gap, you stay under control. If you're coming inside-out then you know the guy can spring outside. So it's called before snap and react at the snap.''
The good news for West Virginia's pass defense, then, is that in the final four games of the season - Louisville (noon Saturday at Mountaineer Field), Cincinnati, Pitt and Rutgers - the opposing quarterback is not likely to be a scrambler. The bad news is that all four teams rely heavily on the passing game, albeit in the form of more traditional pocket passers.
Even Louisville, which started a third-string walk-on in Saturday's 21-13 win over Arkansas State, threw the ball 39 times.
"We can coach harder, play harder, get a little bit more and that's what I told them after the game,'' Stewart said. "You can go cover zero and blitz. You can roll up and cover two. You can go quarters, you can play three-deep - all the stuff we're trying to do and did in that game to help against some athletic youngsters, we try to do.
"We have to get better and continue to mix it up and maybe we'll get a break and have a tipped ball or batted ball. It was just a long night for a couple of youngsters, one in particular, and we'll do the best we can to shore that problem up.''
Reach Dave Hickman at 304-348-1734 or dphickm...@aol.com.
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Yeah,yeah, WVU athletics are self-supporting, but only if you don't count the cost of building and maintaining the facilities.