Mountaineers shine in primetime
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – Here’s to hoping you didn’t arrive fashionably late at Mountaineer Field or made a last-minute run to the fridge during ESPN’s last bunch of pre-game commercials. If you were delayed even a few minutes, you missed a whale of a game. The same could be said if you were there and happened to blink at the wrong time.
That’s how fast the West Virginia Mountaineers were in their stunningly easy win over Maryland Thursday night.
So fast that by the time Maryland could call a timeout with 1:12 remaining in the first, the Terps trailed 21-0 and WVU had the ball two yards short of the end zone.
By that time, superback Steve Slaton already had lived up to his job description. He had amassed 147 yards on seven carries and scored two of WVU’s first three touchdowns. He appeared destined to spend the last three quarters on the bench, just as he had in a blowout win over East Washington five days earlier.
How bad a night was it for Maryland? When Slaton fumbled his next carry into the end zone, teammate Brad Palmer recovered for a fourth Mountaineer touchdown.
In case you missed it, here’s what WVU did in the first quarter: 69-yard game-opening drive for a touchdown, 11-yard touchdown drive after a fumbled kickoff return, 96-yard touchdown drive and a 54-yard touchdown drive off an interception.
That adds up to 230 yards of offense in 15 minutes of football. Meanwhile, Maryland managed 63 yards on 11 plays.
But if you think any of this was accidental or flukish, think again. Coach Rich Rodriguez’s Mountaineers are that good.
And, yes, Maryland has become that bad.
Maybe no one knew that little nugget coming in, but West Virginia exposed Maryland before a national television audience. It was an audience the Mountaineers were primed to dazzle regardless of the opposition.
Because as good as WVU is – very good, indeed – until last night the Mountaineers had become The Best Team Nobody Had Ever Seen.
Even after last year’s BCS appearance and the parade of coaches Rodriguez welcomed to Morgantown to share the secrets of his power spread offense, even them, nobody seemed to know much or care much about this team.
After last night, the rest of the nation had better stand up and take notice. There aren’t many pratfalls on WVU’s schedule, all due respect to November trips to Louisville and Pitt. These Mountaineers are likely to run the table and they showed America Thursday night that they will be awfully tough to beat.
Perhaps to help America get the point, Rodriguez stayed with Slaton throughout the first half. And he kept his starting defense on the field, as well.
Did I mention that it was a tough night for the Terps? After Maryland had climbed to within 31-10 with a penalty-aided field goal drive late in the first half, WVU responded with a 96-yard kickoff return to make it 38-10 at the break.
If you want to know how far Rodriguez has brought this program, all you had to do was look around the press box. Of course, there were bowl game scouts, with their blazers a blazing, but the place was absolutely crawling with NFL scouts.
What they all saw, if they didn’t blink at the wrong time, was speed.
Sports editor Mike Ciarochi may be reached at mciarochi@heraldstandard.com