Big East preview: West Virginia tops the conference

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. -- Rick Trickett's language is sometimes as blue as his T-shirt is ratty. Just so you understand, the 33-year coaching veteran was first a Vietnam veteran during some of the most horrific battles of the conflict.

Reynaud and the Mounts look forward to Big East competition. (Getty Images)

"Corporal at Tet and Khe San," West Virginia's assistant head coach snaps in a Marine's clip. "Pretty interesting, but it's over."

Except it's not over. Not at twilight of one of those beautiful West Virginia days John Denver sang about. Not in the office of the 58-year-old who is also the Mountaineers' offensive line coach. He is about to take you behind those repressed memories for a moment.

"We were at Auburn fixing to play Alabama," Trickett says of one of his 12 college stops. "Somebody asked if I was nervous or scared. I said, 'Hell, once you messed around with 20,000 North Vietnamese, this ain't no problem ... Third and 20 don't look so tough.'"

Just so you understand, this is West Virginia, coal-mining country, tough, not at all elegant. You know this because a trophy of sorts sits in head coach Rich Rodriguez' office. It's a facemask from fullback Owen Schmitt's helmet.

Some of the bars are bent, looking like Superman himself was in on the deal.

"I've never heard of that happening either," says Schmitt, a former Division III tailback who has a future in strong man competitions, if he chooses, pulling semis with his teeth. "I think it was an iso lead block that I do a million times. On that particular time, the helmet gave out."

Gave out? No one remembers what happened to the Louisville guy after Schmitt hit him so hard that the facemask bars caved in. But they do remember that eventually it was Louisville that gave out. The Cardinals blew a 17-point, fourth-quarter lead, while the guy Schmitt blocked for, Steve Slaton, scored a Big East-record six touchdowns.

The play was so violent, the blow so impressive, the victory so satisfying that an equipment manager snatched up the helmet and gave it to Rodriguez as one of the spoils of war.

Eventually Rita Rodriguez decided to accent a table of snacks laid out for visiting network talent last year.

"My wife put candles underneath the facemask, like a shrine," the coach says.

The sexy pick. That's what they're calling West Virginia this season. A team likely to start in or near the preseason top five sporting a swift, fashionable offense. This site thinks so much of the Mountaineers that we're projecting they'll play for the national championship for the first time since 1988.

A team hotter than Vince-less Texas or so-yesterday USC. A team carrying the Big East's sometimes shaky rep piggy back. A team that has won at least a share of the last three Big East titles. A team that won its first BCS bowl in the belly of the beast, beating SEC champion Georgia in the Georgia Dome.

Sexy, though, sounds so wrong. This is a team of no names coached by guys who know enough names to assemble a champion.

"It's a beautiful place but you've got to have a purpose to come here ... You fly over the state and you see more deer stands than homes."

So says the head coach himself who has the right, being the pride of Grant Town, W. Va.

In going 11-1 last year, not one Mountaineer was a first-teamer on any major All-America list. Neither of the starting offensive tackles, Travis Garrett and Garin Justice, received a college offer above the Duke level.

Sophomore Patrick White was Alabama's Mr. Baseball and a heck of a defensive back prospect for everyone except West Virginia. Rodriguez was the only coach who recruited the Daphne (Ala.) High's quarterback as a quarterback.

Slaton was definitely not Jason Gwaltney. Thank goodness. The much-hyped Gwaltney might have been Rodriguez' first five-star recruit but quickly bombed out of the program. Now Gwaltney is at a Long Island juco, apparently never having figured out why he actually had to go class at West Virginia.

Slaton, assuming the role as freshman sensation, ran for 1,128 yards and is the reigning Sugar Bowl MVP.

"They recruit guys who are under-recruited," says all-Big East center Dan Mozes. "The whole thing about it is staying under the radar. The guys that are sleepers, are the guys that will perform all the time."

But sexy? No way. West Virginia is most famous these days for Rodriguez's power running game emanating from the spread -- or zone read -- option. Confused? Think. You've seen it. All four BCS winners (Penn State, Ohio State and Texas were the others) used some version of it.

Shotgun. Three, four receivers spread wide. Nimble offensive linemen. And at West Virginia, the nation's No. 4 rushing attack that bends the bars of facemasks.

"I'm old school," says Trickett, the coaching conscience of the Mountaineers based on his practice tirades alone. "When I used to see spread, I'd think 'soft-ass.' My name is never going to be tagged with soft -- ever.

"I got a little something in me that says we can take this and still be tough."

The power-finesse combination is so contrarian that Rodriguez might be the only coach in the country to corral it. In the rat-a-tat no-huddle, plays are signaled in from the sidelines. That play might be changed three times from the sideline before the ball is snapped.

Formations scream passing offense from one that doesn't very often. (An average of 16 per game) White and Slaton -- nicknamed "The Jackrabbits" by Trickett -- are protected by a mobile, undersized offensive line where no one weighs more than 290 pounds. (Only 18 sacks allowed and a 5.2-yard rushing average).

Just to make sure he has their blood-shot eyes on the prize, it was made clear by Trickett that linemen would gather at 6 a.m. on Tuesdays and Thursdays for offseason workouts.

"Not everybody is tough anymore," he says. "I know from being in the Marine Corps that you have to live that (stuff), before it becomes a way of life. I tell them those other fat asses are laying in bed while we're fixing to block."

Understandably, the world has flocked to West Virginia's door in the offseason. Rodriguez practically invited coaches eager to learn the components of his zone read. Then a couple of years ago a playbook went missing. Two high school coaches were caught sifting through the coaches' mail bin.

Rodriguez is convinced that Miami has hired lip readers in the past to scope out coaches on the sidelines.

He happily produces a sheet of paper. Found in an opposing team's assistant coaches' booth, it is labeled, "West Virginia Signals, 2005."

"That's what we did five years ago," Rodriguez says smiling, pointing to one play.

Schemes, he says, are overrated. That, of course, gets him booted out of the exclusive club of paranoid coaches.

It's more about guys like Schmitt. He was happy at Wisconsin-Riverside but wanted more. Driving back home to Fairfax, Va., Schmitt wrangled a visit to see Rodriguez. After spending 2004 on the scout team, he averaged 8 yards per carry last year for the Mountaineers.

It's not trite to suggest things have to be this way. The program has to mimic the toughness of the coal miners that define the region. Don Nehlen first saw to that in his 21 seasons.

Rodriguez, the son and grandson of coal miners, walked on for Nehlen. Rod's dad used to rush home each day and work for hours in the garden. The family quickly figured out what the mines do to a man. You come to relish space.

Rich was lucky. He could coach and stayed above ground. One day, quite accidentally, he invented his version of the zone read. Back in the early '90s when Rodriguez was head coach at Glenville (W. Va.) State chucking it 60 times a game, quarterback Jed Drenning kept the ball on a busted play.

What happened, the coach asked? Nothing, said the quarterback, just a busted play. Saw an opening.

The zone read was "born." Like the old wishbone, the quarterback takes the shotgun snap, "reads" the intentions of the defensive end and either hands off, throws or runs.

It started to make an impact nationally in 1998 when Tulane, with Rodriguez as Tommy Bowden's offensive coordinator, went undefeated. Quarterback Shaun King set the NCAA season pass efficiency record that year playing half a season with a broken left wrist.

Rod's star rose when he followed Bowden to Clemson and helped develop run-pass quarterback Woody Dantzler. In 2001, Rodriguez took over at his alma mater after only four years as a I-A assistant.

Perceptions change. The native son's star is rising. What's next?

What's now? Six years later the public at large still doesn't realize those three consecutive Big East titles. Or that these Mountaineers have something special in them that is more Marine than sexy. Or that the cussin', yellin' Trickett has a new hero -- Iowa wrestling coach Dan Gable. Trickett pulls out an instructional DVD that sells Gables' players on an ethic that won 15 national championships in Iowa City.

"Competitor supreme," The Conscience says of Gable.

Rodriguez pulls a newspaper clipping from his desk. He lustily reads last season's quotes from Rutgers running back Brian Leonard after losing to West Virginia.

"This is honestly the worse I've ever felt after a game. I need to go to the trainers' room. This is the hardest-hitting team I've ever faced."

Then you realize that in this land of deer stands and coal and simplicity, it's screaming out at you. The Marine corporal is right. Not everybody is tough anymore.

Offensive MVP

Brian Brohm, QB, Louisville, Jr. -- The latest in a long line of great Cardinals quarterbacks. Combined with Michael Bush, these two guys are this year's Bush and Leinart. Brohm has a shot at becoming the most efficient quarterback in NCAA history (pass efficiency rating).

Defensive MVP

Nate Harris, LB, Louisville, Sr. -- OK, so Louisville had the defensive player of the year (Elvis Dumervil) and still had a hard time stopping teams. We are not deterred. Harris has rehabilitated himself and his game. From troubled Miami recruit to Louisville captain who should lead the Cards in tackles for the second straight year.

Predicted order of finish

1. West Virginia: The Mountaineers have been here before. Big things were expected in 2003 and the program slumped to 8-5. Opponents will be hipper to the spread option this year but here's a little secret: The key to the offense is a small, quick offensive line. Shades of vintage Alabama under The Bear.

2. Louisville: It's a two-game home season for the Cardinals. Miami and West Virginia both come to Papa John. Win those and The Ville can start familiarizing itself with Glendale, Ariz.

3. Pittsburgh: Until we see a bowl invitation and a victory over one of the top two, the microscope remains on Dave Wannstedt. Expect Tyler Palko -- in his 12th year at the school -- to have a monster season. The defense will be better too with H.B. Blades challenging for All-American status.

4. Rutgers: Last year's darlings will have to work even harder to get to a bowl. The schedule is backloaded with games against Pittsburgh, Louisville and West Virginia after Oct. 20.

5. South Florida: Tailback Andre Hall kept defenses honest. Jim Leavitt has to replace the school's leading rusher and try to get some production out of the quarterback. Sophomore Carlton Hill was the quarterback starter going into the spring but ran into academic and legal problems. Until that point last year's starter, Pat Julmiste, was in danger of being beaten out. Julmiste still must beat out redshirt freshman Matt Grothe.

6. Connecticut We'll know about the Huskies by the second week of October. By then UConn will have played the ACC (Wake Forest), Big Ten (Indiana), a top independent (Navy) and at South Florida.

7. Cincinnati Too bad Mark Dantonio can't call his old boss Jim Tressel and trade for some Ohio State walk-ons.

8. Syracuse It's going to be a long, long process for Greg Robinson converting to a West Coast offense. Before that, Robinson will have to improve his specialty -- defense.