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MSNsportsNET Wrote:Syracuse Preview
By John Antonik for MSNsportsNET.com
October 7, 2009

WEST VIRGINIA GAME NOTES (57 pages worth)

West Virginia coach Bill Stewart is wary of the playmaking abilities of Syracuse receiver Mike Williams.
All-Pro Photography/Dale Sparks photo

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – Mike Williams, Mike Williams, Mike Williams - that is the one name you keep hearing over and over when you go over to the Milan Puskar Center.

West Virginia coaches and players have raved about what they have seen from Williams on film so far this season. And what’s not to like? He ranks fifth nationally this week averaging 124.6 yards per game. His five-game stat line is impressive: 41 catches for 623 yards and five touchdowns. Two years ago as a sophomore, he caught 60 passes for 837 yards and 10 touchdowns.

During last weekend’s 34-20 loss to South Florida, Williams made a career-high 13 catches for 186 yards and two touchdowns. Against Northwestern, Williams had 11 catches for a career-best 209 yards and two scores. He has made at least one catch in 25 consecutive games.

There’s more.

He is fourth in school history with 125 catches and he needs 11 more to pass all-pro Marvin Harrison for third all-time. Williams’ 1,921 receiving yards are fifth all-time, trailing only Harrison, Shelby Hill, Rob Moore and Scott Schwedes.

“We’ve got to try and find a way to keep him in the ballpark,” said West Virginia defensive coordinator Jeff Casteel, using a baseball analogy. “We can’t let him hit home runs. If we can make him a singles and doubles guy that gives us a chance.”

West Virginia has faced its fair share of physically gifted receivers in recent years. Georgia Tech’s Calvin Johnson caught nine passes for 186 yards and a pair of touchdowns in the 2007 Gator Bowl.

Rutgers’ Kenny Britt caught 12 passes for 151 yards in Morgantown last year. And in last year’s Meineke Car Care Bowl, Hakeem Nicks caught eight passes for 217 yards and three touchdowns.

In each instance, West Virginia’s secondary had trouble sticking with its man, but West Virginia found a way to win the game. That may be the best prescription for Saturday’s game against Syracuse.

“How do you stop a playmaker?” asked West Virginia coach Bill Stewart. “You don’t. You try to defend the guys around him.”

That’s not easy to do when quarterback Greg Paulus is running around in the pocket buying extra time for Williams to get open, and running back Delone Carter keeping defenses honest in the running game.

“We really liked him as a freshman and then he had the unfortunate injury the following spring,” said Casteel of Carter. “He is a really strong, explosive runner. He will unload on you when he’s running the ball. He steps out of tackles. He’s athletic on the perimeter and we’ve liked him since we saw him down here two years ago.”

Paulus gives the Syracuse offense a dimension it really has not had since Donovan McNabb played a decade ago - a confident gunslinger. Paulus will throw it anytime, anywhere, and into any coverage. Sometimes that has worked out really well for him and other times it hasn’t.

Paulus has completed 68.4 percent of his passes (103 of 160) but he has also thrown a Big East-high nine interceptions, including five picks last weekend against USF. He tried 46 passes against South Florida, completing 25, and he threw 35 passes against Northwestern, completing 24. Paulus also tried 31 passes in the season opener against Minnesota.

His 346 yards passing against Northwestern is ranked sixth on the Syracuse single-game passing list.

“He thinks he can get it done, which every quarterback should think,” said West Virginia coach Bill Stewart. “I see a four-year basketball player from Duke that is a pretty special football player. Greg Paulus is a winner and he is good for college football, I just wish he would have waited until about their seventh game to come back.”

What is really amazing to the West Virginia coaches is the fact that Paulus has been able to play as well as he has without the benefit of having a spring practice to get acquainted with the Syracuse offense. Paulus didn’t choose Syracuse until July.

“That speaks to what kind of kid he is and what type of athlete he is,” said Casteel. “They’re doing some really good things with him. They do a lot of things to get him out of the pocket when they boot and naked him. They will screen you so they are doing things to help him, and he’s really taken a hold of what they’re asking him to do.”

Syracuse’s aggressive personality also shows up on defense, where senior defensive tackle Arthur Jones is considered one of the best at his position in the Big East. Last year Jones had 60 tackles, 13 tackles for losses and 3 ½ sacks. Jones hasn’t put up big numbers through five games so far this year – 10 tackles, three tackles for losses and no sacks – but an upper leg injury against Maine has limited his effectiveness.

Last week, the Jones of old returned against South Florida by recovering a pair of fumbles and producing a tackle for a loss. He is tied for fourth on SU’s career tackles for loss list with 34 ½.

“He’s one of the better players we’ll play this year,” said West Virginia offensive coordinator Jeff Mullen. “He plays very, very hard. He rushes the passer, he plays with his hands, he attacks the ball and he plays with leverage – all those things that you look for in a good defensive player. He’s going to be difficult to block.”

As it did under former Coach Greg Robinson, the Orange defense will bring a lot of pressure.

“They have a lot of pressure packages and they like to attack,” said Mullen. “They do a nice job of mixing it up.”

A tough early schedule that has included three Big Ten teams (Minnesota, Penn State and Northwestern) is beginning to take its toll on Syracuse’s depth. The Orange announced on Monday that tight ends Nick Provo and Cody Catalina will be out for Saturday’s game. Yesterday, Provo opted for season-ending surgery.

According to the Syracuse Post-Standard, starting center Jim McKenzie was held out of Tuesday’s practice with an unknown ailment, while third tight end and former quarterback Andrew Robinson is wearing a cast on his left hand.

Starting outside linebacker E.J. Carter, who shows just eight tackles and a tackle for a loss in five games, has been suspended by the coaching staff for a violation of team rules. Two key defenders – defensive end Brandon Sharpe and cornerback Phillip Thomas – are expected to return to the lineup after missing the South Florida game because of injuries.

West Virginia is in pretty good shape health-wise, according to Stewart. The coach said Tuesday that defensive tackle Scooter Berry, who missed the last two games with a sprained shoulder, should be ready to go on Saturday. Linebacker Reed Williams (turf toe) is also improving.

“My foot is doing well, but it’s always going to be there so it’s just going to be something I’ll learn to play through,” Williams said. “The pain goes away in front of 65,000 people, but it’s kind of hard to go out and practice every day.”

The winner of the WVU-Syracuse game receives the Schwartzwalder Trophy, which has been present since 1993 in honor of WVU alumnus and former Syracuse coach Floyd “Ben” Schwartzwalder. West Virginia has claimed the trophy 10 out of the 16 times it has been presented, including the last seven times dating back to 2002.

Last year, it took a 92-yard touchdown run by Noel Devine in the fourth quarter to help the Mountaineers pull out a 17-6 victory in Morgantown.

On Saturday, Syracuse will also officially rename the Carrier Dome to Ernie Davis Legends Field. The ceremony will take place at halftime to pay tribute to legendary running back Ernie Davis, who won the Heisman Trophy in 1961 before succumbing to cancer.

Game time is set for noon with the contest being televised on the Big East Network. MSN radio will cover the game on stations throughout West Virginia as well as nationally on Sirius channel 121 and XM 203.

WVU-SYRACUSE NOTEBOOK

DOUBLE DUTY

How often is it to have two quarterbacks in the same game that actually faced each other on the basketball court? That happened in the 2008 NCAA tournament at the Verizon Center in Washington, D.C., when West Virginia defeated Duke 73-67. Greg Paulus scored 13 points for the Blue Devils, while Jarrett Brown made a brief appearance and failed to score.

Speaking of Paulus, how often is it that a quarterback faces the same school in football and basketball? Well, it happens more often than you might think. Donovan McNabb did it with Syracuse against West Virginia in 1997. It also happened with Oregon State quarterback Terry Baker, who played football against West Virginia in 1962 and basketball against the Mountaineers in 1963.

Baker completed 11 of 19 passes for 177 yards and three touchdowns to lead Oregon State to a 51-22 victory over WVU in Portland. Baker also scored 15 points against West Virginia in the opening game of the 1963 Kentucky Invitational, a 70-65 Mountaineer victory.

HOME COOKING

Syracuse is in the middle of a six-game homestand that began on Sept. 19 with Northwestern and ends against Cincinnati on Oct. 31. The Orange are home for the entire month of October.

BALL TOTING

Delone Carter has the second most carries (88) of any back in the Big East conference. The Big East’s top ball carrier is Pitt’s Dion Lewis with 107 totes. Top Big East rusher Noel Devine has 34 fewer carries than Lewis, and 15 fewer carries than Carter.

FUMBLE RECOVERIES

West Virginia is the only FBS program that has yet to recover a fumble this year. Last season West Virginia recovered 11 fumbles.

“We are getting interceptions, of course, but we need to get the ball on the ground more,” said defensive end Julian Miller. “There have been a couple of times when the ball has been on the ground but we haven’t been able to recover them."

“Coach Stew wants us to get the ball out, try and get our hands in there and rip the ball out and get it on the ground. If a guy is standing up, try and go for the ball and rip it out –something,” Miller said.

NOISE PREP

Jeff Mullen said the offense will continue to do noise prep to get ready for what they could face in the Carrier Dome on Saturday.

“Every week we do some of that,” he said. “You never want to do things that will put something in your kids’ heads. We’ve played in loud places like Auburn this year. We pump the music up every Thursday and we will probably go in doors this week because of the domed stadium.”

ODD BALL

* Through the first four games of the season, West Virginia’s offense has been most effective in the first quarter. Six of the Mountaineers’ 17 touchdowns this year have been scored in the first quarter.

The Mountaineers have completed a higher percentage of their passes (73.1 percent) and have a higher passer rating (177.94) in the first quarter than in any other quarter. The completion percentage declines to 72.5 percent in the second quarter, 66.7 percent in the third quarter, and 55.6 percent in the fourth quarter.

West Virginia has also run the ball more effectively in the first quarter, averaging 8.9 yards per rush. The remaining three quarters WVU’s yards-per-carry average declines from 4.9 yards per carry in the second quarter, to 4.4 yards per carry in the third, to 3.9 yards per carry in the fourth.

* Six of the nine 10+ rushing plays the Mountaineer defense has given up this year have come on second down.

* West Virginia quarterbacks Jarrett Brown and Gino Smith have been impressive third down passers this year, especially on third and long. On third and more than seven plays this year the two have combined to complete 15 of 18 passes for 245 yards.

On the other side, Syracuse has struggled on third and more than seven, completing only 9 of 22 passes for 97 yards. Syracuse has been most effective passing on first down, completing 70.3 percent of its first-down pass attempts for 623 yards and four touchdowns this year.