Specifically, West Virginia has one and Pitt doesn’t.
WVU is 8th in the country (236.78 yds/gm) and 1st in the Big East, while Pitt is 94th (116.30) overall and 7th in the BE (we can thank Syracuse for that). Strangely Pitt’s rushing yardage is actually up (110.6) from last year at this time and WVU’s is down (258.3) — and both teams’ passing yardage are down around 40 yards from last year.
Both teams are playing the kids at running back.
Mountaineers freshman tailback Steve Slaton: 659 yards rushing and 11 touchdowns, with 617 of those yards and every touchdown coming in the five games since he became a starter.
Mountaineers redshirt freshman quarterback Pat White, who runs like a tailback: 478 yards rushing and three touchdowns, 174 yards and two of those scores coming in starts the past two games.
Panthers freshman tailback LaRod Stephens-Howling: 389 yards in eight games, two starts.
Panthers freshman tailback Rashad Jennings: 342 yards in eight games, one start.
That list excludes others: Ballyhooed Pitt freshman tailback Conredge Collins, who has played in five games, plus sophomore Brandon Mason and Duquesne High’s Shane Brooks, both redshirting; West Virginia sophomore fullback Owen Schmitt, right behind Slaton and White as the team’s third-leading rusher with 202 yards; and West Virginia’s vaunted freshman tailback Jason Gwaltney, out a fourth game because of a sprained medial collateral knee ligament and also scratched from the regular-season finale because of academic deficiencies.
The difference is that WVU has a far better O-line. In the middle they have the likely all-Big East Center Junior Dan Mozes. Then there are the 300 pound senior tackles on either side. Experience on the line really helps them.
WVU may be running the spread, but what they are doing probably has Coach Wannstedt drooling with envy. They only average about 16 passes per game and complete 10. So, while their passing game is 113th in the country with only 127.6 yards/game, it is very efficient.
The Hoopies will be running a lot. It is their strength. And of course, it is Pitt’s weakness (74th in the country, and 6th in the BE) allowing 158.6 yds/gm.
And after another anemic performance on offense, where the running game was ineffective, Pitt will still be trying to run . Again, a lot of this is traced to the O-line that gets no push off the line and does not open holes for the running backs. Despite the ineffective running game, and facing the nation’s 5th best run defense, Coach Wannstedt sees no reason not to continue to emphasize the run.
Against Connecticut, the Panthers ran 34 times for 76 yards (2.2 per carry).
In the Huskies’ three games before their meeting with the Panthers — losses to Cincinnati, Rutgers and West Virginia — they were shredded for 689 yards on the ground. All three of those teams rushed for at least 200 yards in those games.
Pitt rushed for only 62 yards against Louisville in its previous game.
The Panthers seem to have some talented running backs in LaRod Stephens-Howling and Rashad Jennings and the offensive line has improved, but something is clearly not working.
Wannstedt said that it has been tough to pinpoint the reason.
“The commitment is there and we will stay with that commitment,” he said. “It has been tempting [to abandon the run] when you are in there preparing, and it is easy to say, ‘We are not very good at [running the ball] so let’s put our focus and our energy into something else.’
“That’s not going to happen. I don’t believe in that. It is not the right thing to do. It’s going to take some time, but we just have to stay with it. The better we get as a team, the better our run game will get.”
Well, maybe WVU Coach Rodriguez will suffer a second consecutive year of brainlock and try to throw on Pitt a lot more.
