ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Tuesday, October 15, 1996 TAG: 9610150098
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B-1 EDITION: METRO
COLUMN: JACK BOGACZYK
SOURCE: JACK BOGACZYK
West Virginia hasn't had a football team quite like its current one in more than two decades.
Don Nehlen knows that because he's been the Mountaineers' coach for 17 seasons, and he says it. The losing records the previous four years under coach Frank Cignetti say it, too.
WVU calls its defense the ``Blue Blitz.'' What opposing teams are saying about it can't be printed. As for Nehlen, he says, ``Talent-wise, this is as good a group of players as we've had on defense since I've been here. We have a good football player at all 11 positions. Some years, I haven't been able to say that.''
West Virginia (6-0) has had a perfect season in more ways than one. The Mountaineers have played a schedule that helps a team improve, beating teams with a combined 12-25 record. The nation's 15th-ranked team visits Veterans Stadium on Saturday to meet Temple (1-5) in what should be another victory.
Then, in three of its last four games, WVU plays the teams it must beat to win the Big East Football Conference - Miami, Syracuse and Virginia Tech, with woeful Rutgers wedged between the last two contenders.
WVU also has the Hurricanes and Orangemen at Mountaineer Field, where the artificial turf only helps the speed of a defense that has 13 interceptions - only Auburn, with 14, has more - and leads the nation with 36 sacks. Rush linebacker Canute Curtis is being mentioned in the same breath with WVU's greatest gridiron legend, Sam Huff.
``The defensive speed we've had is what makes this team different,'' Nehlen said. ``All of our linemen run the 40 [yards] in 4.9-5.0 [seconds]. Usually, it's 5.1 or 5.2. That's a huge difference.''
Nehlen isn't saying this Mountaineers team is as good as the Major Harris-led 1988 squad that went unbeaten in the regular season before losing its national championship bid to Notre Dame in the Fiesta Bowl. If WVU wins the Big East, he might. However, there's a fine line between getting the league's alliance bowl spot and the Liberty Bowl berth that goes to the league's No.4 selection.
The Mountaineers share the nation's second-longest winning streak, seven games, with Army, behind Wyoming's 10, but WVU hasn't gotten there only with defense. The West Virginia offense has only four turnovers in six games, and Chad Johnston should pass Harris this week as the school's No.2 quarterback in career air yardage, behind only Oliver Luck.
``The difference in my game has been in the decision-making,'' said Johnston, who played a year of high school football at Craig County. ``It's helped a lot to have a balanced attack [led by the 686 rushing yards from redshirt freshman Amos Zereoue]. Last year, we had so many injuries on the offensive line and so many freshmen in there, it felt like we had a different team every week.''
Another part of Johnston's game that has changed is what happens on the sideline. He used to leave the field and put on a headset to talk to the coaches upstairs. Then he'd relax. This season, he said, ``We've had to have some quick conversations, '' when the defense has played three-and-out with the opposition.
In 1995, the Mountaineers were so Band-Aided their team leaders may have been Johnson & Johnson. This year, Johnston, the first West Virginia native to start regularly at quarterback for the school since Allen McCune in the mid-60s, is the front man.
``You never have a great football team without great senior leadership,'' said Nehlen, whose next victory will be his 175th as a college head coach. ``We don't have a lot of them, but the ones we have are doing the right things.
``The schedule, with the teams we still have to play, has helped us grow offensively. With eight new starters, we needed something like that. It's been a great start, but just how good we are, I guess the jury's still out a little bit. After we play the top dogs, we'll see how it goes.''
LENGTH: Medium: 73 linesby CNB