MORGANTOWN ÃÛÁÄÖ±²¥” Did you notice that nip in the air on Monday?
No, you say? It was pushing 90 degrees, and the only nip anyone really was looking for in these parts was from a cold drink.
But somehow, in mid-afternoon, there was a little breeze that made it feel like football season was just around the corner.
True, itÃÛÁÄÖ±²¥™s a month and a half away, but as the Big 12 football media day dawns upon us, the conference gave us a little feel of whatÃÛÁÄÖ±²¥™s in store by announcing its preseason All-Big 12 team.
And, if you want something to shove away all those stories the preseason magazines are releasing on how bad West Virginia might be in this first season of the second Rich Rodriguez regime, put your arms around this ÃÛÁÄÖ±²¥” and if you can put your arms around it, you may be doing something Mountaineers opponents are going to find quite difficult this season.
Running back Jahiem White starts his third season as an All-Big 12 selection.
HeÃÛÁÄÖ±²¥™s the only Mountaineer named to the team, but when you consider that there are almost 80 new players who will be suiting up for WVU this season, thatÃÛÁÄÖ±²¥™s not really surprising.
HereÃÛÁÄÖ±²¥™s the deal: Rodriguez now can say he already has his Steve Slaton.
Seeing as in his first term as WVU coach it took him five years to get Slaton into his backfield, you have to figure heÃÛÁÄÖ±²¥™s ahead of the game.
Rodriguez needs that kind of running back to make his offense the dynamic weapon it turned into. If he can find something resembling Pat White at quarterback, he might just go into this season with a loaded shotgun.
See, Rodriguez knows what to do when he has a dynamic running back. He actually inherited one himself from Don Nehlen in his first season in Avon Cobourne, and by the time he got through with his two years under Rodriguez, after a pair of seasons under Nehlen, Cobourne became WVUÃÛÁÄÖ±²¥™s all-time leading career rusher.
There was no shortage of carries for him and you suspect there wonÃÛÁÄÖ±²¥™t be for White, either. In two years, Cobourne carried the football 622 times and gained 3,008 yards.
So, one figures we might all suspect that Rodriguez has that up his sleeve for this season.
True, he doesnÃÛÁÄÖ±²¥™t have Pat White to create a two-headed monster for defenses, but WVUÃÛÁÄÖ±²¥™s offense before he paired those two together was pretty productive with Cobourne and Rasheed Marshall rushing for 2,376 yards combined (to say nothing of Quincy Wilson rushing for 901 more yards out of the same backfield).
In the 2003 season it was Wilson and Marshall doing their thing, with Wilson rushing for 1,380 yards and Marshall putting together 2,032 total yards through the air and on the ground, and then in 2004, it was Marshall and Kay-Jay Harris combining for 1718 rushing yards.
All that was before Slaton and Pat White created the most dynamic offense in WVU history.
Now thereÃÛÁÄÖ±²¥™s Jahiem White, but donÃÛÁÄÖ±²¥™t expect the White you saw the past two years. The Rodriguez version of Jahiem White has his body restructured to take advantage not only of the elusiveness he showed, but with muscles that are going allow him to do his thing without CJ Donaldson providing the power running.
If Rodriguez can put together an offensive line out of transfers that can just get him a few holes, you can expect to be seeing some things you havenÃÛÁÄÖ±²¥™t seen since Slaton was doing his thing for the Mountaineers.
Now, is it troubling that there arenÃÛÁÄÖ±²¥™t any other Mountaineers to join him on the preseason all-conference team.
But that may reflect more on the anonymity of the roster than on the talent. Defending Big 12 champion Arizona State has five players to lead everyone on the team, including the Preseason Player of the Year in sophomore quarterback Sam Leavitt.
No, there is no quarterback named Pat White to join Jahiem White on the team, but there is a coach named Pat White to help pass on the knowledge that he gained in four years running the Rodriguez offense and a member of the staff named Rasheed Marshall to also contribute to his expertise to Nicco Marchiol and Jaylen Henderson, a Texas A&M transfer who figures to compete with Marchiol for the starting job and who may wind up sharing playing time to give the offense two radically different looks.
