Holtz has key to stopping WVU

The East Carolina coach has kept the Mountaineers’
standouts in check.

GREENVILLE, N.C. (AP) — Maybe Skip Holtz has figured out something the rest of the college football world hasn’t: How to slow West Virginia’s potent rushing offense.

Ever since Steve Slaton and Patrick White emerged in 2005, the fifth-ranked Mountaineers have rolled up big points and even bigger stats against virtually everyone they’ve played — except East Carolina.

Now the coach of the only team to hold West Virginia to fewer than 200 yards rushing in each of the last two seasons is letting people in on his secret: Scrap the gimmick defenses, and keep things simple.

“Everybody’s tried something schematically,” Holtz said Monday. “What we’ve tried to do the last two years is say, ‘This is what we do.’ Let’s challenge our players that we’re going to have to play fast, we’re going to have to run to the ball, we’re going to have to tackle real well in the open field, and we have tried not to change anything.”

It worked — at least, according to the stat sheets.

Worked last two years

In 2005, when White was a change-of-pace backup quarterback and Slaton was a fourth-string tailback, Holtz’s first Pirates team held the Mountaineers to a season-worst 127 yards rushing and hung close in a 20-15 loss.

A year later, the Pirates held Slaton to just 80 yards — one of only three sub-100-yard games for him last season. They prevented White from running wild, limited West Virginia to its second-worst output of the year (153 yards rushing) and kept things tight for longer than expected before fading in a 27-10 defeat.

“It was a dogfight. ... A lot of people, even West Virginia fans, said, ‘I’ve never seen Pat White that green.’ He never usually hits the floor like that,” said defensive lineman Khalif Mitchell, who sat out 2006 after transferring from North Carolina.

Now, West Virginia (3-0) has another big-play threat in freshman Noel Devine. Slaton’s backup averages 15 yards per attempt and needed just two carries to reach 100 yards last week at Maryland, prompting Holtz to say he “may be better than Slaton.”

He helped the Mountaineers take their annual place among the nation’s best rushing offenses, ranking second to Navy with an average of nearly 344 yards.

Best defense against run

Meanwhile, East Carolina (1-2) has Conference USA’s best defense against the run, allowing an average of 86 yards, and in three games has allowed just one 100-yard rusher. But three first-year starters in the secondary have Holtz concerned after veterans in previous years were able to keep West Virginia from breaking off long gains.

“We’ve just tried to play a base defense and really challenge our players,” Holtz said.

“We’ve been playing with a very seasoned, veteran secondary and they’ve done a great job the last two years. Now we’re going to take some younger guys into the mix and we’re going to have to step up and address the challenge.”