Uncommon Success ...

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Uncommon Success

By BRETT McMURPHY, The Tampa Tribune

Published: September 26, 2007

TAMPA - Before last year's game at West Virginia, University of South Florida coach Jim Leavitt stepped into defensive coordinator Wally Burnham's office one morning.

Leavitt was concerned about how the Bulls would slow the Mountaineers' vaunted offense.

Burnham drew up the defense on the blackboard and discussed the game plan. But Leavitt, a former defensive coordinator at Kansas State, still had more questions.

Burnham then explained West Virginia ran a similar offense to what Nebraska used to run.

Then Burnham mentioned that while he was at Florida State from 1985 to 1993, the Seminoles were 5-1 against Nebraska, allowing only 20.3 points a game. During Leavitt's tenure at Kansas State from 1990 to 1995, the Wildcats were 0-6 against Nebraska, giving up 38.7 points per game.

Finally satisfied with Burnham's explanation, Leavitt left Burnham's office.

Three days later, USF held West Virginia to 132 yards rushing - 171 yards below last year's 303-yard average - in pulling off the biggest upset in school history with the 24-19 win against the No. 7 Mountaineers.

West Virginia running back Steve Slaton was limited to 43 yards on 18 carries, while quarterback Pat White had only 17 yards on 15 carries.

'No one would ever dream you could do that,' Burnham said. 'A lot of things have to go your way.'

The No. 18 Bulls (3-0) host No. 5 West Virginia Friday at sold-out Raymond James Stadium, hoping to continue their success against the Mountaineers.

In the past two seasons against USF, the Mountaineers (4-0) are averaging 21.5 points and 352 yards, both are lows for WVU against Big East opponents.

'They've had a nice plan and they've executed well,' WVU coach Rich Rodriguez said. 'They didn't give up any big plays last year and created a turnover for a touchdown.'

While White blitzed the Bulls for 177 yards rushing in West Virginia's 28-13 win in Tampa in 2005, the Bulls have shut down Slaton the past two years.

In his career, Slaton is averaging 2.8 yards per carry against USF, compared with 6.6 yards against WVU's other opponents.

'They know how explosive Steve is,' Rodriguez said. 'They keep an eye on No. 10. Steve has played hard, but he hasn't broken loose for any big ones. Pat did a couple years ago. USF has good players and they've executed very well.'

Burnham said that facing West Virginia is certainly not easy, but the philosophy is 'very simple.'

'When you play against an option football team, it's assignment football,' Burnham said. 'Someone has the dive, someone has the option, someone has the pitch. Now against West Virginia you might have to put two people on the quarterback, two people on the dive and somebody on the pitch. You can't freelance. You can't do a lot of different things. You have to be patient and know they're going to get some plays.'

Besides White and Slaton, this year the Mountaineers will have highly touted freshman running back Noel Devine of North Fort Myers.

'They can run the ball, they're all good backs,' USF senior cornerback Trae Williams said. 'Pat White and Steve Slaton are up for the Heisman. We have our work cut out for us. We have to worry about your job, just do your job.'

Added senior cornerback Mike Jenkins: 'If you try to do more than you need to do, you're in trouble. If I play corner, I can't try to help the safety. You have to do your assignment and that's it.'

Defensive end George Selvie, who returned a fumble for a TD last year in Morgantown, said Burnham had demanded perfection in practice.

'We just play our assignment,' Selvie said. 'Coach Burnham had a specific thing we had to do and we had to do that to a 'T.' If we didn't do it right in practice, we had to do it over again until we did.'

USF safety Louis Gachette summed up the Bulls' strategy for Friday.

'Whatever we did last year,' he said. 'Obviously we'll do it again and see where we're at.'

Reporter Brett McMurphy can be reached at (813) 259-7928 or bmcmurphy@tampatrib.com.