September 7, 2006
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. - With a bevy of newcomers playing in the Mountaineer defensive backfield and with West Virginia never being threatened in its season-opening 42-10 victory over Marshall, fans saw plenty of fresh faces running around Milan Puskar Stadium last Saturday afternoon.
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| Tito Gonzales caught two passes for 61 yards including a 45-yarder in the fourth quarter in last weekend's Marshall win. All-Pro Photography/Dale Sparks photo | |
Perhaps the biggest impact by a newcomer came from redshirt freshman defensive back Quinton Andrews. The Opa Locka, Fla. native, known more for his crushing hits than his coverage skills, intercepted a Bernie Morris pass to halt a third quarter drive by the Thundering Herd.
“I noticed that their quarterback was locked onto his receiver pretty hard and I could tell it was going to be a crossing route across the middle,” Andrews said. “I got a good read on him and just made my break and it turned out to be a good break.”
Andrews says that because he traveled with the team last year, his first game experience wasn’t nearly as overwhelming as it might be for some freshmen.
“Honestly everything felt like last year because I traveled and dressed for every game,” Andrews said. “During warm-ups everything felt the same but as the game began to start I began to get a different feeling because I knew I was going to play this year. I started to get really excited.”
Charles Pugh, predominantly a special teams player in 2005, earned his first start in the Mountaineer defensive backfield on Saturday. The sophomore strong safety believes that while the secondary had some success, they still have a lot to work on in the coming weeks.
“After watching film we did do a lot of good things but it is just the first game, we’re going to have to make a lot of changes and adjustments to our defense and that has already started,” Pugh said.
Pugh says that his biggest shock in his first collegiate start was the adjustment to a much faster pace.
“I was impressed by the speed of the game. I knew the speed of the game was going to be fast but it was faster than I thought it was going to be,” Pugh said. “I was well prepared though. I feel like we go against one of the best offenses in the nation everyday in practice so I was prepared.”
The Orlando, Fla., native was active, recording seven tackles against the Herd.
“That’s my game, I love football. If I’m on the field I’m going to try to be in on every play and try to be wherever the ball is,” Pugh said. “That is part of my game, hard-nosed, fast football.”
Pugh admits that he is a very emotional player and sometimes, as was the case on Saturday, it can be a challenge to harness his exuberance and to channel it in a positive way.
“My passion for the game definitely carries onto the field but at this level you definitely need to know how to control it or you get penalties and personal fouls,” he said. “You can miss assignments and you can let it overtake you. I think my mentality helps more than it hurts but I just need to control it a little bit more.”
Maxwell Anderson had the rare opportunity to play in his first-ever game at West Virginia as a true freshman. The Morgantown, W.Va., resident and Morgantown High product tried to compare his experience of playing in four Mohawk Bowls at Mountaineer Field to running out of the tunnel for the Gold and Blue.
“There is no comparison,” he said. “I had more fun just this one game than I had all four years in high school. The fans and the whole atmosphere, even if you don’t get in the game, it’s just electrifying.”
Anderson recorded one pass reception for five yards, which set up Jarrett Brown’s fourth quarter touchdown run.
“Everyone wants to talk about the catch. If I had a penny for every time someone told me I should have jumped, I’d be a billionaire,” Anderson joked. “I was just happy that I caught the ball and did what I could with it.”
Anderson, who was all set to attend Georgetown before the financial aid numbers they had promised him didn’t add up, says that in the end, things could not have worked out better for him. The walk-on was put on scholarship in the preseason and he has been on cloud nine ever since.
“I’m so happy I don’t think I have stopped smiling on the inside since they put me on. It was really big,” Anderson said. “I went home and spent the night with my family that Saturday because I wanted to share it with them. It was one of the greatest days of my life.”
Greg Isdaner is another newcomer that was thrown into the fire early in the Marshall game. Isdaner, who had been practicing as a backup left guard, was called on to play when left tackle Damien Crissey was injured on the third play of the game.
“I was a little nervous at first and when I first got out there. We called a pass play thank God and I couldn’t mess that up,” Isdaner said. “After the first play we scored a touchdown and that was such a great feeling. I got to come back to the sidelines and compose myself to get ready to go back out there. The next couple series we marched down the field and put some more points on the board. As the game went on I got more and more comfortable out there with those guys.”
Redshirt freshman quarterback Jarrett Brown, sophomore wide receiver Tito Gonzales and true freshman linebacker James Thomas all contributed as first-time players against Marshall. Brown had one carry for a seven-yard touchdown in the fourth quarter while Gonzales netted two receptions for 61 yards, including a 45-yarder. Thomas recorded one tackle and one assist.
All of these young players have something to build upon when the Mountaineers face Eastern Washington this Saturday.
Kick off at Milan Puskar Stadium is set for 1 pm.September 6, 2006
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – When West Virginia University coach Rich Rodriguez offered Greg Isdaner a scholarship two years ago during the offensive guard's official visit to Morgantown, Isdaner never dreamed his life would become so complicated.
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| Greg Isdaner has fulfilled a dream of becoming a major college football player. All-Pro Photography/Dale Sparks photo | |
The Gladwyne, Pa., resident had just a handful of smaller schools recruiting him and the Mountaineers were the only Division I football program to offer him a full ride. It seemed like an easy choice for Isdaner -- accept Rodriguez’s offer right on the spot and head on over to the WVU Team Shop to get some Mountaineer gear.
But life can often be much more complicated than that.
Greg’s parents Bart and Eileen Isdaner had completely different plans for their son. Both went to Georgetown and while they enjoyed sports, they were more interested in having Greg attend a prestigious academic institution that could open up doorways and present a much easier path to future success. College football was just fun and games – a distraction to the more important things in life.
What ensued was a battle of wills that lasted six months and has only recently been resolved.
“I wanted to come here real badly and they wanted me to look at Penn and Georgetown,” Isdaner said. “I wasn’t even living at home for a while.”
Isdaner attended The Episcopal Academy in Merion, Pa., a prep academic factory that develops Ivy Leaguers much like the Mountaineer program manufactures professional football players.
“Every year (Episcopal) sends 50 percent of its class to Ivy League equivalent schools,” Isdaner said. “I think we had something like eight kids go to Penn, four go to Harvard and we had only 100 kids in a class. The average SAT score was like 1320 and that takes in low factors like me and all those football guys.”
Isdaner is joking, of course. Like WVU senior linebacker Jay Henry who has never achieved anything less than an A his entire life, Greg is as bright and as articulate as they come. Isdaner admits that those around him were making pretty persuasive arguments that he should give up his dream of playing major college football.
“It’s hard to turn down the Ivy League,” he said. “When you get out into the real world you can get pretty much any job you want.”
But like most normal 17-year-olds, Isdaner wasn’t interested in immediately preparing himself for board room meetings and making complex business decisions -- he wanted to get out in the mud and dirt and tackle his friends on the football field. Besides, he figured the real-world stuff would be there waiting for him soon enough.
“I just love football – I love hitting people and it was just a goal,” he said. “I didn’t even really think about playing football in college until my junior year but once that hit and I started getting letters I thought to myself, maybe I can do this. Why not give it a shot even if I have to walk on somewhere?”
That meant walking away from some of the very best schools in the country.
“My parents were split about it,” Isdaner said. “My mom and dad took different sides on the issue but they both sort of had the same feeling that they wanted me to look at the more academic schools that would have better connections throughout the world. If you say you went to Harvard eyes are going to open right away.”
Both sides dug in. Isdander decided to dig his way out by moving out for a while.
“It was a rough stretch,” he said. “I lived with our equipment manager from high school for a while until things settled down a little bit.”
Through all this West Virginia stuck by Isdaner even though he never signed a letter-of-intent on signing day. Both sides had a good faith agreement until Isdaner could get things resolved with his family.
“Finally I got my parents to come around in July (of last year),” he said. “(West Virginia) didn’t have to stick with me for five or six months but they did.”
Isdaner was originally going to come in last year as a walk on and play his way into a scholarship, but he got one on the second day of camp when North Carolina defensive back Marquis Melvin chose to pursue a singing career. That was music to Isdaner’s ears.
“I’m so glad I’m finally here and I wanted to show them that they made the right decision for sticking with me for so long,” he said.
Last year, Isdaner spent the entire season as a backup and actually ran with the twos for a while before redshirting. Some of his friends, disappointed in his decision to walk away from the Ivy League, were beginning to remind him of what he was missing.
“It was rough at the beginning of last year, but more and more it’s gotten better,” Isdaner said.
Today, he has worked himself into a prominent role playing in one of college football’s rising programs. When starting left tackle Damien Crissey went down with an ankle injury during last weekend’s season opener against Marshall, Isdaner went in at left guard and Ryan Stanchek moved out to tackle.
“I was a little nervous at first and when I first went out there I was like, ‘Whoa.’ We called a pass play thank God and I couldn’t mess that up. After the first play we scored a touchdown and that was such a great feeling. I got to come back to the sidelines and compose myself to get ready to go back out there. As the game went on I got more and more comfortable out there with those guys.”
Like all first-time players, Rodriguez says there is plenty of room for improvement.
“He did OK,” said the coach. “It wasn’t a great performance but for his first time in there he battled and he competed. Every mistake he made was a correctable mistake so we’re pretty pleased with his first outing.”
Isdaner wants more.
“This year I wanted to prove that I was good enough to play early here,” he said. “Now I’ve gotten to the point where I proved that. Now I’m trying to prove to myself that I can be a good player here.”
And perhaps someday even play beyond WVU. As slim as those odds may be, the odds of Isdaner making the NFL are actually better than him becoming a CEO of a Fortune 500 company.
Isdaner believes his West Virginia University education will serve him just fine when it’s time to go job hunting. There are plenty of WVU success stories out there in the business world to rely on.
“I’ll be halfway through my degree by December,” he says. “My plan is to graduate in three years and still be on scholarship to get my master’s degree.”
As for his parents, they’re starting to come around, too. They were at last weekend’s home opener to witness the pageantry and excitement surrounding the nation’s No. 5-ranked college football team. Pretty soon they may even have to buy some of those My Son is Number 79 buttons to wear at the games -- if they haven’t already.
And soon his friends back home may be walking into the Episcopal Academy gymnasium and seeing a picture of big Greg proudly wearing his Mountaineer uniform, providing inspiration to some other kid wanting to spend some time playing in the dirt and mud tackling his buddies.
As for the real world -- whenever that comes – his experiences as a member of the West Virginia University football team will serve him well. During those awkward moments at the start of a big job interview, all he’s got to do is show off that bright, shiny Nokia Sugar Bowl championship ring that he earned last year -- and have a good story or two ready to tell.
That shouldn’t be a problem at all.September 6, 2006
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| Izzo-Brown | LeBlanc | Rodriguez |
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. -- Being that Marlon LeBlanc has been West Virginia’s men’s soccer coach now for less than a month, the last thing in the world he wanted was for his team to have a target on its back. Guess what? LeBlanc’s team now has a target on its back.
This week the Mountaineers cracked the Top 10 for the first time ever in the NSCAA (soccer coaches) poll. West Virginia’s 2-1 upset of Cal-Northridge last Saturday was just the third time since 2004 that the Mountaineers have downed a nationally ranked team. The men are ranked No. 21 by Soccer Times, No. 23 by Soccer America and No. 25 by College Soccer News.com.
“We would have liked to have flown under the radar for one more week,” LeBlanc admitted. “But that part is done -- I don’t think we’re going to sneak up on anybody now. The goal now is to just keep it going and keep winning games and get ourselves into a position that by the end of the season we’re right on the doorstep of an NCAA bid.”
WVU Director of Athletics Ed Pastilong says LeBlanc’s background with championship teams at Penn State and his easy going nature were natural fits at West Virginia.
“I remember walking down to his first practice and talking to him and watching his team perform,” Pastilong said. “When I walked back to my car I felt like he had been coaching them all year.”
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Men’s soccer joins the No. 5-rated Mountaineer football team and the No. 9-ranked WVU women’s soccer team in the Top 10, making West Virginia one of just two schools in the country to have Top 10 teams in those three sports (Notre Dame is the other).
Women’s soccer coach Nikki Izzo-Brown, who has seen her Mountaineer team in 43 of the last 45 women’s soccer polls, says nationally ranked teams are becoming part of the culture inside the WVU athletic department today.
“There are so many programs here at West Virginia competing on a national level and are doing things to make the University and the state proud,” she said.
Football coach Rich Rodriguez embraces his program’s high national ranking. His Mountaineer teams have been in 31 of the last 38 polls, finishing last year No. 5 after beating Georgia 38-35 in the Nokia Sugar Bowl.
“All the hype and stuff they get, that doesn’t bother me as long as it doesn’t change who they are and how they work,” Rodriguez said. “If it does change them, then we have issues.”
Izzo-Brown takes the same approach with her women’s program.
“The one thing I don’t want my team to feel is that when they step out on the field that just because you’re ranked you don’t have to work hard,” she said. “That’s my biggest thing with these rankings. Yeah, everyone is giving you respect but by them respecting you it makes you work harder. You’ve got to prove day in and day out that you deserve the rankings you’re getting.
“By no means do I ever want them to get complacent or just because you put on a West Virginia uniform that you’re going to win a game,” she said.
Izzo-Brown remembers what it was like a few years ago when her young program was still searching for respect.
“Once you start getting nationally ranked, teams respect you and they start playing you differently. We used to do the same things to teams that were ranked,” she said. “Now we’re the one so every day we have to prepare knowing that teams want what we have. Teams are going to compete with you on every level whether it’s a physical level or a technical level.”
Ed Pastilong has always strived for a well-rounded, nationally recognized athletic program. Today, the department is the strongest it has ever been from top to bottom.
Craig Turnbull and Linda Burdette have built nationally recognized programs in wrestling and women’s gymnastics, John Beilein has taken men’s basketball to a pair of NCAA tournament “Sweet 16” appearances, and Mike Carey has had a good deal of success revitalizing women’s basketball with post-season trips in two of the last three years.
Sergio Lopez is a rising star in college swimming and Jeff Huntoon has had Top 20 teams in the past in both women’s track and cross country.
“I like having those targets on our backs,” Pastilong said.
LeBlanc says getting into the rankings means a few more soccer recruits will take his phone calls now, and a team or two that was unwilling to play in Morgantown may reconsider.
“When it comes time to get a return game from Penn State I’m going to play a little hardball and say, ‘Hey, we’re in the Top 25 and you need to come down here and play us from now on,’” he joked.
“I guess we’re keeping up with the other good programs here,” LeBlanc added. “If anything, I hope it means more people will show up to watch us play.”
Pastilong is enjoying his department’s success for other reasons.
“Now I can sleep well at night,” he laughed.
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