MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — Quantifying this week’s revenge factor can be trickier than reading the 200-year-old lyrics on those Maryland uniforms. But after rehashing last season’s 37-0 debacle, West Virginia’s players sure sound ready to smack the Terps right in the ramparts.
“I just think of the embarrassment last year,” said receiver Kevin White, recalling his zero-catch day in rainy Baltimore. “This year will be different.”
Even with Maryland’s backup cornerbacks pressed into action, White and the rest of the West Virginia wideouts were nearly shutout—their lone completion coming on Ronald Carswell’s 12-yarder. Further illustrating how badly the offense wheezed: There were five three-and-outs, two drives that ended on first-play turnovers and one more series that concluded on a second-play fumble.
Another possession never began because Carswell fumbled away a punt.
“I looked up at the scoreboard and it was 21-0 before I even realized it,” said defensive lineman Kyle Rose. “It got out of hand too quick and we didn’t have the mental toughness to overcome it. It was an embarrassing loss.”
“Those kids put that (Towson) game behind them and they focused straight to Maryland. We didn’t have to say anything. It’s already charged up in them. As a man you don’t want to go out there and get your butt kicked.” — West Virginia assistant JaJuan Seider
Amid the gameday humiliation and the introspection that ensued, offensive coordinator Shannon Dawson said he realized that “we just weren’t very good.”
This year’s offense, through two games against varying degrees of competition, appears to be very good. It rang up 393 yards and 23 points on Alabama before posting 606 yards and a 54-spot on Towson. Naturally, the inclination to make up for last season’s no-show has bubbled up as the Mountaineers (1-1) head to College Park.
“Do we know in the back of our minds that we got our ass whipped last year? Yes. Do we know what the score was? Yes,” he said. “But we’re not going to overly stress that to the point where it’s bigger than the game, because this is a new game. It’s going to start off 0-0—it’s not going to start off with the score that ended last year.”
That score from last year, by the way, has been hanging in the weight room.
“We’ve been looking at that 37-0 the past couple days and we’ll be looking at it all week,” said running back Rushel Shell, who suffered embarrassment by association while sitting out 2013 as a transfer. “We’ve talked about getting payback and revenge. We’ve got to come out strong first drive, make a statement and show them they’re not going to shut us out this year.”
Shell’s position coach, JaJuan Seider, recalled the team was lethargic, mistake-prone and emotionally overmatched. West Virginia eked out only 175 yards and swallowed its first shutout since 2001, snapping a saven-year win streak against the Terps.
“It was bad. Point blank, an embarrassment,” said Seider, reciting the word of the day. “They were more motivated than our guys were. I don’t know if it’s because we won the last seven games and just went in there thinking it was an easy win, but reality set in and those guys were pretty good over there.”
“Do we know in the back of our minds that we got our ass whipped last year? Yes.” — West Virginia offensive coordinator Shannon Dawson
While West Virginia has faced Maryland all but two seasons since 1980, Saturday’s game will halt the series until a home-and-home resumption in 2020-21. No meetings are scheduled beyond that.
“It’s the only rival we’ve got left,” said Seider, who was a part of two wins over Maryland as a player in 1997 and ’98. “The Big 12’s trying to make it Iowa State, but that’s not a rivalry for us. Maryland’s the last rivalry we’ve got left, and we’re not going to play them for a while, so we’ve got to go out there and win.”
Mere minutes after finalizing the blowout of Towson, Seider noticed something he liked.
“Those kids put that game behind them and they focused straight to Maryland,” he said. “We didn’t have to say anything. It’s already charged up in them. As a man you don’t want to go out there and get your butt kicked.
“So we’ve got to go in and do the same thing they did to us last year.”