MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — Sometime early into Saturday’s noon matchup at Milan Puskar Stadium between Arizona and West Virginia, Mountaineers’ head coach Rich Rodriguez expects the Wildcats to blitz.
They’re likely to continue to rely on that tactic for much of what comes after as well.
“They are the blitz-happiest team we’ve played and probably that I’ve seen in the last six, seven years,” Rodriguez said. “They’ll bring it all the time. That’s who they are. That’s their identity defensively. They can make you look really bad. They’ll bring it from everywhere. They do a really good job of timing it up and creating negative yardage plays. The challenge up front for our offensive linemen is to make sure we’re recognizing it. The quarterback has to be able to get rid of the ball quicker. They can make you look ugly in the run game. You can’t totally abandon it, but if they force you to throw it, you have to be able to pitch and catch, too.”
Only three FBS teams have more sacks than Arizona’s 18, and the Wildcats’ disruptive defense is also evidenced by the unit’s 34 tackles for loss, a number that ranks fourth among 16 teams in the Big 12 Conference.
“We’re aggressive,” Wildcats’ defensive coordinator Danny Gonzales said. “I believe in playing behind the line of scrimmage just like they believe in playing on our side of the line of scrimmage. We’re really good up front when we’re physical and when we play up front. We’re not very good when we don’t play hard and we’re not very physical.”
The Wildcats (4-1) didn’t lack physicality last Saturday and will come to Morgantown off their best defensive effort this season. Arizona limited Cincinnati to 227 total yards and 12 first downs, while holding the Bearcats scoreless over the first 58 minutes of a 34-7 victory.
Until UC put together a late drive to produce its only points, the Bearcats were averaging less than 3.2 yards per play.
Similar to the Mountaineers, Cincinnati is a run-first offense, and that had been a successful method over the Bearcats’ first four games. But how West Virginia goes about it with the usage of quarterback Michael Hawkins Jr. on the ground and consistent tempo creates a far different challenge.
“They don’t care how you’re lined up. They don’t care if you’re lined up,” Gonzales said. “I think that’s really impressive that an offense can block people. They get on tracks and try and mow you over. The excellence that they demand in that tempo, it’s impressive to watch the TV copies of the offensive line and how quickly they move.
“He [Rodriguez] has been successful everywhere he’s been with whoever he’s had. I think that’s the true testament of a really good football coach is that he can adapt to whatever his players are and he does a fantastic job with it. I’ve never gone against him or his tree. I have great respect for him. I met him one time at a coaching convention. This will be fun.”
West Virginia (3-2) is third nationally with an average of 294 rushing yards and second with nearly 54 runs per game. Tailback Cam Cook is first in the country with 119 carries and second with 652 yards, while Hawkins is tied for ninth with 92 rushing attempts and 10th with 574 yards — the most of any quarterback. Hawkins is also first in the country with 11 rushing touchdowns, while Cook has five.
“He’s slippery and hard to tackle,” Gonzales said of Hawkins. “Both he and Cook, when they see a seam, they take it and they make you pay for it.”
As a result of Hawkins’ penchant for extending and making plays with his legs, WVU has seen teams employ a spy on Hawkins.
Rodriguez expects the Wildcats to as well, though how that impacts them bringing pressure creates somewhat of a chess match between he and Gonzales.
“There’s no question they’ll probably have somebody keeping their eye on him. I don’t think they’ll just abandon their blitz packages, because that’s who they are, but I’m sure they’ll have particular quarterback-type blitzes on or somebody spying or keeping an eye on him,” Rodriguez said.
“Sometimes when you have a quarterback like Mike, when you drop back, you kind of hope everybody is covered, so he can take off and nobody is left for him. But you have to be able to do that. You can’t just have a guy just coming free and be able to hit him without getting blocked, so you have to manage that as a coach.”
Arizona is allowing less than 14 points on average in its victories and held up just fine defensively in a 28-17 defeat at BYU.
But because of how unique and successful West Virginia has been offensively over its first five games, this will be among the toughest challenges yet and perhaps throughout the season for the Wildcats.
“They’re the third-best rushing offense in the country and the only two that are in front of them are Army and Air Force, and that’s because those are triple-option teams,” Gonzales said. “They’re efficient. It’s what they do and it’s like we talked about with Cincinnati, when they run the ball effectively, the wide receivers become wide open. If you watched the Iowa State game, [Hawkins] threw a couple balls that were impressive. He’s a dual threat that causes you a lot of issues and makes your frickin’ hair turn gray.”