Game Preview: WVU Staying Focused for Norfolk State

MORGANTOWN - For the second straight week in Morgantown, the opposing coaching staff has a history with WVU football.

Norfolk State head coach Pete Adrian graduated from West Virginia University in 1970 after playing sparingly with the Mountaineers from 1966-69. He now returns to his alma mater with plans of playing David to WVU's Goliath.

The team he's bringing to town is coming off a strong showing in its opener as quarterback Chris Walley led the Spartans to a 37-3 victory over Virginia State. The senior signal caller completed 86.2 percent of his passes and ran for 42 yards, totaling 297 yards for the game.

Walley was named the MEAC Offensive Player of the Week, but the test he faces Saturday will far outweigh anything Virginia State threw his way in week one.

The Mountaineers are coming off a strong defensive performance in which they held Marshall's offense to just six points, albeit through just three quarters of action. The Herd, led by a true freshman quarterback, managed 115 yards through the air. WVU cornerbacks coach David Lockwood expects his secondary to get tested early and often against Norfolk State.

"They'll throw the ball a little bit," says Lockwood. "Their biggest deal is getting in a lot of empty and when you get in empty, there's no run game, so they'll be throwing it. When they are throwing the ball, that's probably their number one formation. They get in some play action stuff, a lot of naked and stuff like that, which always makes it tough for you on the back end."

As far as the Norfolk State defense goes, there may be some similarities between what the Spartans implement and what the Mountaineers do under defensive coordinator Jeff Casteel.

That's no coincidence, either.

Spartans defensive coordinator Mark DeBastiani has experience playing for and coaching for Casteel during their time together at Shepherd College.



DeBastiani lettered three years for Shepherd and won back-to-back WVIAC championships before joining the staff in 1993 and winning another conference title in 1994.

WVU head coach Dana Holgorsen said earlier this week that his offense can certainly take some of what it learned in practicing against Casteel's unit all spring and through camp and use it in this week's game plan.

Norfolk State only allowed a second quarter field goal to the rival Trojans in its opener, but that was a Division-II opponent. Now the FCS Spartans are playing up a division rather than down and the results should be quite different.

West Virginia's offense lacked the fireworks many expected in its first showing of the year, but seemed to gel as the game wore on and looked most impressive in its last drive, which resulted in a Vernard Roberts touchdown run for a 21-point lead.

The Mountaineers could easily view this next test as an opportunity to go two- and three-deep into their depth chart, but the coaching staff is doing all it can to ensure that mindset never creeps into its locker room. FCS teams have upset FBS powers in the past, and WVU doesn't want any part in joining that list of extreme upsets.

The best way to avoid that, Holgorsen believes, is to pay no attention to the name or logo on the opponent's uniform.

"We treat every opponent the same," he says. "We didn't make a huge deal last week of being with in-state Marshall. We make a big deal of saying, This is who our opponent is. This is what they do. This is how we'll prepare for the game. This is the routine of the game week, let's worry about ourselves and go out and execute it.'"

Norfolk State represents WVU's final chance to work out the kinks before big out-of-conference matchups with Maryland and No. 2 LSU in back-to-back weeks.

Kickoff is set for 1 p.m.