By DAVE MORRISON
BECKLEY — Noel Devine certainly has South Florida coach Jim Leavitt’s attention.
“He's always been great as far as I'm concerned,” Leavitt said. “He was great in high school He's just got such a knack for getting to the goal line. He'll play in the NFL and be a tremendous player there, too.”
What Leavitt and his staff have to do is contain the Florida native tonight when West Virginia travels to South Florida. The ESPN game will kickoff at 8 p.m.
It’s not so much the majority of Devine’s carries that concern Leavitt.
It’s the one or two breakaway runs that Devine seems to put up each week.
He has been slowed. For a while.
Last week against Connecticut, Devine had 10 carries for seven yards at the half.
In the second half he had 171 yards, including runs of 62 and 56 yards, the second a touchdown that sealed WVU’s 28-24 win over the Huskies.
“You can stop him one time or two times, or maybe 10 times,” Leavitt said. “It’s those other ones that kill you.”
The Bulls possess one of the top defensive lines in the country, led by George Selvie and Jason Pierre-Paul. The two have combined for 16 tackles for a loss of yards and five sacks. Craig Marshall leads the USF with four sacks.
Still, last week, Pitt freshman running back Dion Lewis ran for 111 yards in the No. 15 Panthers’ 41-7 demolition of South Florida last week. A week before USF lost to No. 8 Cincinnati 34-17.
“It’s going to be a challenge for us and we are going to have to change some of our game plans to get ready for those guys,” Devine said. They have a good defensive line up front. They get after the ball and they have a good pass defense.”
Stewart said the Mountaineers won’t show a drastic change.
“We are going to have to move the ball and move the pocket,” Stewart said. “We can’t let people get us in the cross-hairs. We will have to throw it deep, throw those over routes and move the ball around. You have to use motion and movement — I want to confuse South Florida.
“I don’t want to sit there and let them get us in their sights. We have to move the pocket and use that stuff to our advantage without giving ourselves up.”
Quarterback Jarrett Brown will be key against the Bulls. The senior quarterback has completed 112-of-167 passes for 1,362 yards and nine touchdowns. He has been intercepted six times.
“I don’t want to think about the rush,” Brown said. “That will throw my game off as a quarterback. All I can do is worry about myself and let those guys do what they do up front.”
His top targets are Jock Sanders (53 catches for 514 yards, two TDs), Alric Arnett (22-300-3) and Bradley Starks (18-302-1).
Offensively, the Bulls are led by freshman B.J. Daniels, who replaced Matt Grothe, the Big East’s all-time leading rusher for quarterbacks, who was lost to a knee injury earlier in the year.
“He’s going to cause us multiple problems,” Stewart said. “I just hope he doesn’t get in a groove.”
Daniels is the Bulls leading rusher (415 yards) and has completed 51-of-96 passes for 864 yards and seven touchdowns. He has been intercepted six times.
Carlton Mitchell has 24 receptions for 410 yards and three scores and Dontavious Bogan has 14 for 234 and three TDs.
West Virginia hosts Louisville Nov. 7 at noon while South Florida travels on Nov. 12 to Rutgers.
