The major challenge for Virginia defenders against the Mountaineers

One of the most telling tests of a football player is his time in the 40-yard dash. Coaches and scouts generally use an athlete's time to evaluate how quickly he can chase a ball-carrier or evade a tackler.

For Virginia's defenders, that short-term speed may determine whether they can even get onto the field this Saturday night.

Under head coach Rich Rodriguez, West Virginia employs an up-tempo offense, rarely stopping to huddle. Most of the play calls come from the bench with the Mountaineers' offense at the line of scrimmage.

That makes it difficult, if not impossible, for the defense to make substitutions between plays. If the offense changes personnel, officials will allow the defense to do the same. If not, the defensive team must keep its same 11 men on the field, or try to rush players on and off the field between snaps.

That can cause confusion, or too-many-men-on-the-field penalties, or having defenders out of position. That can lead to disaster.

"They're going to really challenge you from a preparation standpoint with the schemes that they do to make you play assignment sound football," Virginia Coach Tony Elliott said Tuesday. "And if you misfit something, it's not like he's going to go for a five or seven [yards]. He's going to go for 70."

A significant factor in Virginia's strong defensive start to the season (11 points allowed in two games) has been its depth, especially up front.

In a 59-3 romp over Norfolk State last week that featured plenty of action for backups, 13 different defensive linemen played at least 10 snaps, with only Fisher Camac (33) and Matthew Fobbs-White (29) seeing more than 25. Two weeks earlier against NC State, Camac played 41 snaps and Fobbs-White 38, but 11 linemen played at least seven snaps.

That meant a constant rotation of fresh legs to pressure quarterbacks CJ Bailey of NC State and Deljay Bailey of Norfolk State. Part of Rodriguez's game plan is likely to be preventing the Cavaliers from changing personnel and slowing down their pass rush — or their pursuit of elusive running back Cam Cook.

"I just remember it was spotting the ball and back on the 25-second play clock we had to have the ball snap by 19," said Elliott, who played receiver at Clemson when Rodriguez was the Tigers' offensive coordinator. "So, we had six seconds to get
the ball off once it was made ready for play.

"So they still go fast. Run the ball, attack, mobile quarterback, that's still very, very
similar to our style back when I played at Clemson."

There are a few things the Cavaliers can do to slow down the Mountaineers. That includes forcing incomplete passes or pushing ball-carriers out of bounds, which stops the clock while officials spot the ball and players return to their positions. That would allow time to substitute,

There's also the old trick of players requiring attention from trainers between plays, forcing clock stoppages. Some teams have been accused of faking injuries, but officials generally give them the benefit of the doubt — at least early in the game. Defenses can be subject to delay of game penalties if officials think the alleged injuries are bogus.

Regardless, Virginia's defenders will need to be quick both on and off the field — or they could be in for a long night.

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