No Heisman campaigning from WVU

By Dave Morrison

PRINCETON — Don’t expect to see a Steve Slaton for Heisman or Do it Right, vote for Patrick White, for Heisman candidacies in the near future.

It’s not necessary for Slaton, the Mountaineers’ third-year tailback, or White, WVU’s talented three-year stalwart at quarterback.

“We really aren’t big on the campaigns,” West Virginia football coach Rich Rodriguez said Tuesday in Princeton during a West Virginia Athletic Department Caravan stop. “And I don’t think Steve or Patrick are worried about it themselves. The information will be out there. If (White or Slaton) have a big year and we have another big year, people will know what they’re about.”

One thing is certain, both have intriguing resumes.

White, over the past two days, picked up amateur athlete of the year in both West Virginia (Sunday) and his home state of Alabama (Monday). That after earning MVP of the Gator Bowl in January and Big East offensive player of the year in December.

Slaton Monday was named to the Playboy preseason All-America team. He was also an all-America selection on several teams last year and was the MVP of WVU’s Sugar Bowl win in January 2006.

“That was pretty neat,” Rodriguez said of White’s dual player of the year selections. “The nice part for me as a coach is I know it’s not going to change the way Pat thinks. He is all about the team first. He will do anything and everything we ask of him and that’s what makes him such a great player.”

Rodriguez touched on several other subjects before addressing a record-crowd of 375 people at the event.

On no Mountaineers being drafted in the NFL Draft 10 days ago, most notably Dan Mozes, who won the Rimington Award as the nation’s top center: “I was shocked that nobody was taken.”

“Normally, you have a feel for it. It’s hard for me to believe that there were seven centers in the country who were drafted before Dan Mozes. That there are that many linebackers drafted ahead of Boo McLee and that (wide receiver) Brandon Myles wasn’t good enough to get drafted. That’s just my opinion. I’m biased, of course. There is no question in my mind they deserve to be in someone’s camp. I thought they were good enough to be drafted. But I’m a college coach, what do I know?”

On standout recruit Noel Devine of Fort Myers, Fla., who recently passed his ACT test and should be eligible to play this fall: “We thought all along he had a chance to make it, although a lot of folks maybe thought he wouldn’t pass the test. I just saw him the other day when I was down in Fort Myers recruiting. He’s doing well, finishing up school this week and we expect him to be eligible. If he can get in shape this summer — he’ll be up in Morgantown in July — and he can learn the system quickly he can help us right away.”

On the possibility of a two-tailback set with Slaton and Devine: “We’ll see. I know Slaton’s going to be back there. It depends on how fast he learns. He can do some other things. We’re probably going to play Noel, like some of those other guys, in the slot and at running back. And he is willing to do that. So, our whole thing offensively, is to spread the field and get guys in space. And Noel is a guy I think can do some things in space with the ball.”

On NCAA rules changes eliminating text-messaging from the recruiting process: “We’ve all learned how to do it over the last couple years and thought it was a pretty valuable tool. I think it had to have some restrictions. I’d like for them to bring it back and maybe have restrictions on when you could do it. Maybe treat it like a phone call you can do once a week. I think it was overused and became a cost factor. I think in the future, maybe a year or two, it’ll come back and we can use it once a week or something like that.”

Rodriguez also said former five-star recruit Jason Gwaltney is no longer with the Mountaineer program and hasn’t been since the start of spring practice.

— E-mail:

demorrison@register-herald.com