Jason Gwaltney was one the best football players ever to come from Long Island, maybe the best running back from LI since the immortal Jim Brown. In his high school career, the ‘man among boys’ amassed 135 touchdowns and over 7,800 yards and in doing so he became the most hyped recruit possibly ever out of Suffolk County. Gwaltney was recruited by the who’s who of college football and even offered a verbal commitment to Pete Carroll while on a visit to USC. Gwaltney then re-opened his commitment and continued to pile up numbers in his senior season. However, things began to get just plain strange for Gwaltney from here on out…

He played in the 2005-2006 Army All-American Bowl with current NFL players Johathan Stewart, Mark Sanchez, Rey Maualuga, Desean Jackson, Kenny Phillips, Brian Cushing and Rashard Mendenhall and was expected by many to be, one day himself, in the NFL. The game was also hyped as the place where Gwaltney would announce his college destination, with USC and Ohio State each believing they were the leaders in the sweepstakes. However, Gwaltney announces at the game that he will announce his decision at a later date.

Gwaltney eventually choose to attend West Virginia, where his half brother Scooter Berry joined him. Gwaltney’s first year in Morgantown was met with lots of hype and several stellar performances, but Gwaltney was injured in a game against Rutgers and eventually kicked off the team for allegedly repeatedly skipping classes. Gwaltney’s WVU career: 45 carries, 186 yards and three touchdowns in six games.

Gwaltney was hoping to return to the team the following spring, after a brief stop at Nassau CC in January, he returned to WVU for the spring semester attempting to get himself academically eligible. However in June of 2006 Gwaltney was arrested for underage consumption of alcohol, speeding and failure to produce a license in Morgantown.

Though Gwaltney tried returning to Morgantown again a year later as new coach Bill Stewart publicly said he would allow Gwaltney a second chance, it never materialized. The plan was to allow him to redshirt and show he can attend to academics and keep himself out of trouble. Instead, Gwaltney popped up at Division II C.W. Post last season, leading the team with 709 yards rushing in just six games.

Gwaltney did not last very long at C.W. Post either and was looking for another home. With still two years of eligibility and interest from professional leagues like the CFL, he landed at Division III school Kean in the New Jersey Athletic Conference and things were looking up for the 6′0, 240 pound back. That was, until last Saturday. In Kean’s home opener and first game of the season they faced off against ECAC rival Delaware Valley, a team that beat them in the playoffs the last time they met 16-7. With Gwaltney and Quarterback Jared Chunn who rushed for 1,405 yards in 2008 the offense was to set to revolve around the run. However, on Gwatlney’s eighth carry off the day, which went for 14 yards, something went terribly wrong for the North Babylon native. Gwaltney, who reportedly heard a snap on the play, was carted off the field, with “more than (just) a (knee) sprain,” according to Kean Head Coach Dan Garrett.

Garrett also implied there was a possibility of a fracture. If the injury is as bad as it seems where Gwaltney’s career goes from here is a good question. For a player who was once the most talked anout player in the country during high school and now has dropped so low that he had to find his way on a Division III program, the future must be a scary and depressing thought.. Although, with his big, bruising size running backs like him don’t come around a lot any more. If Gwaltney has the heart and desire there should always be a taker for him in football, assuming he still wants to play.

After losing QB Pat White and several key starters from last year’s squad, no one expected West Virginia to be quite the team they were in 2008, at least not to start the 2009 season. However, with a strong successor to Pat White in 5th-year senior Jarrett Brown, and a wide-open Big East, the Mountaineers were expected to hold their own and many projected WVU to finish in the top two of the conference. The way they came out Saturday left many wondering if they could actually pull it off.

Saturday, West Virginia did win the game, but they did so in very lackluster fashion. In the previous five seasons West Virginia handily defeated 1-AA opponents by an average of 35.4 points a game. However, in this season’s opener, the Mountaineers didn’t even come close to matching that. Liberty hung around all afternoon against WVU before the home team finally put the game away with 6:57 left in the contest by stretching the lead to 20, 33-13. Liberty would score again, with under a minute to go, to make it 33-20. The game would end at that score, but it undoubtedely left many Mountaineers fans and players asking themselves what kind of season are we in for?

In the game, Jarrett Brown did throw for 243 yards and also hit five receivers for more than twenty yards, but what was scary was the numbers that Liberty put up. Liberty quarterback Tommy Beecher threw for 210 yards and a touchdown and interception. His best wide receiver Saturday was Mike Brown, who finished with 157 yards on eleven catches. Brown also amassed a total of 107 yards on kick returns.

If West Virginia gave these numbers up to Brown and Liberty from the 1-AAlevel, imagine what some teams in the Big East can do against them. The future could be scary for Mountaineer fans.

Most coaches and analysts believe that the most a team will improve during the season is between game one and game two. With revenge on WVU’s mind headed to their match-up with East Carolina this coming weekend in Morgantown, there is certainly enough room for improvement that should make that cliche true. Will there be enough improvement to avenge last season’s loss to the Pirates? The West Virginia faithful certainly hope so!!

by Matt Whitfield

The Pat White era is over in Morgantown. However, before Big East defensive coordinators begin dancing in the streets, they will have to contend with White’s understudy, Jarrett Brown.

After four years watching White have a record-breaking career at West Virginia, the 6-foot-2, 220-pound fifth-year senior takes the reigns of the offense. Brown is a true dual-threat QB that has taken full control of the offense since the spring and finished off a great preseason camp, easing the minds of the WVU staff heading into the season.

Brown has shown he is a capable alternative in big games before, so he is not an untested signal caller. His most impressive game came at the end of the season in 2006 where he started in place of the injured White and threw for 244 yards and ran for another 73 in helping the Mountaineers upend Rutgers in what was the unofficial Big East Championship game.

In addition to Brown, the offense will rely on Noel Devine who ran for more than 1,200 yards last season as a sophomore, leading the conference with an average of 6.3 yards a carry. Devine also caught 35 passes out of the backfield.

Brown has a group of exciting receivers as the Mountaineers under second-year head coach Bill Stewart plan to throw the ball more this season, working with slot receiver Jock Sanders, wide receivers Alric Arnett, 6-foot-8 Wes Lyons, Bradley Starks and exciting freshmen Logan Heastie, who shunned offers from Penn State and Miami, and Tavon Austin.

Sanders, who caught 53 passes a year ago, missed spring practices due to disciplinary reasons. Arnett caught six touchdown passes a year ago, including two in their Meineke Car Care Bowl victory to close the season.

Mountaineer fans hope that Brown is not running for his life in those attempts to throw as he will be behind an untested and inexperienced offensive line. Only one member of this year’s line, Selvish Capers, will have started more than five games entering the season. Capers, the right tackle, enters his third season as a starter. Eric Jobe finished the season as the starting center and was thought to continue that role in 2009, however a late camp move of Jobe to right guard and redshirt freshman Joe Madsen in at center has been made to solidify Brown’s protection. The success of the Mountaineers could very well depend on highly touted Josh Jenkins returning from injury and holding down the left guard position. The hole to fill at left tackle is also a large one as All-American Ryan Stanchek has graduated and Don Barclay will fill the vital role of Brown’s backside protector from opposing pass rushes.

One of the more over-looked factors of the Big East season could be the return to health of Mountaineer linebacker Reed Williams. The WVU leading tackler and MVP of the 2008 Fiesta Bowl returns after missing last season with a shoulder injury to headline the defense. All-BIG EAST Second Team selection Scooter Berry, a two-year starter at defensive end, also returns and teams with veteran nose tackle Chris Neild to anchor the defensive line in the WVU 3-4 scheme.

Other key defenders to watch this season is linebacker Pat Lazear, who moves to the outside after being one of last year’s starter on the inside, and hard-hitting safety Nate Sowers who finally found a positional home last season with WVU in the defensive backfield. JT Thomas was also an all-Big East linebacker last season. The defensive unit should be very strong for WVU this season as many starters return from a group that got better and better in 2008 as the season progressed.

Summary

The first half of the Mountaineers schedule is relatively easy, with the exception of the Auburn road game. This should give Brown time to adjust to his starting role and gel with his starters. The ladder half of the schedule is treacherous with the last three games coming against Cincinnati on the road, Pittsburgh at home, and on the road versus Rutgers. If the offensive line holds up and Brown pans out to be the next great West Virginia Quarterback it is foreseeable that the Mountaineers could start the season 7-0 or 6-1, and possibly be ranked coming into the South Florida game. What happens from there could be anyone’s guess. Most experts see the Big East as a fairly open conference, yet all the programs thought to be contenders the Mountaineers still must play.