Published: May 11, 2007 01:16 am      

Slaton poised for stellar season

PRINCETON — Steve Slaton has been known to look back to see if anyone’s gaining on him. With the West Virginia University tailback’s speed, that’s very seldom a problem.

Going into his junior year, Slaton doesn’t have to worry whether new recruits on his own team are gaining on him, either — though one may line up beside him.

Head football coach Rich Rodriguez, talking with the media prior to Tuesday night’s Coaches’ Caravan dinner in Princeton, fielded a question about whether Slaton might be in the same backfield with newcomer Noel Devine, a highly publicized recruit from Fort Myers, Fla.

“We’ll see,” Rodriguez said. “I know Slaton’s going to be back there. It depends on, as a freshman, how fast they learn. Now, obviously, he has the talent, and 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.

“Our whole thing, offensively, is (to) try to spread the field and get guys the ball in space. And Noel is one that I think can do some things in space with the ball.” There were doubters that Devine was going to pass his ACT (college-admissions) test, Rodriguez granted. “We thought all along he’d have a chance of making it,” he said.

The fifth-year WVU coach said he’d checked in with Devine “the other day when I was down in Fort Myers, recruiting. We expect him to be eligible, and if he can get in shape this summer — he’ll be in Morgantown in July, and if he can learn the system quickly he can help us right away.”

Slaton was named this week a preseason all-American by Playboy, and quarterback Patrick White was honored in Alabama as the state’s amateur athlete of the year, after winning West Virginia’s award also. Rodriguez was asked whether his institution was gearing up a push for Heisman Trophy consideration for his two runners.

“We aren’t really big on the campaigns,” the coach said, “and I don’t think Steve or Pat are worried about it themselves. I think the information will be out there, and if Steve has another good year, and we have another good year as a team, people will know who he is and what he’s about.”

White’s honors, Rodriguez said, are “not going to change the way he approaches things. Pat is all about the team first, and will do anything and everything you ask of him. And that’s why he’s such a good player.”

The on-again, off-again presence of running back Jason Gwaltney, another nationally-known recruit a couple of years ago, is off for good, apparently. Rodriguez said Tuesday, “He’s no longer on our team, and he hasn’t been since the beginning of the spring.”

The coach said he was “shocked” that no WVU player was taken in last month’s NFL draft.

Rodriguez said, “It’s hard for me to believe that there’s seven centers in the country that got drafted in front of Dan Mozes; that there’s that many linebackers that got drafted in front of Boo McLee; and that Brandon Myles (wide receiver) isn’t good enough to get drafted.

“That’s just my opinion. I’m biased, of course. I think an awful lot of those guys. But there’s no question in my mind that they deserve to be in someone’s (NFL) camp. But I’m a college coach., so what do I know?”

He said the take on Mozes was that he was slightly “undersized” for a pro lineman, but noted, “If they watched the film, which is the final barometer, I can’t see why he wasn’t getting picked by someone at least on the second day.

“And I think Dan is going to make it with somebody. He’s a good enough football player, and he’s got enough of a mentality that he can make it in the NFL. And hopefully, he’ll do that and show everybody he should have been drafted.”

— Contact Tom Bone

at tbone@bdtonline.com