NEW YORK -
The snow falling on Yankee Stadium, West Virginia's 21
seniors will step onto the field for one final chance to play alongside their
teammates and for the state's flagship university.
Junior Stedman Bailey will join his old high school
quarterback Geno Smith in their last game with the Mountaineers.
When Stedman Bailey, Tavon Austin and J.D. Woods leave the
field, they will take with them 82 percent of the production that West
Virginia's offense put up through the air this season.
Of the Mountaineers' 4,091 receiving yards, those top three
accounted for 3,356 of them. The other 10 receivers combined for less than half
of the yards that Bailey alone posted in his final year in the old gold and
blue.
This isn't to say that they others are incapable of stepping
up when called upon so much as it is to say that they haven't been called upon,
so trying to predict what the staff will get out of these unproven commodities
is near impossible.
Woods, having spent every practice with many of those who will
be counted on to step up, says he has seen their potential. He specifically
points to K.J. Myers, Jordan Thompson, Dante Campbell, Devonte Mathis and
Devonte Robinson as those who have stood out.
"It's college football. There's going to be changes every
year," says Woods. "You've got to bring it each and every year, so I know Coach
Holgorsen and Coach Dawson and everybody else on the staff will find that guy
that they need."
Holgorsen will be replacing more than just production,
though. Smith, Bailey and Austin have been the faces of the program the past
two seasons and have represented the university well in the public eye.
The hope is that they will continue to do so after they have
moved on from Mountaineer football.
"They're great players and they're going to play for a long
time. I think everybody understands that," says Holgorsen.
Holgorsen is aware of what these seniors have gone through
in their careers with a head coaching change, numerous new position coaches and
a switch from the Big East to the Big 12. Through it all, they handled the
process and maintained focus on their roles as a part of the whole.
"They just kept moving forward and kept playing football and
kept practicing and they kept lining up and they kept trying to give their best
everyday, so those guys mean a lot to me and we had a big dinner with them last
night and we're going to obviously try to send them out with a win," says
Holgorsen.
Getting that win would be the last act they perform with the
WVU football team. They know that the old saying is you're only as good as your
last game, and after this one, there are no more.
"We've got one last game, one last change to prove ourselves
and we've got a tough opponent," says Smith. "So that's really all of the
motivation that you need. The season has come and gone and we really can't do
anything about it now, but we do have something to look forward to, which is
Saturday."
Bailey, who will go out with members of the class he came in
with despite being a year younger on the field, isn't trying to look ahead to
the end of his Mountaineer career just yet.
"I try not to think about it a lot because it's a sad
feeling for me, knowing that in a couple of months, my whole life is about to
change," says Bailey. "I won't be here with all of the guys that I built such a
great relationship with and this is actually my last game suiting up in the
gold and blue, so it's a very bittersweet feeling, but I just try not to think
about it much. I would definitely want us to go out with a win, I want a good
performance, so that's what I'm looking to do."
After Saturday, it's all over.
Austin says he tries not to think about the end of his four
years with West Virginia, but there have been moments over the past month that
have made it hard to avoid.
"It did hit me when I was moving my clothes and stuff out of
my house the other day and I turned around and looked at the apartment because
I won't be back anymore," says Austin. "It'll probably hit me when the clock
hits zero-zero-zero and I know I won't play with my boys anymore."
It will hit WVU pretty hard, too.
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