Report: WVU's Slaton Returning for Senior Season
WVU's student newspaper, The Daily Athenaeum, for which I have a soft spot (editor, '88-'89), is reporting that running back Steve Slaton has decided to return for his senior season.
If this turns out to be true, it is a good decision for both sides.
But first, a little digression to a past WVU football scoop by the DA.
Years ago, when freak-'o-nature WVU quarterback Major Harris was debating passing up his senior season and going pro (in retrospect, a disastrous decision), Harris went into hiding. No one could find him to talk to him.
Except for the DA, which had (now it can be told!) a source at the late, great Spruce Street Sub Shop in Morgantown that had delivered food to...Harris's house!
So a DA reporter and photographer showed up and Harris gave an exclusive interview to the DA, which ran in the next day's paper under the headline, "Major Speaks."
I don't know who the DA's source is on the Slaton story, but I can tell you from personal experience that the paper's track record on WVU football scoops is solid.
If Slaton comes back next year, the WVU backfield likely will be quarterback
Pat White, flanked by
running back Noel Devine and running back Steve Slaton. I think most fans will take that.
I've written before and I'll say it again: Slaton will be next year's Owen Schmitt.
As a folk hero and crushing blocker, Schmitt is irreplaceable. But Slaton is an excellent blocker—not every defender has to be buried in the turf, and he's faster than Schmitt.
In the Fiesta Bowl, the offensive line, all of which returns next year, finally gelled. It was the o-line and Rodriguez's playcalling that knocked down Slaton's carries and yards this season (and Devine, who took away 600 of his yards).
Furthermore, as Slaton admitted after the
Fiesta Bowl,
Noel Devine has a quicker lateral move and was able to make more hay with an inexperienced o-line than was Slaton, who is still pretty darned awesome (remember his Paytonian broken-field TD run against Rutgers).
Next year, with the o-line matured and improved, look for Slaton to not only lead the way for Devine but to return to his old self.
Leaving for the draft this year if you're a running back is a mistake, if only because of
Darren McFadden. Next year's running back draft should be a little thinner, and Slaton could go higher.
See more
at http://bleacherreport.com
