With the Mountaineers set to play their final game from Milan Puskar Stadium this upcoming Saturday against UCF, WVU will have a tall challenge to stop the Knights’ rushing attack. One of the nation’s premier running backs, RJ Harvey leads the attack for UCF and will look to continue his dominance this season against the Mountaineers.
During his weekly media availability, Head Coach Neal Brown was asked about TJ Jackson, his defensive lineman, comparing Harvey to Kansas’s Devin Neal who the Mountaineers struggled with earlier this season.
“Well I think both of them are elite, you know. You start thinking about the running backs we’ve played over the last two years it’s pretty impressive. I was thinking about that last night, I was watching RJ Harvey because, (I have) a lot of respect for him.”
Neal added, “From a size perspective, he’s a little bit heavier, but Devin Neal put on some weight too this year. But (Harvey’s) ability to go from a jump cut to full speed is very similar (to Neal).”
For the most part, WVU has been a solid rushing defense to this point in the season. However, the team is coming off the most allowed rushing yard to an opposing running back all season when Baylor’s Bryson Washington ran for 123 yards and three touchdowns on 18 carries.
“The thing that sticks out to me is he breaks tackles. He does a really good job on the inside zone play of getting the safeties and everybody to kind of bottle up, and then he jump cuts it outside and out runs them. So that’s going to be the key. The key is to contain him and not let him get on the perimeter for explosives.”
With just two games left for WVU to win one more for bowl eligibility, stopping RJ Harvey appears to be what could be the difference in extending the Mountaineers’ season one more game past Texas Tech.
