Published: April 13, 2008 02:40 am      

COLUMN: Andrews, Pugh face big challenge

MORGANTOWN — Sometimes there’s a reason why a football player wears a certain number.

Maybe he wore it in high school. Maybe his favorite player wore it. Maybe it’s his birthday or his lucky number or maybe, just maybe, when he showed up at school, equipment manager Dan Nehlen threw him a jersey and said, “This is your number, kid.”

Take West Virginia safety Charles Pugh, for example.

He wears No. 15.

It fits perfectly. Not the jersey, but the number.

“He always has had a lot of personal fouls called on him. That’s why he’s No. 15,” said Steve Dunlap, the former defensive coordinator under Don Nehlen who now coaches the safeties for Bill Stewart, with a sly grin.

Let’s just say there are times when Pugh gets a bit ahead of himself on the field in an effort to play a tough, intense game. The same can be said for his running mate at safety, Quinton Andrews.

The two of them may be the two most crucial components to this year’s defense, which lost nearly everything last year, including safeties Ryan Mundy and Eric Wicks, acknowledged as the two leaders of the defense.

Entering spring, Andrews and Pugh were listed at the same position in the team’s prospectus, what West Virginia refers to as its “bandit” safety in its tricky 3-3-5 defense. But, to get both on the field at the same time, they split them up, putting Pugh at the “spur” safety spot while Boogie Allen plays at free safety.

“There’s such a lack of experience back there. Other than Andrews, Pugh and Boogie Allen there’s hardly no experience whatsoever,” Dunlap explained.

And so it is that all three will be challenging ball carriers and receivers this season, but today we focus only on Andrews and Pugh because, in their own way, they are … well, let Dunlap explain it.

“Free spirits. Good kids, too, but they are demanding for coaching,” Dunlap said.

Demanding?

“You have to retrain them every day,” Dunlap said.

Andrews, of course, has had his transgressions over the last couple of years under Rich Rodriguez. It reached the point where they almost were going to rename his position “Rover” because he was in Rodriguez’s doghouse so often.

Under Dunlap, Andrews seems to be blossoming.

“I like him as a coach. He’s a people person, very intelligent and very funny,” Andrews said.

Andrews found little funny about his previous position coach, Bruce Tall.

Like Andrews, Pugh has taken to Dunlap, too.

“He’s a different type of coach than Coach Tall was. I’m going to take the best of both worlds and put them together,” Pugh said.

Pugh got into most of his trouble from his penchant to draw that yellow hanky for some of his hanky-panky on the field that qualified as behavior unbecoming a student-athlete on the field.

Dunlap has been through this before. When he was defensive coordinator under Nehlen, a pair of tough-guy defenders arrived on the scene in linebacker Barrett Green and safety Gary Thompkins. Both were superior players, but they often didn’t let the sideline dictate the end of a play, hitting players out of bounds and late for that unnecessary roughness call.

“When they were young they were like that,” Dunlap recalled. “They grew up. With Pugh and Andrews, they’re not young and immature any more. It’s time for them to be leaders for us.”

And when players are “demanding for a coach” to handle, how do you approach it?

“Sit them on the bench. There isn’t a player on the field worth 15 yards, at least not to me,” said Dunlap, sternly.

A coach is always walking a fine line when dealing with this kind of aggressive player.

“You don’t take away their enthusiasm to play this game, but when they make a mistake back there it’s magnified and they give up big plays and touchdowns. You have to weigh that. You have to see that they don’t make mistakes,” Dunlap said.

Pugh is aware of his penchant for overstepping the boundaries of the rules of football.

“My first couple of years my playing time was limited, so when I got on the field I tried to do a little extra, maybe too much,” he said. “It’s been a good learning process, but I’m three years into it now. I’m about to be a senior, so that’s all out the window. You will probably never see another 15-yard penalty from me.”

In some ways, it is survival for Pugh. He plays a position that requires a tough player, yet he isn’t really physically equipped for it.

“I’m sitting at 200 pounds but basically I’m playing linebacker and in the box most of the time. Then I have to cover the slot all over the field,” Pugh said.

Andrews and Pugh are well aware of the challenge that is ahead of them and how important it is for them to provide quality play at the safety position.

“I’m replacing Eric Wicks,” Pugh added. “Everyone knows he was one of our best playmakers. At spur, you have to be smart, be versatile. There’s a lot of pressure, but you definitely can make a lot of plays. I take the challenge on and I’m loving it right now.”

E-mail Bob Hertzel at bhertzel@hotmail.com.