Published: August 13, 2008 01:16 am      

COLUMN: Budding WVU stars meet in scrimmage

MORGANTOWN — The sound was what made it, perhaps, so shocking. Such a crisp pop, loud enough to be heard in the furthest corners of Mountaineer Field at Milan Puskar Stadium, echoing through the mostly empty stands.

The scrimmage that was in progress Saturday seemed, for just an instant, to freeze in time. There was a momentary silence that was deafening, almost like the eye of a hurricane passing through. Milliseconds later a roar erupted, a roar from a group of football players who suddenly realized they had witnessed the future breaking through into the present.

Considering the heights to which the West Virginia University football program has grown, all attention has been focused on the present in this 2008 camp, yet at that moment it was more than just freshman safety Robert Sands colliding with freshman running back Terence Kerns.

On one side was Kerns, a back of such exceptional skill that he carries nearly 240 pounds with the speed of sprinter, his 4.3 clocking being equally as fast as the 175-pound Noel Devine. The football had been given to him and the hole had come open cleanly.

Kerns had already dashed 41 yards once in this scrimmage and showed his toughness at other moments, seemingly seeking out defensive backs to run over.

“I like to get the hit on them before they can get it on me,” Kerns explained.

This time, though, the back was free safety Robert Sands, an angular 6-feet, 4-inches tall with a wingspan that never has been measured but really need not be, considering it stretches from Morgantown to Fairmont.

Kerns closed into the hole and squared up on Sands, dipping lower than the running back and stopping him dead in his tracks, standing him straight up.

Symbolically, it was the merging of a pair of budding Mountaineer stars.

“Back in high school, I used to play in the box and I was used to taking on big backs like that, so it wasn’t any big deal with me,” Sands explained.

Those who viewed the play saw it as a big deal, a WVU freshman safety looking for playing time and stopping a power back in his tracks. The players roared.

“I wasn’t trying to gloat or anything like that. I made a play and then I made the next play. You can’t live in the past,” Sands said.

One thing is certain ... he got Kerns attention with that tackle.

“That woke me up,” the big back said.

This is the week when West Virginia’s talented freshmen get their first real chance to prove themselves as the hitting intensifies.

Most eyes are on Sands, from Miami Carol City Senior High, a big-time player who made part of his reputation by breaking up five passes and intercepting two against the nation’s No. 5 team, Booker T. Washington, and on Kerns, who came out of Hargrave Military Academy after gaining 1,908 yards on 103 carries with 30 touchdowns at Thomas Johnson High in Frederick, Md.

Both are eye-popping physically.

The WVU media guide lists Sands at 6-6 but he admits to being “only” 6-4, which is a tall, tall safety.

“They measured me when I had my hair twisted on top of my head and they gave me two more inches,” the dreadlocked safety explained.

It is almost impossible to name a safety as tall as Sands.

Sands notes that Adrian Wilson of the Arizona Cardinals, at 6-3, is about as tall as they get.

It was assistant coach and recruiting director Doc Holliday who got Sands to West Virginia. Holliday first contacted him and recruiting him for Florida, but after he came to WVU he called and made him an offer.

As for Kerns, he was ready to come to WVU after that year at Hargrave. The question was whether or not he’d make the grade with his test score. It went down to the final minute.

“That was crazy,” he said. “The last test score was so scary, that when I could check my test scores at midnight I got on line but when it came up I couldn’t look. I X’ed it out. I didn’t want to find out until the next day,” he said.

And when he saw he had qualified?

“It was the biggest relief of my life to get the scores. Now I have to work to be a good player,” he said.

That begins with learning the plays, something he is working at so diligently that on the second night of camp he called running back coach Chris Beatty at 11 o’clock for help.

Kerns’ biggest problem as he goes for the backup running back job behind Noel Devine right now is that he is fumbling the ball too much. Again he’s working hard to correct the problem, so hard that he can be seen going around the team hotel with a football tucked tightly under his arm so that he becomes accustomed to carrying it the proper way.

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