With senior Reed Williams accepting a medical redshirt to play the 2009 season and accepting his rest-of-2008 duties as middle linebackers coach/sidelines spectator, the West Virginia defense turned Williams' longtime position over to the fourth starter in five games this season, McKeesport's Anthony Leonard.

For now.

And those were Leonard's words.

"The job is still open," the redshirt sophomore said after the Mountaineers (3-2 overall, 1-0 Big East) relied on their young defense -- six sophomores and one true freshman, safety Robert Sands -- to stave off Rutgers on Saturday, 24-17. "Anybody can win [it], to be honest with you. I have to prepare for perfection. All I have to do is mess up, and somebody else gets a start."

Leonard, who follows Pat Lazear and strongside linebacker Mortty Ivy of Gateway as players who tried to fill the void left by Williams' post-surgical recovery, acquitted himself well enough against Rutgers to merit a start Saturday at home against Syracuse (1-4, 0-1). He topped the team with nine tackles, including one tackle for loss. Credit some of that to Williams, who, after two sturdy outings in pain against Colorado and Marshall, began his redshirt absence Saturday and his newfound unofficial capacity as counselor to his former backups.

"Reed was helping me out," Leonard said. "He's a player-slash-coach. He was pretty much coaching, giving me coaching cues." This 6-foot-1, 240-pound former special teamer abided by him, too. "I just tried to go out there and seize the moment," he added.

"He played tremendously well," Ivy said.

"He works hard. He watches a lot of film. And he asks a lot of questions from the coach," defensive coordinator Jeff Casteel said.

Said coach Bill Stewart: "Anthony Leonard had a big day, for the first time [starting]."

Williams hasn't spoken publicly for a week, but roommate and friend Pat McAfee, the punter/kicker from Plum, said they discussed all summer the idea of Williams sitting out 2008 after he had surgery on the labrum in each shoulder last winter.

"I think that's the right decision for him," McAfee said. "I think he was ready to make his decision. Then he played two games, and it went so well ... [but the pain was] absolutely miserable. It's kind of hard to sit out for somebody who's played football all his life. He really wants to play."

The coach sounds as if he doesn't foresee a Top 10 team from one that started the season ranked there.

"We're not world beaters right now. We're not eighth in the country; don't know if we ever will be. But I sure know we are working in that direction. I'm not sure what to think of us right now."

• The fourth-and-inches failure with two minutes remaining was a "point of attack" problem, referring to blocking at the line. "We need to bang it in there a little better than we did in that type of situation."

• Running on 15 of its final 16 snaps was too much of a simplification of the offense under backup quarterback Jarrett Brown after Patrick White exited due to his head injury: "We didn't do as much as we probably could have, should have and will."

McAfee needs one more point to tie Steve Slaton with 330 as the program's all-time leading scorer. With 43 more points McAfee could overtake Virginia Tech kicker Shayne Graham as the second all-time Big East scorer, but it's doubtful he can conjure the 72 points necessary to break the league mark of 400 established by Rutgers' Jeremy Ito. ... Norwin's Tyler Urban ran one pass route against Marshall and two against Rutgers, and he might get more such work after catching his first collegiate pass for a touchdown -- the first Mountaineer tight end reception for a score in 37 games since Mike Villagrana, now a graduate assistant, did so in 2005 against Virginia Tech. "This one caught [Rutgers] by surprise completely," he said.