Fun story: I spoke with Gordon Gee over the phone yesterday for a story I’m working on here, and it was great. Good anecdotes, good detail, everything I needed and in a pinch during a layover in Dallas and an open spot in his schedule. I was typing up his answers as we spoke, and my wheels were already spinning about how I’d write the story.

Then, as we were saying goodbye and hanging up, I looked down at my laptop and the screen was blank. “That was awfully quick to hibernate,” I thought. Yeah. The file was gone. No trace of it. Can’t explain it. I rebooted it and searched everywhere. Nothing.

During the scramble, Gee’s envoy had texted me to ask how it went, and I finally replied, “Great, until …” and then I filled in the blanks, thanked them for their time and took off for Phoenix. I landed two hours later and got a text from the envoy. Gee heard what happened and insisted we do the interview again while he was riding to Lewisburg for president stuff. And it was great again.

So that was, I don’t know, embarrassing and redeeming and kind of funny. But it wasn’t the journalism highlight of my day.

Before that, I was flying from Pittsburgh to Dallas and wrote a story for today’s paper. It was on Daryl Worley, his outstanding season and his future. The future changed pretty quickly when we found out Worley won’t play in the bowl game. I had a long face when Holgorsen was explaining the situation to us, and I asked, “So you’re saying tomorrow’s a bad day to run my Worley story?”

“I would say it’s pretty bad timing,” he replied.

The dynamics are a little different, of course, but it reminded me of Bill Stewart praising Nate Sowers as a “great American” before the 2009 regular-season finale and later revealing Sowers was ineligible for the 2010 Gator Bowl, the final game of Sowers’ career.

For fun, for history and for posterity, here’s the well-intended, poorly-timed Worley story.

By Mike Casazza
Staff writer

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. — When the regular season was over, the Big 12’s coaches filled out their ballots for the all-conference football teams and voted West Virginia cornerback Daryl Worley onto the first team, an honor that transcends the title because it’s so hard to survive a season at his position in this pass-happy conference with a reputation intact.

“Mentally, it was more of a roller coaster than it was physically,” Worley said.

Worley’s laurels were tested this season by some of the most prolific players and offenses in the country, and there were some lowlights that could have defined his season. But the Mountaineers finished ranked third in the Big 12 in pass defense, and Worley had too many highlights against the run and pass for the coaches to ignore.

He ranks sixth nationally with six interceptions and 13th with 18 passes defended. Both lead the Big 12.

“Statistically, it was no question. I felt as though, ‘OK, this should have happened,’” Worley said. “But I’m never satisfied. I’m not done. There’s work that needs to be done, and I have things I want to get better at.”

He has his next chance here this week as the Mountaineers (7-5) prepare for Saturday’s Cactus Bowl against Arizona State (6-6). The 10:15 p.m. game at Chase Field will be televised by ESPN. The Sun Devils are No. 22 in passing offense (289.1 yards per game) and one of three teams that has three players with at least 50 catches.

Senior Devin Lucien, a 6-foot-2 transfer from UCLA, leads the team with 57 catches for 931 yards and seven touchdowns. He had 200 yards and three scores in his last game. Senior D.J. Foster ran for 1,081 yards and nine touchdowns as a running back last season but changed positions this season and has 54 catches for 544 yards and three scores. Junior college transfer Tim White has 53 catches for 554 yards and six touchdowns.

“They have some great players on that side of the ball,” Worley said. “There were people talking about them contending as a playoff team, which shows they have talent. Those guys can be the difference in the game.”

It’s upon Worley to keep that from happening, and Arizona State is a fitting foe in his quest to complete his next task and get better at what he does. But what’s next might also be what’s last. The 6-2, 200-pound junior from Philadelphia will consider the NFL draft after the game as he waits for a review from the NFL’s draft advisory board.

“It’s something we’ve all thought about since we started playing,” Worley said. “When you feel like it’s in arm’s reach, you definitely feel like you should go grab it. But at the end of the day, there are a lot of things you have to weigh. I’ll talk to my coaches and my family about all the things that factor into it.”

It’s happened fast for Worley, who had to play catch up this season. He had surgery after the bowl game last year to repair a shoulder injury and then missed all of spring practice.

“He didn’t play football for six months,” cornerbacks coach Brian Mitchell said. “It’s hard to come back and think you’re going to be right where you left off.”

Worley was fine when the season started with a shutout against Georgia Southern, when he intercepted a pass in the end zone against Maryland and when the Mountaineers were 3-0 and ranked No. 23 to open Big 12 play.

WVU then lost four straight games, and receivers were having big games against Worley and the rest of the secondary. He’d rebound and be rewarded with the all-conference recognition, but it was a conversation with Mitchell after the season that explained the season the best.

The recuperation was more taxing than Worley realized. Maybe he worked too hard on his upper body as he rehabilitated his shoulder, and maybe he was too top heavy and hadn’t done enough for his legs. Maybe he was foolish to think he could mitigate the loss of six months.

“The first three games it was like, ‘Oh, it’s a breeze,’ because I made a few plays,” Worley said. “Jumping into the start of Big 12 play, things might have been a little bit rough. It might have been the six months catching back up to me. That’s how I look at it now, because once I got my feet back under me and got my confidence back to an ultimate high, a lot of plays were being made.”

As good as he’s been for the defense, especially amid injuries to players throughout the secondary, he wasn’t a first-team cornerback earlier in the season. He wasn’t even on the field for a spell against Baylor and eventual Biletnikoff Award winner Corey Coleman.

After giving up some big plays, including a touchdown, in the first quarter, Worley was removed from the game and told to relax.

“I was so hung up on that matchup,” he said.

On the first play of the game, Baylor went deep and arched a pass over Worley into Coleman’s grasp. Worley was as close as he could get without committing pass interference. The throw was just better than the coverage. On the next possession, Coleman faked out Worley in the end zone and caught an easy touchdown pass.

When the game was over, Coleman had 10 catches for 199 yards and three touchdowns, and WVU coach Dana Holgorsen said Coleman was “the best player in college football.”

But after the initial flurry and Worley’s break, he didn’t cover Coleman. Terrell Chestnut, the other starting cornerback, was hurt in the first quarter, and Worley was the only player who knew how to play that side of the field.

The Bears took chances against Worley, but he batted down three passes, kept deep threat K.D. Cannon from catching a pass when Worley was covering him and played one of his best games.

Worley surged from there through the rest of the schedule.

“If I was to break it down for myself,” he said, “I’d say it was the best football I’ve ever played since I was in college.”

He defended two passes against TCU and then in the final five games of the regular season had 28 of his 49 tackles, four interceptions and separate forced and recovered fumbles.

“All-Big 12,” Mitchell said. “Very high level. He’s so heady. His maturity is off the charts. He’s making those plays in critical situations. When we need a turnover, he gets a turnover. When we need a third-down stop, he makes a play on third down. When we need to make a play in the red zone, he makes a play in the red zone. He’s been a big playmaker.”