Post by elp525 on Oct 8, 2011 8:34:50 GMT -5
October 7, 2011
By Dave Hickman
The Charleston Gazette
MORGANTOWN - There's been considerable talk about revenge this week in regard to West Virginia's game with Connecticut.
The Mountaineers, after all, would have been in the Fiesta Bowl a year ago had they not turned the ball over four times and lost to UConn in overtime in East Hartford, Conn.
You won't hear much talk of revenge from the Mountaineers themselves, though. In fact, in the week leading up to today's noon Big East opener at Mountaineer Field, the theme seemed to be to avoid the word or even the thought of revenge.
"We don't even worry about last year,'' said safety Terence Garvin. "Sure, we remember how they beat us last year. We remember that game. But we also know they have a good team this year and we have to go out and play.
"We don't see it as revenge. It's just the next game on the schedule.''
Even Bruce Irvin, never shy about speaking his mind or saying something outrageous, is buttoned down on the topic of revenge.
"It was a good game and turnovers killed us,'' Irvin said. "We put it on the ground seven times and turned it over four times. You can't win like that. I don't care if you're 10 times better than a team. If you turn the ball over there's no way you can win.
"You can call it a revenge game if you want, but we just have to come out and play smart football.''
Irvin did, however, get a bit animated when someone mentioned that UConn, by virtue of tiebreakers, was considered the Big East champion last season. In truth, the Huskies were tied with WVU and Pitt at the top of the standings, but went to the Fiesta Bowl by virtue of wins over the other two.
"They're no champions. There were three-way champions. They just went to the bowl game,'' Irvin said. "We got rings.''
nn
Connecticut coach Paul Pasqualoni watched his team give up 479 passing yards to Western Michigan a week ago.
Granted, the Broncos do throw the football, but coming into that game they ranked just 31st in the nation in passing (and No. 13 afterward). Quarterback Alex Carder set a career high, throwing for 105 yards more than he'd thrown for in a game this season.
Now comes West Virginia, with the No. 6 passing offense in the country. Pasqualoni's only changes this week apparently will be to try to do things better.
"I think the biggest adjustment we have to make is to play the coverages better. I think it starts there,'' Pasqualoni said. "You've got to hang your hat on fundamentals, on techniques. I think last week at times we just tried to do too much. Let's take care of what's in front of us and what they're doing.
"The West Virginia offense has got a lot of similarities to Western Michigan in a sense that it's a spread. There's going to be four wide receivers in the game an awful lot. There's going to be three wide receivers with a tight end, that's flexed."
UConn's pass defense isn't helped by the fact that standout cornerback Blidi Wreh-Wilson is expected to miss his second straight game with a sprained knee.
nn
Bill Stewart used to make a big deal of changing things up for a noon game, getting his players up earlier, practicing earlier and trying to make sure they were ready for an early game.
Dana Holgorsen? Well, it concerns him, too, but he isn't making it a big deal. He wants to start fast every game, and so far the Mountaineers have been OK in their only previous noon start.
"We're talking about it. Against Maryland, we started fast, but that was three games ago,'' Holgorsen said. "We can't start faster than we did against Maryland. That was a noon game, so we'll probably take the same approach and hopefully we'll have the same results.''
It's tough to prepare for a midday game during the week when mornings are reserved for classes.
"We can't get them up at 8 a.m., feed them and serve them breakfast and then have meetings and practice at noon because they have school,'' Holgorsen said. "I just talk about it and get them to focus on it and try to get them to buy into it.''
nn
Today's will be the fifth home game in six weeks to begin the season for West Virginia. Needless to say, things will change from here out.
For starters, next week is an off week for the Mountaineers. They don't play again until Friday, Oct. 21 against Syracuse. That begins a stretch of three road games in four weeks - at Syracuse and Rutgers, home to Louisville and then at Cincinnati.
Then comes the second off week before finishing the schedule with Pitt at home the Friday after Thanksgiving and then a trip to South Florida on Thursday, Dec. 1.
By Dave Hickman
The Charleston Gazette
MORGANTOWN - There's been considerable talk about revenge this week in regard to West Virginia's game with Connecticut.
The Mountaineers, after all, would have been in the Fiesta Bowl a year ago had they not turned the ball over four times and lost to UConn in overtime in East Hartford, Conn.
You won't hear much talk of revenge from the Mountaineers themselves, though. In fact, in the week leading up to today's noon Big East opener at Mountaineer Field, the theme seemed to be to avoid the word or even the thought of revenge.
"We don't even worry about last year,'' said safety Terence Garvin. "Sure, we remember how they beat us last year. We remember that game. But we also know they have a good team this year and we have to go out and play.
"We don't see it as revenge. It's just the next game on the schedule.''
Even Bruce Irvin, never shy about speaking his mind or saying something outrageous, is buttoned down on the topic of revenge.
"It was a good game and turnovers killed us,'' Irvin said. "We put it on the ground seven times and turned it over four times. You can't win like that. I don't care if you're 10 times better than a team. If you turn the ball over there's no way you can win.
"You can call it a revenge game if you want, but we just have to come out and play smart football.''
Irvin did, however, get a bit animated when someone mentioned that UConn, by virtue of tiebreakers, was considered the Big East champion last season. In truth, the Huskies were tied with WVU and Pitt at the top of the standings, but went to the Fiesta Bowl by virtue of wins over the other two.
"They're no champions. There were three-way champions. They just went to the bowl game,'' Irvin said. "We got rings.''
nn
Connecticut coach Paul Pasqualoni watched his team give up 479 passing yards to Western Michigan a week ago.
Granted, the Broncos do throw the football, but coming into that game they ranked just 31st in the nation in passing (and No. 13 afterward). Quarterback Alex Carder set a career high, throwing for 105 yards more than he'd thrown for in a game this season.
Now comes West Virginia, with the No. 6 passing offense in the country. Pasqualoni's only changes this week apparently will be to try to do things better.
"I think the biggest adjustment we have to make is to play the coverages better. I think it starts there,'' Pasqualoni said. "You've got to hang your hat on fundamentals, on techniques. I think last week at times we just tried to do too much. Let's take care of what's in front of us and what they're doing.
"The West Virginia offense has got a lot of similarities to Western Michigan in a sense that it's a spread. There's going to be four wide receivers in the game an awful lot. There's going to be three wide receivers with a tight end, that's flexed."
UConn's pass defense isn't helped by the fact that standout cornerback Blidi Wreh-Wilson is expected to miss his second straight game with a sprained knee.
nn
Bill Stewart used to make a big deal of changing things up for a noon game, getting his players up earlier, practicing earlier and trying to make sure they were ready for an early game.
Dana Holgorsen? Well, it concerns him, too, but he isn't making it a big deal. He wants to start fast every game, and so far the Mountaineers have been OK in their only previous noon start.
"We're talking about it. Against Maryland, we started fast, but that was three games ago,'' Holgorsen said. "We can't start faster than we did against Maryland. That was a noon game, so we'll probably take the same approach and hopefully we'll have the same results.''
It's tough to prepare for a midday game during the week when mornings are reserved for classes.
"We can't get them up at 8 a.m., feed them and serve them breakfast and then have meetings and practice at noon because they have school,'' Holgorsen said. "I just talk about it and get them to focus on it and try to get them to buy into it.''
nn
Today's will be the fifth home game in six weeks to begin the season for West Virginia. Needless to say, things will change from here out.
For starters, next week is an off week for the Mountaineers. They don't play again until Friday, Oct. 21 against Syracuse. That begins a stretch of three road games in four weeks - at Syracuse and Rutgers, home to Louisville and then at Cincinnati.
Then comes the second off week before finishing the schedule with Pitt at home the Friday after Thanksgiving and then a trip to South Florida on Thursday, Dec. 1.
