Post by elp525 on Oct 10, 2011 5:09:57 GMT -5
Sunday October 9, 2011
by Jack Bogaczyk
Charleston Daily Mail
MORGANTOWN -- Talk about the big 12 ... Connecticut seemed headed for a go-ahead touchdown Saturday in what at that third-quarter moment was an anything-but-sunny Mountaineer Field. Then, a funny thing happened on the way to the end zone.
Quarterback Johnny McEntee fumbled, and West Virginia middle linebacker Jewone Snow grabbed the ball and snowplowed his way 83 yards - the second longest fumble return in WVU history - to the UConn 12 before being tackled by Husky tight end Ryan Griffin.
"Yeah, he's heard about that (being tackled from behind), and he'll keep hearing about it. And I think a lineman got him," WVU senior linebacker Najee Goode said, laughing.
Two plays later, Geno Smith threw for 12 of WVU's team-record 469 passing yards and a touchdown to Tavon Austin. That's six.
"At the end of the day, this is high-level football and you have to make plays," UConn Coach Paul Pasqualoni said. "They made the plays and that play that that linebacker made hitting Johnny, that's a key play and a big play in the game. We just didn't make the plays."
The next series lasted one play - a pass in the flat from Smith to Steadman Bailey that the latter turned into an 84-yard touchdown, the fifth-longest in school history.
Six and six is 12 ... and the Mountaineers suddenly led 24-9 en route to a 43-16 rout in their Big East football opener.
"The 84-yard one really took the wind out of our sails," Pasqualoni said. "We came back from there but I just don't remember gaining field position again after that play."
West Virginia's defense didn't allow it, on a day when first-year Coach Dana Holgorsen found little to carp except his own giving "up on the run too early" as his 13th-ranked Mountaineers (5-1, 1-0) head into a midseason open week before an Oct. 21 Friday prime-timer at Syracuse (4-2, 0-1).
Smith was stellar again. He was 27-of-45 for 450 yards (13 short of his school record set in the LSU loss two weeks earlier) with four touchdowns and no interceptions. He went by 5,000 career yards and 2,000 season yards and the junior's 438 career completions are about a game's-worth behind Athletic Director Oliver Luck's 466.
"He is capable of being as good as any quarterback in college football," said Holgorsen, presumably including Luck's son, Heisman Trophy-favorite Andrew Luck of Stanford. "He still puts too much on his shoulders; there was a point in that second quarter and he did some things, which we will address.
"He doesn't need to take over the game and once he 100-percent understands that, he will keep getting better."
Bailey and sophomore Ivan McCartney each provided 100-yard receiving days, giving the Mountaineers a school-record nine of those performances this season. The other seven Big East teams have 10 of those 100-yard catching days, combined, this season.
The defense was more aggressive and coordinator Jeff Casteel liked that some of his younger players - like Snow - are "really starting to pick up some of what we're teaching."
Holgorsen also called the special teams performance the best in his six WVU games.
And while it was WVU's fifth home game in six dates and the Mountaineers now have to finish with four of six on the road, the win over UConn also needs to be a template for what West Virginia and the embattled Big East needs as the falling leaves turn to freezing temperatures.
The conference, if it is to survive as a football player (much less retain its Bowl Championship Series status after 2013) needs its only ranked team, West Virginia, to continue to impress as it did in the second half Saturday.
Considering its defections and uncertain future membership, on the field the Big East can hardly afford its flag-bearer among the best programs - and that's WVU - to stumble. The conference needs a big BCS standings number to build toward 2014-17 automatic qualification, undoubtedly with some new members that haven't been BCS big boys.
It would behoove WVU to continue its impressive play, too, to perhaps impress another conference (Big 12 or Southeastern) that might have the Mountaineers somewhere on their radar.
When you're trying to make the point that a WVU-Texas or WVU-Oklahoma game might be a bigger TV draw than Louisville against those Big 12ers, it helps to prove you might belong with an exclamation point.
For example, WVU had seven plays from scrimmage of 20 or more yards against the Huskies (2-4, 0-1), all Smith passes. In a half-season, the Mountaineers have 34 plays of 20-plus, 32 of those passes. There were 47 scrimmage plays of 20 or more yards in all of last season, including 36 passes.
The first half, which WVU led 10-9, was exactly what the Mountaineers and the Big East don't need.
It was most remarkable for a Tweet that appeared on laptops from CBSSports.com's Brett McMurphy, saying a Kansas City radio station was reporting WVU President Jim Clements was "wearing out Kansas State president (Kirk Schulz) begging to get in Big 12."
It's obvious West Virginia has the talent, speed and schemes to win the Big East title. How the Mountaineers do that will go a long way in determining where the Big East - without or without WVU - goes from 2011.
There is expected news from the Big East office on expansion this week. As for those other conferences where they are wannabes, maybe the Mountaineers should let Geno Smith do their lobbying ... or lobbing.
by Jack Bogaczyk
Charleston Daily Mail
MORGANTOWN -- Talk about the big 12 ... Connecticut seemed headed for a go-ahead touchdown Saturday in what at that third-quarter moment was an anything-but-sunny Mountaineer Field. Then, a funny thing happened on the way to the end zone.
Quarterback Johnny McEntee fumbled, and West Virginia middle linebacker Jewone Snow grabbed the ball and snowplowed his way 83 yards - the second longest fumble return in WVU history - to the UConn 12 before being tackled by Husky tight end Ryan Griffin.
"Yeah, he's heard about that (being tackled from behind), and he'll keep hearing about it. And I think a lineman got him," WVU senior linebacker Najee Goode said, laughing.
Two plays later, Geno Smith threw for 12 of WVU's team-record 469 passing yards and a touchdown to Tavon Austin. That's six.
"At the end of the day, this is high-level football and you have to make plays," UConn Coach Paul Pasqualoni said. "They made the plays and that play that that linebacker made hitting Johnny, that's a key play and a big play in the game. We just didn't make the plays."
The next series lasted one play - a pass in the flat from Smith to Steadman Bailey that the latter turned into an 84-yard touchdown, the fifth-longest in school history.
Six and six is 12 ... and the Mountaineers suddenly led 24-9 en route to a 43-16 rout in their Big East football opener.
"The 84-yard one really took the wind out of our sails," Pasqualoni said. "We came back from there but I just don't remember gaining field position again after that play."
West Virginia's defense didn't allow it, on a day when first-year Coach Dana Holgorsen found little to carp except his own giving "up on the run too early" as his 13th-ranked Mountaineers (5-1, 1-0) head into a midseason open week before an Oct. 21 Friday prime-timer at Syracuse (4-2, 0-1).
Smith was stellar again. He was 27-of-45 for 450 yards (13 short of his school record set in the LSU loss two weeks earlier) with four touchdowns and no interceptions. He went by 5,000 career yards and 2,000 season yards and the junior's 438 career completions are about a game's-worth behind Athletic Director Oliver Luck's 466.
"He is capable of being as good as any quarterback in college football," said Holgorsen, presumably including Luck's son, Heisman Trophy-favorite Andrew Luck of Stanford. "He still puts too much on his shoulders; there was a point in that second quarter and he did some things, which we will address.
"He doesn't need to take over the game and once he 100-percent understands that, he will keep getting better."
Bailey and sophomore Ivan McCartney each provided 100-yard receiving days, giving the Mountaineers a school-record nine of those performances this season. The other seven Big East teams have 10 of those 100-yard catching days, combined, this season.
The defense was more aggressive and coordinator Jeff Casteel liked that some of his younger players - like Snow - are "really starting to pick up some of what we're teaching."
Holgorsen also called the special teams performance the best in his six WVU games.
And while it was WVU's fifth home game in six dates and the Mountaineers now have to finish with four of six on the road, the win over UConn also needs to be a template for what West Virginia and the embattled Big East needs as the falling leaves turn to freezing temperatures.
The conference, if it is to survive as a football player (much less retain its Bowl Championship Series status after 2013) needs its only ranked team, West Virginia, to continue to impress as it did in the second half Saturday.
Considering its defections and uncertain future membership, on the field the Big East can hardly afford its flag-bearer among the best programs - and that's WVU - to stumble. The conference needs a big BCS standings number to build toward 2014-17 automatic qualification, undoubtedly with some new members that haven't been BCS big boys.
It would behoove WVU to continue its impressive play, too, to perhaps impress another conference (Big 12 or Southeastern) that might have the Mountaineers somewhere on their radar.
When you're trying to make the point that a WVU-Texas or WVU-Oklahoma game might be a bigger TV draw than Louisville against those Big 12ers, it helps to prove you might belong with an exclamation point.
For example, WVU had seven plays from scrimmage of 20 or more yards against the Huskies (2-4, 0-1), all Smith passes. In a half-season, the Mountaineers have 34 plays of 20-plus, 32 of those passes. There were 47 scrimmage plays of 20 or more yards in all of last season, including 36 passes.
The first half, which WVU led 10-9, was exactly what the Mountaineers and the Big East don't need.
It was most remarkable for a Tweet that appeared on laptops from CBSSports.com's Brett McMurphy, saying a Kansas City radio station was reporting WVU President Jim Clements was "wearing out Kansas State president (Kirk Schulz) begging to get in Big 12."
It's obvious West Virginia has the talent, speed and schemes to win the Big East title. How the Mountaineers do that will go a long way in determining where the Big East - without or without WVU - goes from 2011.
There is expected news from the Big East office on expansion this week. As for those other conferences where they are wannabes, maybe the Mountaineers should let Geno Smith do their lobbying ... or lobbing.
