Post by cviller on Sept 24, 2007 10:38:04 GMT -5
Is it Friday night yet? I can’t wait
By DAVE POE, Sports Editor
PARKERSBURG —Dueling domination.
That’s what took place on Saturday afternoon for viewers tuned into ESPN.
On the all-sports channel’s flagship station, South Florida was manhandling a decent North Carolina team.
On its backup channel, ESPN2, West Virginia was dismantling a sound East Carolina team, who had beaten North Carolina, albeit by one point.
As much fun as it was to watch WVU give its best and most complete performance of the year, I couldn’t get too smug or comfortable knowing that the Mountaineers must travel to Tampa on Friday night to play South Florida.
It will be a battle of unbeatens as WVU is 4-0 and South Florida is 3-0. It will be a battle of ranked teams as the Mountaineers remained at No. 5 in the Associated Press poll released Sunday (hey, at least they didn’t drop a spot this week) while South Florida made the biggest leap among ranked teams going from No. 24 to No. 19.
Yet, simply calling this a battle of unbeaten ranked teams doesn’t do this matchup justice. This is one of those games that is going to be played at a very high level.
For West Virginia, it’s a revenge game as South Florida came to Morgantown last year and upset the Mountaineers. For South Florida, this is the chance to show America they really are an elite team that must be given serious consideration for the national championship, despite their preseason odds of 200-to-1.
The stakes are high. The winner stays unbeaten and keeps alive its chance to play in a BCS bowl and possibly even the national title game. The loser falls out of national title contention and also will need some help to get back in the Big East title and BCS bowl pictures.
I would love to have spent this week heaping praise on the Mountaineers for playing the best football game I’ve seen a West Virginia team play during Rich Rodriguez’s tenure in Morgantown.
Never has both the WVU offense and defense looked as flawless as they did Saturday.
East Carolina had no chance. It was the worst loss the Pirates have suffered under Skip Holtz’s leadership and I imagine that still will be the case whenever Holtz departs from his present position.
But watching South Florida quickly turned my thoughts to Friday night, a night normally reserved for high school football. While virtually every prep program in the Mountain State will be action at their accustomed time, Friday night lights will more accurately be a description of the glow coming from TV sets across West Virginia. This is one matchup you don’t want to miss.
I know neither team doesn’t want to miss out on this huge opportunity. This is one of those exclusive audience games, where yours is the only one on television. Any sports fan, coach or polling board member is going to be tuned in. It’s your chance to impress them much more than you ever can do on a busy Saturday when you are one of 50 games.
We’ll have all week to dissect the matchups and to discuss the key personalities that will determine the outcome of this all-important game.
The biggest games of the college football season normally are reserved for November, December and January. As far as a September game goes, it doesn’t get any bigger than Friday night.
Contact Dave Poe at dpoe@newsandsentinel.com
By DAVE POE, Sports Editor
PARKERSBURG —Dueling domination.
That’s what took place on Saturday afternoon for viewers tuned into ESPN.
On the all-sports channel’s flagship station, South Florida was manhandling a decent North Carolina team.
On its backup channel, ESPN2, West Virginia was dismantling a sound East Carolina team, who had beaten North Carolina, albeit by one point.
As much fun as it was to watch WVU give its best and most complete performance of the year, I couldn’t get too smug or comfortable knowing that the Mountaineers must travel to Tampa on Friday night to play South Florida.
It will be a battle of unbeatens as WVU is 4-0 and South Florida is 3-0. It will be a battle of ranked teams as the Mountaineers remained at No. 5 in the Associated Press poll released Sunday (hey, at least they didn’t drop a spot this week) while South Florida made the biggest leap among ranked teams going from No. 24 to No. 19.
Yet, simply calling this a battle of unbeaten ranked teams doesn’t do this matchup justice. This is one of those games that is going to be played at a very high level.
For West Virginia, it’s a revenge game as South Florida came to Morgantown last year and upset the Mountaineers. For South Florida, this is the chance to show America they really are an elite team that must be given serious consideration for the national championship, despite their preseason odds of 200-to-1.
The stakes are high. The winner stays unbeaten and keeps alive its chance to play in a BCS bowl and possibly even the national title game. The loser falls out of national title contention and also will need some help to get back in the Big East title and BCS bowl pictures.
I would love to have spent this week heaping praise on the Mountaineers for playing the best football game I’ve seen a West Virginia team play during Rich Rodriguez’s tenure in Morgantown.
Never has both the WVU offense and defense looked as flawless as they did Saturday.
East Carolina had no chance. It was the worst loss the Pirates have suffered under Skip Holtz’s leadership and I imagine that still will be the case whenever Holtz departs from his present position.
But watching South Florida quickly turned my thoughts to Friday night, a night normally reserved for high school football. While virtually every prep program in the Mountain State will be action at their accustomed time, Friday night lights will more accurately be a description of the glow coming from TV sets across West Virginia. This is one matchup you don’t want to miss.
I know neither team doesn’t want to miss out on this huge opportunity. This is one of those exclusive audience games, where yours is the only one on television. Any sports fan, coach or polling board member is going to be tuned in. It’s your chance to impress them much more than you ever can do on a busy Saturday when you are one of 50 games.
We’ll have all week to dissect the matchups and to discuss the key personalities that will determine the outcome of this all-important game.
The biggest games of the college football season normally are reserved for November, December and January. As far as a September game goes, it doesn’t get any bigger than Friday night.
Contact Dave Poe at dpoe@newsandsentinel.com
