Published: October 11, 2008 01:13 am            

West Virginia strives for 2-0 start in Big East

Virginia, Concord also hit the gridiron

MORGANTOWN — There was a time when Syracuse football was among college football’s elite. Those days have passed.

West Virginia hopes the Orange stay that way for at least one more day.

The Mountaineers (3-2, 1-0) will try to make it three straight wins and two Big East victories in a row today against the Orange (1-4, 0-1) in what is homecoming at Milan-Puskar Stadium. Kickoff is slated for noon.

Despite early-season disappointments that ruined any hopes of a national title for the Mountaineers, West Virginia is still one of the favorites to claim the school’s fifth Big East title in the last six years.

“I told the lads Sunday night and I’ll tell them every night this week, I ask them what game it is. They answer, ‘game two,’” West Virginia head coach Bill Stewart said. “So they are getting it. It’s really game six but more importantly it’s game two in the Big East so they are starting to get it.

“That tickled me and I’m excited about that. Now I know we are starting to get in the right mind frame and I was really pleased about that.”

West Virginia got its conference slate off to a winning start with a 24-17 win last week over Rutgers, a game highlighted by quarterback Pat White leaving with an injury for a second straight week.

“It was a good win and a solid win, but I don’t think it was a very convincing win,” Stewart said. “A win is a win and I’m not complaining. I think we’re getting better.”

Syracuse, which last played two weeks ago, allowed Pittsburgh to score 18 fourth quarter points to drop its opening Big East contest 34-24 to the Panthers. In four years under head coach Greg Robinson, the Orange is 8-32, and just 2-20 in the Big East.

“They have two weeks to get ready for us and they are going to be loaded ready to go when they come down here to Morgantown,” Stewart said. “Big East game No. 2 is on our horizon and that’s what is on our agenda.”

West Virginia has won its last six decisions against Syracuse, and White has been a big part of the last three.

In the Orange’s last visit to Morgantown in ‘06, the senior signal-caller ran for 247 yards and four touchdowns, and also threw for another 99 in a 41-17 rout.

The ‘Eers also won 55-14 in last year’s meeting at the Carrier Dome.

“Our opponent is like what we faced last week and what we were like a couple of weeks ago — needing a win,” Stewart said. “We want to be able to continue our streak and stop them from starting a streak. That is our goal.”

Syracuse, whose lone win was a 31-20 decision over FBS foe Northeastern, is ranked among the nation’s worst teams on both sides of the ball. The Orange is 110th in total offense (285.6) and 114th (462.4) on defense.

Still, Stewart is concerned about the Orange, which surprised surging Louisville for its lone Big East win last season.

“The team has some skill and I just hope they don’t put it all together on Saturday,” Stewart said. “It will be an interesting challenge for our football team and we just need to keep our mind set — it’s game two. Hopefully we’ll be up for the challenge.”

Cameron Dantley leads Syracuse at quarterback, throwing for 549 yards and seven scores, while Curtis Brinkley has run for 477 yards and three scores. Stewart compares Dantley to West Virginia’s signal-callers.

“Dantley is like having Pat White, Jarrett (Brown), or Bradley Starks in there,” Stewart said. “He has his own identity and he is a good athlete. He can pitch and catch the ball and he can throw the ball.”

So can West Virginia, but they haven’t done it on a consistent basis. White, Noel Devine and Jock Sanders have been active on offense, while the 6-foot-4 Brown has replaced White the last two weeks. He has mainly come in on short yardage plays and has just thrown just 10 passes.

“He’s involved in the passing game...We didn’t do as much (last week) as we probably could have, should have, or will do in the future,” Stewart said. “We have more in our arsenal with him. As we build and keep building, we’ll keep getting better and better.”

While the West Virginia offense is still searching for answers, the defense has been surprisingly strong, despite starting seven sophomores and freshmen last week. They’ve allowed just 23 points in their last 11 quarters.

Now they’ll have to do it without Reed Williams, who made it official and will take a redshirt season to rest his ailing shoulders. Senior linebacker Mortty Ivy is confident the Mountaineers will respond just fine.

“We’re not going to miss him that much,” Ivy said. “We’re going to miss him out there physically, but he’s going to be out there mentally with us.

“It’s hardly about me making plays. It’s about getting a win and how well the defense plays. Now the young guys have to play a bigger role. They didn’t get a lot of experience last year and now they will get experience and they will get better each week.”

Stewart still isn’t sure how good the Mountaineers can be. He’s hoping to learn a bit more today.

“Each team has their own identity and I don’t know if we have ours yet.” said Stewart, whose ‘Eers were ranked as high as eighth in the nation. “I know we’re not No. 8 in the country but we’re sure working hard to get there.

“I think everyone plays every week and if you don’t, you get embarrassed.”

—Contact Brian Woodson

at bwoodson@bdtonline.com



Virginia meets East Carolina in headscratcher



CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. (AP) — If college football promoted a Headscratcher Game of the Week, Saturday’s contest between East Carolina and Virginia would be an excellent candidate.

East Carolina beat two ranked opponents and climbed as high as No. 14 before losing two in a row and dropping out of the rankings, leaving coach Skip Holtz searching for answers during a bye week.

Virginia was embarrassed 31-3 by Duke, which broke a 25-game ACC losing streak, before being nearly flawless in a 31-0 rout of heavily favored Maryland last weekend.

Now, the teams still searching for their true identity meet Saturday at Scott Stadium.

The oddsmakers seem to think the earlier games provided the truer picture of each team’s identity and have installed the Pirates (3-2) as the favorite.

Holtz, however, noted that points don’t come easy for the visiting team in Charlottesville, where the Cavaliers (2-3) have shut out their last two opponents.

“I think this is a different football team than it was five weeks ago, and knowing that we have to go play them at home will present a great challenge for us,” Holtz said.

Equally challenging for Holtz is recapturing the mojo that led to the Pirates’ surprising start. Holtz said the problem is hard to pinpoint, but he’s got some general ideas.

“I don’t think we’re as together as a football team as we need to be right now,” he said. “That’s something we’ve talked about.

“I’m not a bag of tricks guy to try and motivate them. I’m very honest with them, and I think we have to go back to holding everybody accountable, from coaches to players being productive.”

He hinted that some younger players might get more of a chance to be part of that search because some veterans haven’t been meeting expectations.

“I don’t think we can stay status quo when things aren’t working,” Holtz said.

Virginia coach Al Groh is paying little heed to the Pirates’ recent struggles, saying he expects to see the same East Carolina team that opened the season in impressive fashion against Virginia Tech and West Virginia.

“Those are the teams that they beat and played their very best against,” Groh said. “We take our reading off of their performance against those two teams as to what East Carolina is capable of, so we can see what the benchmark is for their performance.”

So does Groh also expect the same spirited and efficient Cavaliers team that dominated Maryland to show up this Saturday, rather than the one that had been outscored 128-20 by Bowl Subdivision teams before that?

“We are hopeful,” he said. “The only way that can happen is that collectively we’re the same guys and we’re the same team throughout the course of the week that we were last week.”

Putting a big victory behind them is a new challenge for the 2008 Cavaliers, whose only other win was against Richmond of the second-tier Football Championship Subdivision.

“It’s always a better atmosphere when you win,” said senior tight end John Phillips. “There’s been a lot of positive energy floating around.”

But one of the things that helps bring Phillips and other Cavalier veterans back down to earth is the memory of a 31-21 loss at East Carolina two years ago.

“I think about it,” senior linebacker Clint Sintim said. “We went down there and they really handed it to us.”

Virginia quarterback Marc Verica will be looking to build on last weekend’s three-touchdown, no-turnover performance.

The sophomore, who threw four interceptions at Duke, will be making his fourth career start after Peter Lalich was kicked off the team for legal and disciplinary problems.

Holtz said the abrupt quarterback change had a lot to do with Virginia’s woes before the Maryland game, but that Verica is now doing a better job of “managing the game.”



Concord seeks first win vs. Shepherd



By TOM BONE

Bluefield Daily Telegraph

ATHENS — The mighty have fallen in West Virginia Conference football. The Shepherd Rams enter this afternoon’s contest with Concord University tied with the Mountain Lions for last place in conference play at 0-4.

The Rams (2-4 overall) are coming off of consecutive 11-1 and 10-2 seasons and multiple conference football championships. At the end of last season, the team was ranked No. 13 in NCAA Division II by the American Football Coaches Association.

The past is gone, though, and so are key players for Shepherd such as running back Dervon Wallace, center Ryan Pope and 14 other letter-winners.

Concord (0-6) will be trying to change the historical trend in which Shepherd scored 41 or more points on the Athenians in six of the last seven years. The exception was a 20-19 Mountain Lion win in 2003, still fondly remembered in the Carter Center offices.

Last week, Concord took a 41-7 defeat from West Virginia State, co-leaders atop the WVIAC standings.

The Mountain Lions turned the ball over six times, netted 150 yards of offense while allowing 450, and got their only score on a 90-yard interception return by Jeff Mehlhaff.

Leading the Concord rushing attack is Brian Kennedy, averaging 5.7 yards per carry and 50.5 yards per game. Thomas Mayo was again the favorite passing target of Tommy Frazier last week, catching five passes for 47 yards.

Punter Zach Boyd has a 44.2-yard average on 38 punts, continuing to lead the conference. The Mountain Lions’ leading tackler is freshman Chandler Tyree, with 35 stops.

Allowing an average of 42.8 points per game, Concord is ranked 146th out of 148 Division II football schools in scoring defense.

The Rams and Mountain Lions are last in the conference in total offense, though Rams quarterback Tyler Lazear is the third-rated passer in the West Virginia Conference, completing 61.5 percent of his passes.

Linebacker Jacquez Taylor is the statistical leader among conference tacklers with 37 solo tackles and 24 assists.

Shepherd return specialist Deante Steele earned national Special Teams Player of the Week from D2Football.com after posting four punt returns for 177 yards, including a school-record 95-yard runback for a touchdown, in the Rams’ 21-12 loss to Charleston.

Kickoff is at 1 p.m. today in Shepherdstown on the artificial turf at Ram Stadium. All Concord football games are broadcast on The New River, 102.3 FM.

Concord is at home next weekend for homecoming, a 6 p.m. Saturday contest with Glenville State College.

— Contact Tom Bone at

tbone@bdtonline.com

        

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