Countdown to Kickoff
August 28, 2003 02:06 PM | General
August 29, 2003
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – West Virginia opens its 2003 football season versus Wisconsin in a noon game on Saturday, Aug. 30, at Mountaineer Field (63,500) in Morgantown. This year’s opener will be televised by ESPN (Mark Jones, Bob Davie and Holly Rowe).
Season tickets and good single-game tickets are still available and can be purchased by calling the Mountaineer Ticket Office toll-free at 1-800-WVU GAME. Tickets will also be sold at the stadium on game day.
Wisconsin is coming off an 8-6 season in 2002 that saw the Badgers defeat Colorado, 31-28 in the Alamo Bowl. West Virginia, 9-4 last year, also went bowling against Virginia in the Continental Tire Bowl. Wisconsin comes into Saturday’s game ranked 20th by the coaches and 21st by AP.
Here is Saturday’s Countdown to Kickoff:
10 – TEN of Rich Rodriguez’ first 24 games as Mountaineer football coach have come against nationally ranked teams. Rodriguez will play his 11th ranked team Saturday when West Virginia faces No. 20 Wisconsin.
9 – Wisconsin ranked NINTH nationally last year in turnover margin at plus-1.29. The Badgers forced 35 turnovers last season – the most of the Barry Alvarez era and the most by a Wisconsin team since 1987.
8 – Senior linebacker Grant Wiley needs 18 more unassisted tackles to move into EIGHTH place on the school’s career unassisted tackles list occupied by Mike Collins. Wiley enters this season with 199 unassisted stops. In the process, Wiley will also jump past Delbert Fowler (212) and Wes Richardson (214) to reach Collins (216) at No. 8.
7 – Saturday’s game against No. 20 Wisconsin represents the SEVENTH time West Virginia will face a nationally ranked team to open the season, and the first since playing No. 1 Ohio State in 1998. Of the six previous meetings against ranked teams in openers, three have been played in Morgantown and just one at new Mountaineer Field. The six ranked teams to open the season were: Pitt (1953), Pitt (1956), Navy (1963), Oklahoma (1982), Nebraska (1994) and Ohio State (1998).
6 – Saturday’s game against Wisconsin will be the SIXTH time West Virginia has played a football game in the month of August. The five previous games came against Tennessee-Chattanooga (2001), Marshall (1997), Pitt (1996), Nebraska (1994) and Pitt (1991).
5 – FIVE of Wisconsin’s last 13 victories have been fourth-quarter comeback efforts. Four of them came last year against Fresno State, Northern Illinois, Minnesota and Colorado. The fifth was against Ohio State in 2001.
4 – Jim Sorgi becomes just the FOURTH full-time starting quarterback for Wisconsin since 1992. The other three were Brooks Bollinger, Mike Samuel and Darrell Bevell.
3 – Wisconsin has won all THREE games against West Virginia in sporadic series play that spans all the way back to 1933. West Virginia dropped a 25-6 verdict in 1933, lost 45-13 in 1957, and fell 43-17 last year. All three games were in Madison, Wisc.
2 – West Virginia has lost TWICE against Big Ten teams in season openers. The Mountaineers dropped a 26-24 decision to Purdue in the 1995 opener and lost 34-17 to No. 1-ranked Ohio State in the ’98 opener.
1 – Saturday’s game will be the FIRST time Wisconsin has ever played at Mountaineer Field.
Enjoy the game and be sure to stop back afterward for complete postgame coverage.
