October 25 Notebook
October 25, 2004 01:34 PM | General
October 25, 2004
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – Did you realize that West Virginia has now scored nine defensive touchdowns since Rich Rodriguez took over the head coaching reigns in 2001. The Mountaineers scored two defensive TDs each in 2001, 2002 and 2003 and already have three defensive touchdowns this season heading into the Rutgers game.
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| Shawn Hackett is tied with Aaron Beasley for the most defensive touchdowns scored since 1963 with three.
WVU Sports Communications photo |
Adam Lehnortt returned a fumble 21 yards for a touchdown against James Madison, Eric Wicks returned an interception 34 yards for a score against Virginia Tech and Mike Lorello returned an interception 21 yards for a touchdown against Connecticut. The three defensive TDs scored in consecutive games was a first since the 2000 season when the Mountaineer defense produced a staggering seven defensive scores that year.
This decade has truly been one of defensive touchdowns for the Mountaineers. Since 2000, West Virginia has had 16 defensive touchdowns which equal the entire amount of defensive TDs scored from a period from 1963 to 1979.
The Mountaineers managed 11 defensive scores in the decade of the 1980s and 15 defensive touchdowns in the 1990s.
Defensive backs Aaron Beasley and Shawn Hackett are the two most prolific defensive scorers with three TDs each. Current WVU defensive back Pac-Man Jones has two career defensive touchdowns to his credit: a 47-yard fumble return against Temple and a 49-yard interception return against Boston College both in 2003.
One guess as to why to why West Virginia is scoring more defensive touchdowns is an overall emphasis of putting more of its best athletes on defense. Certainly that was former Coach Don Nehlen’s objective during his tenure at WVU.
Notebook:
Zook takes the fall after his nationally ranked Gator team lost 38-31 to Mississippi State last Saturday. He also recently became involved with an incident with a campus fraternity when some of his players got into a fight with some of its members. All three of Zook’s losses this season to Tennessee, LSU and Mississippi State have come in the final minute.
West Virginia coach Rich Rodriguez was asked about Zook’s firing during his Monday morning Big East conference call.
“It’s a little unusual from the timing of it,” Rodriguez said. “It’s not unusual in this day and age of Division I football. You want to do things the right way and have your players graduate and do things the right way off the field. But you’ve also got to have success and that’s the sign of the times. Like it or not, I think we all understand that.”
The Mountain West, which many believe is the next best alternative, has a combined 29-29 mark with only two teams (Utah and Wyoming) with .500 or better records. And while Utah has a shot of going undefeated and landing one of the BCS bowl at-large berths, the rest of the conference is scrambling to fill its three bowl commitments consisting of the Liberty, Las Vegas and Emerald Bowls.
Wyoming, at 4-3, must win at least two more games against Air Force, UNLV, Utah or New Mexico to become bowl eligible. BYU, at 4-4, has to win two of its final three games against San Diego State, New Mexico and Utah. New Mexico, also 4-4, has games remaining against Colorado State, BYU and Wyoming.
Air Force, now 3-4, must win three of its final four games against Wyoming, Army, San Diego State and Colorado State. And Colorado State, 3-4, must win three of its final four games against New Mexico, Utah, UNLV and Air Force to get six victories and become bowl eligible.
The problem is, of course, that all of the teams needing to reach six victories also happen to play each other. Furthermore, Utah presents a substantial stumbling block for Colorado State, Wyoming and BYU.
So, this is the league that one commentator suggested the Big East should have a playoff with in order to secure a BCS bowl spot: amazing.
Moving past the Mountain West, you’ve got Conference USA as a close second. Southern Mississippi sits atop the league with a 4-0 conference mark and is 5-1 overall. Nipping at the Eagles’ heals is nationally ranked Louisville with a 3-0 league record and a 5-1 overall mark.
From there things get a little murky. Third-place UAB lost 59-55 to Tulane, which lost earlier this year to bottom feeder East Carolina. Fourth-place Memphis won its season opener against Mississippi and had a 5-1 record heading into Cincinnati only to lose 49-10 to a Bearcat team that lost to Army, another bottom feeder. TCU is the remaining C-USA team with a winning overall record at 4-3.
Next year C-USA loses its top team Louisville to the Big East as well as two up and coming programs in Cincinnati and South Florida.
Seems to me like all of this bickering leads us right back where we started in the first place.
Aggie officials say expanding and renovating the stadium would cost as much as $200 million. There is, however, one other small issue: Texas A&M is only averaging 70,896 fans this season, or roughly 12,000 less than capacity. And they want to add 33,000 more seats?
Am I missing something here?
