Gator Bowl Bound
November 29, 2004 03:30 PM | General
November 29, 2004
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – Bob Smith, Chairman of the Toyota Gator Bowl, today officially extended an invitation to Ed Pastilong, Director of Athletics at West Virginia University, and Rich Rodriguez, head football coach of the Mountaineers, to be the Big East Conference representative in the Jan. 1, 2005 Gator Bowl Classic.
“West Virginia is truly among the greatest football traditions in the nation,” Smith said. “The Mountaineers have had an outstanding season and we are looking forward to an exciting bowl match up in Jacksonville.”
“On behalf of West Virginia University and our loyal alums and followers and our winning Mountaineer football program, we certainly are very pleased that you extended this invitation to us,” said Pastilong.
West Virginia finished the regular season with an 8-3 record and a No. 24 ranking in the most recent USA Today/ESPN Coaches Poll. WVU won a share of the Big East regular season title for the second straight year.
The Mountaineers will be making their fifth appearance at the Gator Bowl after having played Maryland in last year’s game. West Virginia also faced Florida State in 1982, Clemson in 1989 and North Carolina in 1997.
WVU has been involved in three of the Gator Bowl’s ten-best attended games including the bowl-game record of 82,911 against Clemson in 1989. WVU’s game against the Seminoles in 1982 drew 80,913 fans, which is fifth-best in bowl history; last year’s Maryland game had an announced crowd of 78,892 making it the eighth-best attended game in Gator Bowl history.
In addition to coaching in the Gator Bowl last year, Rodriguez was a player for West Virginia in the 1982 game that saw Florida State defeat Don Nehlen’s Mountaineers team 31-12. “I remember getting wet and muddy and all I saw was the back of their jerseys,” Rodriguez said. “I was on the kickoff team watching one guy run for a touchdown. They were running by us and through us and did everything they wanted to do.”
Rodriguez says he’s studied successful bowl preparation plans from other coaches in an effort to try and avoid another result like last year’s 41-7 loss to Maryland.
“I’ve looked at numerous bowl schedules in both mine and other coaches that have had success in bowl games … the length of their practices and what they did at bowl sites … all that stuff has been analyzed,” he said. ‘I feel pretty comfortable because we’re doing similar things. It’s just when you get to the game itself that guys have got to play better.”
The coach admitted that he was surprised that several veteran players had poor performances in last year’s loss to Maryland despite the team having good practices leading up to the game.
“For some unknown reason guys that had played a certain way and practiced a certain way got into the bowl game and blew gaskets,” he said. “I’m talking about veteran players and guys that never made those mistakes. Figuring out the psychology of an 18, 19 and 20-year-old young man is the part that’s hard to figure out.”
This will be Rodriguez’ third bowl appearance since taking over the Mountaineer job in 2001. The coach took West Virginia to the Continental Tire Bowl in 2002 to face Virginia.
“It’s a great bowl game,” the coach said of the Gator Bowl. “Our players and coaches are obviously excited about that. We had a good experience there last year until the game and it’s one of the best bowl games that there is.”
According to the coach, the team will begin practicing for the Gator Bowl this Sunday and will get in a few extra practice sessions before the team departs for Jacksonville on Christmas Day.
“They’ll lift this week a couple of times and they’ll lift and run a few times next week,” said Rodriguez. “We’re going to practice a little earlier this year as opposed to last year. Our schedule is a little different because our finals are a week later so we’ll have to practice around finals.
“I think last year we got eight or nine practices on campus before we left and this year we’ll get a couple of more than that.”
West Virginia will be making its 24th bowl appearance overall.
WVU’s Gator Bowl opponent is expected to be announced tomorrow.
The 60th annual Toyota Gator Bowl will kickoff at 12:30 p.m. and will be played at Alltel Stadium, home of the Jacksonville Jaguars and the 2005 Super Bowl.
Mountaineer fans wishing to purchase tickets for the game can do so by calling the Mountaineer Ticket Office at 1-800-WVU GAME beginning Tuesday morning or by logging onto WVUGAME.com. Fans can get more information on the Gator Bowl and the Jacksonville area by logging onto the web site Gator Bowl.com.
