Countdown to Kickoff
September 11, 2004 10:53 AM | General
September 11, 2004
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – West Virginia takes on the UCF Golden Knights in a 6 pm football game on Saturday, Sept. 11, at the Florida Citrus Bowl (70,188) in Orlando, Fla. There will be no live television for the contest.
MSN’s radio coverage begins at 5:30 pm and fans can access that broadcast by subscribing to Yahoo! Sports through MSNsportsNET.com.
West Virginia owns a 1-0 advantage in all-time series play, having defeated UCF 36-18 in Morgantown last year. The Mountaineers are just 2-15 in games played in the state of Florida and West Virginia’s last victory in the Sunshine State came in 1997 at Miami.
Here is Saturday’s Countdown to Kickoff:
10 – West Virginia was unsuccessful on TEN of 11 third-down conversion chances during last weekend’s 56-23 victory over East Carolina. WVU made just 33 percent of its third-down tries last season.
9 – Quarterback Rasheed Marshall’s 60-yard touchdown pass to Chris Henry in the third quarter of last Saturday’s game moved him into NINTH place on the school’s career TD pass list with 27, tying him with Darren Studstill.
8 – West Virginia had a remarkable EIGHT plays covering 38 yards or longer last Saturday against East Carolina. Four of those were scoring plays covering distances of 76, 76, 60 and 51 yards.
7 – The Mountaineers will have SEVEN players returning to Florida for Saturday’s game against Central Florida. They are Dwayne Thompson (Miami), Pat Liebig and L.J. Montinar (Naples), Tito Gonzalez and Kay-Jay Harris (Tampa), Freddie Little (Riviera Beach), and Jahmile Addae (Valrico).
6 – SIX of West Virginia’s 15 losses in the state of Florida have come in bowl games. West Virginia is 2-9 in regular season action playing in the Sunshine State.
5 – West Virginia is just 2-3 in its last FIVE road openers since 1999. West Virginia dropped road openers at East Carolina in 1999, at Boston College in 2001 and at Wisconsin in 2002. WVU’s road opening wins came in 2000 at Temple and last year against East Carolina.l
4 – West Virginia is a perfect FOUR of FOUR in red zone chances this year. All four West Virginia touchdowns last week against East Carolina came via the ground.
3 – UCF has played host to THREE nationally ranked opponents in its history. The Golden Knights dropped a 46-14 verdict to No. 1-ranked Florida State in 1995, lost 47-13 to No. 22 Purdue in 1999 and fell 56-21 to No. 15 Miami (Ohio) last season.
2 – West Virginia’s 492 yards rushing last weekend against East Carolina was the SECOND highest team rushing total of Coach Rich Rodriguez’ tenure at WVU. His team’s best effort came against ECU in 2002 when his team rolled up 536 rushing yards.
1 – Running back Kay-Jay Harris enters Saturday’s game as the nation’s TOP-ranked rusher averaging 337 yards per game. Harris is also TOPS in the country in scoring with 24 points.
Enjoy today’s game and be sure to stop back afterward for complete post-game coverage.
