Fill In The Blank
January 11, 2006 10:24 AM | General
January 11, 2006
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. -- Go ahead and be my guest. Fill in the blank, whatever feels right for you.
It’s a great ___________________ to be a Mountaineer wherever you may be.
Answer options include: a) Day b) Night c) Week d) Month e) Year f) Decade or g) All of the above.
As I float through the air from Philadelphia to Pittsburgh at 20-something thousand feet, I’m trying to put into perspective the last several weeks in the world of West Virginia University athletics.
It is my hope by the time we land that I’ll have it all figured out. Unfortunately, I admit I’m still struggling to get my hands on what has just taken place.
We’ll start at the beginning on Tuesday, Dec. 20 as the Mountaineers fly to Oklahoma City for a game they badly needed to win -- but no one really wanted to say it. The outcome of the WVU-Oklahoma game wasn’t a must-win for its post-season chances, but it was a must-win for a team that was searching for the magic it captured last March.
What transpired two nights later in Oklahoma City had the red-clad Sooner fans shaking their heads in disbelief. Clinic, dissection, rip-job … whatever you want to call it, the Mountaineers did it and floated home for the Christmas break with a renewed sense of confidence that, yes, they not only can play with any team in the country but they can also beat them.
I’m not quite sure if Rich Rodriguez watches those poker programs on television, but I do know he pulled off one of the greatest bluffs in WVU football history. From the moment WVU learned it would play Georgia in the Sugar Bowl, Coach Rod used “coach’s code” by announcing that his team had a better chance of winning the lottery than winning the Sugar Bowl.
He read off the reasons: Georgia has the top quarterback in the SEC, Georgia has the fourth-rated defense in the country, Georgia will be playing what amounts to a home game, Georgia plays in the toughest conference in the country … you name it, Georgia had it.
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| Rich Rodriguez |
Rod’s words made it to Athens, Ga., quicker than you can say Pat White. When I spoke with several Georgia players a few days before the game it wasn’t that they disrespected West Virginia, it’s just that they didn’t really know much about them. Coach Rod and/or his players hadn’t said anything to induce any emotion from Georgia. The Bulldogs were lulled into the impression that it was just some team from a conference that’s not real good and has to play a lot of its game on days of the week other than Saturday.
Subconsciously, the message in the back of their minds was they beat LSU so badly at the Georgia Dome; WVU wasn’t going to be much of a problem.
Uh oh.
The great unknown going into the Sugar Bowl was whether or not quarterback Pat White was going to be able to run with the same success he displayed in the regular season. WVU assistant coach Bill Stewart had the game figured out perfectly. He told me for the Mountaineers to win, they would have to run the ball 55 times and pass it fewer than 15. White and Steve Slaton would have to combine for more than 200 rushing yards, and Owen Schmitt would be called upon more than at any time during the regular season.
Check. Check. And checkmate.
Six days have now passed and I still shake my head every time I think about Steve Slaton being named MVP of the Sugar Bowl. This is THE SUGAR BOWL -- not Coach Rod’s preseason Beanie Bowl -- the Sugar Bowl. That same Sugar Bowl where we’ve watched incredible efforts by guys named Tony Dorsett and Hershel Walker earn that same MVP award.
I’m still shaking my head.
With just three hours of sleep, I’m off in an airplane headed to Tampa for the Big East basketball debut of South Florida. No, not nearly the significance of the Sugar Bowl, but an opportunity for this Mountaineer team to open Big East play with a victory on the road for the first time ever. As we walked off the floor with a nail-biting 57-53 win, I thought to myself how important it was because anyone who knows anything about Big East basketball knew that WVU had almost no chance Sunday at Villanova. The Wildcats had just thumped Louisville before a sold-out crowd at Freedom Hall, never trailing once in the game. The word was also out that the Cats were waiting for WVU to avenge last season’s last-second loss in the semifinals of the Big East Tournament.
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| Mike Gansey |
During pre-game warm-ups, Villanova starting center Will Sheridan kept barking to no one in particular that it was going to be a long ride home. That’s lay-up-line code forecasting a ‘Nova pounding of the visiting Mountaineers. I don’t know how far Will Sheridan lives from campus, but it probably was a long ride home for him after WVU handed the third-rated Wildcats their first loss of the season.
Sheridan’s taunt galvanized another key point that’s become quite clear over the last six weeks: Taunting does nothing but motivate the other team. In the last month we’ve seen Pitt linebacker H.B. Blades talk smack about how he would render WVU’s offense into a hapless state. H.B. suffered a game-ending injury during the first five minutes of the game. We heard Georgia free safety Greg Blue offer his prediction that the Mountaineer tandem of Steve Slaton and Pat White were going to learn about the speed and ferocity of playing football in the SEC.
The last time Blue was seen in the Sugar Bowl it appeared he was trying out for the role of the “Statue of Liberty” as Slaton blurred by on the way to his second 52-yard touchdown of the night.
Three bells have just sounded, the landing gear is locking, and we’re on final approach.
My time is up.
Will Sheridan was wrong; it wasn’t a long ride home at all. In fact, it just may have been the sweetest and most enjoyable ride the Mountaineers have ever had.
