Countdown to Kickoff
October 20, 2006 10:04 AM | General
October 20, 2006
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – West Virginia (6-0, 1-0) visits Connecticut (3-3, 0-1) on Friday, Oct. 20, for a Big East game at Rentschler Field (40,000) in East Hartford, Conn. Kickoff is set for 8 pm. The game will be televised by ESPN (Dave Pasch, Rod Gilmore, Trevor Matich, Heather Cox). It is the third appearance for the Mountaineers on the network so far this year.
West Virginia is spending its ninth straight week in the Top 10 dating back to last year making it the second-longest streak in school history. West Virginia spent 12 weeks in the Top 10 in 1988.
Here is tonight’s Countdown to Kickoff:
10 – Steve Slaton is now sixth on the WVU list with TEN career 100-yard games. Last weekend Slaton had a fairly routine 20-carry, 163-yard performance against Syracuse.
9 – The Mountaineers have had nine offensive plays from scrimmage for touchdowns covering 32 yards or longer. Patrick White’s 69-yard TD run against Syracuse is the longest so far this season.
8 – West Virginia has won EIGTHT straight Big East games dating back to 2005. WVU’s last regular season conference loss was at Pittsburgh to finish the 2004 season.
7 – Running back Steve Slaton needs just 69 yards tonight to reach the 1,000-yard plateau in just the SEVENTH game of the season. Only school rushing record holder Avon Cobourne and Amos Zereoue were able to reach 1,000 yards in their seventh game. Cobourne finished with 1,710 yards in 2002 and Zereoue had 1,589 yards in 1997.
6 – Slot receiver Darius Reynaud has had at least one carry on a reverse in all SIX games so far this season. Reynaud shows seven carries for 108 yards for an average of 12.5 yards per carry.
5 – The Mountaineer defense has recorded at least one interception in FIVE of the six games they have played this year. The only game without a pick this year was the last one against Syracuse.
4 – Steve Slaton has run for more than 100 yards before halftime in FOUR games so far this year. Slaton had 140 at the break against Marshall, 105 on just eight carries against Eastern Washington, 167 against Maryland and 101 versus Syracuse.
3 – Tonight’s game against Connecticut will be just the THIRD meeting between the two schools since Connecticut joined the Big East. West Virginia defeated the Huskies 31-19 in 2004 and 45-13 last year.
2 – Quarterback Patrick White has passed for more than 100 yards in a game just TWICE this season against Marshall in the season opener (168)and at East Carolina (216).
1 – West Virginia ranks FIRST in the country in rushing offense averaging 328.3 yards per game.
Be sure to stop back after the game for complete post-game coverage.
