Countdown to Kickoff
November 01, 2006 07:13 PM | General
November 1, 2006
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – West Virginia visits Louisville on Thursday night for a Big East game featuring a pair of 7-0 teams playing at Papa John’s Cardinal Stadium in Louisville, Ky. West Virginia comes into the game ranked No. 3 nationally, while Louisville is ranked fifth.
Kickoff is set for 7:30 pm. The game will be televised nationally by ESPN (Chris Fowler, Kirk Herbstreit and Erin Andrews).
Here is Thursday night’s Countdown to Kickoff:
10 – West Virginia is spending its TENTH straight week in the Top 10 dating back to last year. It is the second-longest Top 10 streak in school history; the Mountaineers spent 12 straight weeks in the Top 10 in 1988.
9 – The Mountaineers head to Papa John’s Cardinal Stadium with a NINE-game Big East winning streak dating back to last year.
8 – West Virginia has rushed for more than 300 yards in EIGHT of its last 10 games dating back to last year. The two instances when the Mountaineers failed to reach 300 yards were this year against Connecticut (263) and East Carolina (153).
7 – SEVEN different players have picked off passes for West Virginia this year. Quinton Andrews, Eric Wicks and Antonio Lewis share the team lead with two interceptions each.
6 – West Virginia has won SIX of the seven all-time meetings against Louisville. The Cardinals’ only win in the series came in Morgantown in 1990. This year will be West Virginia’s third trip to Louisville.
5 – WVU coach Rich Rodriguez has only lost FIVE road games since 2002, going 14-5 over that span.
4 – Mountaineer running back Steve Slaton ranks FOURTH in the nation in rushing averaging 151.3 yards per game.
3 – All 14 of West Virginia’s sacks this year have come in its last THREE games against Mississippi State, Syracuse and Connecticut. The Mountaineers got to Mississippi State quarterbacks six times, had five sacks against Syracuse and three against Connecticut.
2 – Quarterback Patrick White and running back Steve Slaton combined to rush for the SECOND-most combined yards in a game at WVU when they accumulated 410 yards against Syracuse. The school record for combined rushing yards was 458 set by Avon Cobourne and Quincy Wilson against East Carolina in 2002.
1 – Coach Bobby Petrino has won just ONCE against nationally ranked teams in five tries while coaching at Louisville.
Be sure to stop back after the game for complete post-game coverage.
