Nov. 19-24 Blog
November 19, 2007 06:41 PM | General
We’re changing things up a little bit. For the past four years Campus Connection has kind of been like a weekly blog full of tidbits, notes, commentary, quasi-opinion and weak stabs at humor that have sometimes hit the mark and at other times completely missed. Well, to keep up with the Jones', we’ve decided to turn Campus Connection into a daily blog. If we miss a day then you know we’re struggling.
Hope you enjoy it ...
Great Crowd
Posted By John Antonik: November 24, 2007 (7:23 pm)
Mountaineer fans give yourselves a pat on the back. West Virginia may not have extended its streak of 60,000-plus crowds (drawing 59,701), but the fans were terrific Saturday night in making Milan Puskar a very hostile environment.
It was easy to see that the crowd noise bothered Connecticut, forcing the Huskies to take an early time out, creating an illegal procedure and a delay of game penalty.
In the second half, the crowd noise near the end zone forced Connecticut center Keith Gray to snap the ball early and Tyler Lorenzen was not able to get a handle on the ball at the Husky goal line. West Virginia's Reed Williams pounced on the football in the end zone for a touchdown. After that the rout was on.
Holiday Makes it Easier to Focus
Posted By John Antonik: November 22, 2007 (9:53 am)
Rich Rodriguez believes it’s easier to keep his team’s focus during a holiday week because the team can concentrate solely on football. Having the Big East championship on the line this weekend is also helpful.
“They don’t have school work but we’ll keep them busy,” Rodriguez said. “I won’t work them nine hours a day like the pro teams, but the guys understand how important this game is. They are watching a little more film to make sure that they will know what they are doing for Saturday’s game.”
Saturday’s game against UConn represents the fourth time in five years that West Virginia is playing for the Big East championship in late November.
“We want to be competing in November for a championship and we’ve been fortunate to be in that position the last few years and we’re playing for a championship again,” Rodriguez said. “Our goal every year is to play for a Big East championship and that is where we are right now.”
This year the conference title will be decided a week early.
“It’s a little ironic that it has come down to the next to last week of conference play,” Rodriguez said. “Usually it’s the last week of the season. This game is a true conference championship battle ad it worked out that way. At the beginning of the season it didn’t look like it would work out that way.”
Big Plays
Posted By John Antonik: November 21, 2007 (10:03 am)
Big plays were a staple of West Virginia’s offense last year. Fourteen of Steve Slaton’s 20 longest runs came in 2006. This year, Slaton has managed just three runs of 30 yards or longer – 58 yards against Western Michigan, 41 yards against East Carolina and 38 yards against Rutgers.
West Virginia coach Rich Rodriguez has a simple explanation.
“I think our opponents are tackling better,” Rodriguez said. “They are getting us on the ground and we’ve noticed that. We haven’t had as many of those big explosive plays.”
In last year’s victory at Connecticut, West Virginia was able to get a 45-yard touchdown run from Patrick White, a 52-yard TD catch from Rayshawn Bolden and a 56-yard Steve Slaton TD run.
“We got two or three big plays against UConn last year and I think that was the key to that game,” Rodriguez said. “For us, we don’t like to think that we have to have big plays but every offensive coach will tell you that if you have more explosive plays than they do, that you are going to win most of the time.”
Game Preparation
Posted By John Antonik: November 20, 2007 (10:03 am)
With school in recess this week for Thanksgiving break, West Virginia coach Rich Rodriguez will have the complete attention of his football team in preparation for Saturday’s Big East championship game against No. 20-rated Connecticut at Milan Puskar Stadium.
“We have a little bit more time with them but you have to be careful,” Rodriguez cautioned. “You don’t want to burn them out. You still have to give them some rest. The guys will get a little more film time on their own.”
Coaches will also spend some additional time with players, but Rodriguez says the coaches need their own time to collect their thoughts and plan strategy for this weekend.
“Coaches can spend some time with them but we have to spend some time together, too, just to try and formulate our plan and get our ideas together for this weekend,” Rodriguez said.
Rodriguez will also work with his team this week on finishing games. The last two weeks the Mountaineers had opportunities to put games away in the second half only to open the door with late fumbles.
“It’s frustrating because have opportunities to put teams away late,” Rodriguez said. “We’ve always been pretty good about having a good lead in the fourth quarter and not letting them back in it. The last couple of weeks we haven’t been able to do that.
“At the same time it’s still a win. It’s encouraging that we can play poorly at the end and get the win but our guys understand that we can’t keep doing that if we want to continue to win,” Rodriguez said.
On Monday, junior kicker Pat McAfee was named Big East special teams player of the week for averaging 49.0 yards on three punts, including a season-long 71-yarder.
Also, word from the ticket office is encouraging concerning student turnout for this weekend's big game against UConn. However, student tickets still remain and can be accessed through their online accounts up until game time.
West Virginia has a streak of five straight 60,000-plus games on the line this weekend.
Connecticut Impressive
Posted By John Antonik: November 19, 2007 (6:47 pm)
So what is the difference between this year’s No. 20-rated Connecticut team that is 9-2 and one victory away from winning the Big East championship and last year’s team that won only once in Big East play and finished with a 4-8 overall record?
“The first thing is they are taking care of the ball and they’re not making the big mistake as far as giving up a big play, giving up a big play on special teams or turning the ball over on offense,” West Virginia coach Rich Rodriguez said Sunday afternoon. “The defense is scoring more touchdowns and they are getting scores on special teams.”
Connecticut is one of only two teams in Big East Conference history to win seven games at home (West Virginia in 1993 is the other) and the Huskies own three straight impressive victories wins over Louisville, South Florida and Rutgers. Both of UConn’s losses have come on the road at Virginia (17-16) and at Cincinnati (27-3). A large and hostile Milan Puskar Stadium will be helpful facing a team that has genuinely impressed Rodriguez while watching film.
“They are playing good, solid football and making people make plays to beat them,” Rodriguez said. “That’s a pretty good formula for success.”
