White Lightning Strikes Louisville
November 22, 2008 01:42 PM | Football
With White’s 200 yards rushing he became the all-time leading rusher in NCAA history among quarterbacks, passing Missouri’s Brad Smith who ran for 4,289 yards from 2002-05. White now shows 4,292 career yards rushing.
White also established the Big East record for touchdowns responsible for with 98, passing Donovan McNabb’s 96 touchdowns scored for Syracuse from 1995-98. It was also the fourth 200-yard rushing game of White’s career.
“If we don’t admire what number five has done I just don’t know how people can go through life. It’s a tremendous honor for him, for his offensive line and for his coaching staff,” Stewart said.
West Virginia (7-3, 4-1) produced 498 yards of offense and the game should have been a blowout if not for some missed opportunities in the first half.
The Mountaineers had 215 yards rushing in the first half from White and Noel Devine, who finished the game with 154 yards on 13 carries, but West Virginia had only seven points on the scoreboard. After a White 66-yard touchdown run tied the game at seven, West Virginia had a chance to get three more when Alric Arnett’s 57-yard reception set WVU up at the Louisville 11. But three unsuccessful runs place the ball on the left hash mark at the Cardinal three where Pat McAfee hooked a 21-yard field goal left of the cross bar.
West Virginia was back in business after Ellis Lankster picked off a Hunter Cantwell pass and Devine WVU’s first play from scrimmage 79 yards to the Cardinal six. Unfortunately for West Virginia, Devine was tackled at the six because the Mountaineers had five cracks inside the red zone without crossing the goal line.
It appeared backup quarterback Jarrett Brown crossed the plane of the goal line on a third-down quarterback sneak, but the replay officials upheld the call on the field that Brown didn’t get into the end zone. Bypassing a field goal try with five seconds left in the half, Stewart gambled and went for it on fourth down.
“I thought the quarterback sneak was in,” said Stewart.
Devine was given the touchdown on the field but the play was reversed by the replay official, making it 7-7 at halftime.
“When you have 215 yards rushing at the end of the first half I don’t care if it is long runs or consistent drives, you’ve got to put points on the board,” Stewart said. “You just can’t go down there and keep shooting yourself in the foot.”
“We know when we’re down at the gold zone like that we need to put points on the board and it was unfortunate that we couldn’t do that. The good thing is that nobody got down and we kept working in the second half,” said White.
West Virginia used 14 points in a span of two minutes early in the third quarter to take control of the game. White led West Virginia to a five-play, 62-yard drive on the Mountaineers’ opening possession of the third quarter. Devine’s 25-yarde run on second and one gave West Virginia the ball at the Cardinal 28. Two plays later on third and 10, White found Dorrell Jalloh on a quick slant for a 28-yard touchdown.
“Jello did a great job of running that route. We talked about it all week and I said to myself on the field that it was going to be a touchdown and we ended up with six points,” said White.
West Virginia got the football right back when an alert Ellis Lankster stripped the football from Chris Vaughn on a first-down reception and Scooter Berry recovered the football at the WVU 43.
Two plays later, White slipped down the near sideline for a 43-yard touchdown run.
“The offensive line did a great job of getting the ends cut off. (Ryan) Stanchek and Selvish (Capers) were excellent today as was the whole offensive line,” White said. “They gave it to me and I tried to take it.”
Cantwell’s second interception by Anthony Leonard gave the Mountaineers the football at the Cardinal seven. Sidney Glover forced the turnover by tipping Cantwell’s pass into Leonard’s arms at the 43 and the linebacker returned the pick to the Cardinal seven, where White was able to score his third touchdown.
West Virginia’s final score came on a 25-yard pass from White to Jock Sanders to make the score 35-14.
“We had the X like we did a couple of years ago with Steve Slaton against Pitt. We put it in a couple of weeks ago and they kept rolling their safety down,” Stewart said.
Both of Louisville’s second-half scores came as a result of poor play by the West Virginia punt return team.
A roughing the kicker penalty on Anthony Wood gave Louisville new life and a first down at the West Virginia 49 yard line. Ten plays later, Brock Bolen ran the football in from the 5 to make it 21-14.
It was just the second third-quarter score given up by the Mountaineer defense this season.
Louisville’s last touchdown also came as the result of a gift by the West Virginia punt return team when the Mountaineers were flagged for 12 men on the field with the Cardinals punting from their own 31.
Three straight Cantwell completions led to a 16-yard scoring strike from Cantwell to Josh Chrichester, pulling Louisville to within 14.
Cantwell’s final interception by Najee Goode brought the ball to the Cardinal six where West Virginia took a knee to run out the clock.
Cantwell was 27 of 47 for 276 yards with a touchdown and three interceptions. Louisville had five turnovers for the day. In all five of Louisville’s losses this year the Cardinals have had at least four turnovers.
Louisville (5-6) is in danger of having its first losing season since 1997 when it travels to Rutgers next Saturday to finish the year.
Devine’s 156 yards moved him past the 1,000-yard mark for the season with 1,123 yards. It is the 12th in the last 13 years a WVU back has rushed for more than 1,000 yards in a season. The only year West Virginia failed to have a 1,000-yard rusher during that span was in 2004.
