No. 21: Louisville, 1993
June 19, 2010 08:45 AM | General
July 10, 2010
Louisville's Howard Schnellenberger thought the best way to slow down West Virginia's offense was to force its quarterbacks Jake Kelchner and Darren Studstill to throw the ball more frequently.
Schnellenberger had watched Kelchner fire two interceptions in West Virginia's 14-13 victory over Virginia Tech the week before.
Throwing the football was something Schnellenberger's teams did comfortably all the way back to his days coaching the Miami Hurricanes. Schnellenberger's quarterback, Jeff Brohm, was one of the top passers in the nation in 1993, bringing a 295 yards-per-game average into Morgantown for a key match up of unbeaten teams.
The 17th-rated Cardinals were off to their best start since 1972 with wins over San Jose State, Memphis, Arizona State, Texas and Pitt. The Cardinals beat Arizona State 35-17, Texas 41-10 and Pitt 29-7.
"Their whole team impresses me to death," said West Virginia coach Don Nehlen before the game. "Their defense is excellent and their offense is excellent. It's difficult to find any weaknesses on this team."
Nehlen's opinion didn't change much after his team managed to eke out a come-from-behind 36-34 victory, the Mountaineers beneficiaries of some poor special teams play by the Cardinals.
Louisville punter Brandon Brookfield averaged just 28.8 yards on five kicks to cost his team critical field position during key situations in the game. West Virginia also made three long kickoff returns to set up scores, including Michael Baker's 48-yard return to put Todd Sauerbrun into position to kick the go-ahead 36-yard field goal with 10:49 remaining in the game.
Sauerbrun missed two more tries, one of them blocked, and West Virginia's defense produced two huge turnovers - an interception by cornerback Tommy Orr at midfield with 3:08 remaining and a fumble recovery by Wes Richardson on Louisville's final drive to preserve a hard-fought victory.
"They played more error-free than we did and played more physical in a lot of spots," said Schnellenberger.
Nehlen utilized backup quarterback Darren Studstill more frequently in the first half, Studstill marching the Mountaineers 75 yards to the end zone when he hooked up with tight end Nate Rine for an 8-yard touchdown pass.
Studstill was 3 of 4 passing for 40 yards to go with Kelchner's 13-of-20, 112-yard passing effort with no interceptions.
But the star of the game was tailback Robert Walker, who solidified his starting status with a 161-yard rushing performance that included three touchdowns - one for 50 yards late in the third quarter to put the Mountaineers ahead, 33-28.
"The offensive line promised me the holes would be there, and they kept their promise," said Walker. "I kept my promise by running through them."
Walker, a high school sprint champion, also ran for 161 yards in a prior game against Maryland, but fumbled the football three times to send him to the bench.
Nehlen chose to stick primarily with Walker against Louisville.
"He's got that burst," said Nehlen, who earned his 150th career victory against the Cardinals.
