Liberty Bowl Preview
December 10, 2014 08:59 AM | General
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| West Virginia's Biletnikoff Award finalist Kevin White is one of the headliners in this year's Liberty Bowl to be played in Memphis on Monday, December 29. |
| All-Pro Photography/Dale Sparks photo |
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. - It’s been 50 years since West Virginia last played in the Liberty Bowl, and the setting today is a lot different than it was in 1964. Hopefully, for Mountaineer fans, the outcome is much different this time, too.
That first game was played indoors at the Atlantic City Convention Center where Miss America pageants and political conventions were held, and the Mountaineers were never in a game that Utah ran away with, 32-6.
This time around the Mountaineers are playing in Memphis, Tennessee, and they will face another formidable opponent in Texas A&M, which is looking to end the season the same way it began – with a resounding victory.
The Aggies (7-5, 3-5) lifted the lid on 2014 with an impressive 52-28 win at South Carolina on August 28, and then rolled to easy victories over Lamar, Rice, SMU and Arkansas to rise to No. 6 in the national rankings.
Texas A&M fell 48-31 to Mississippi State and followed with losses to Ole Miss and Alabama. Victories over Louisiana-Monroe and Arkansas got the Aggies bowl eligible, but the season concluded with losses to Missouri and LSU.
The win at Auburn was clearly the highlight of the season for Texas A&M with true freshman quarterback Kyle Allen throwing four touchdowns in the first half and the Aggies recovering two Auburn fumbles late in the game to preserve a 41-38 victory.
Allen completed 19 of 27 passes for 277 yards for the game with senior Malcome Kennedy on the receiving end of four of those aerials for 118 yards and a touchdown.
The lowlight came in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, on October 18 when the Crimson Tide blanked the Aggies, 59-0. Alabama scored 35 points in the second quarter and by halftime it looked like the Tide could have named the final score.
Alabama set a school record for points in a quarter and the 59-point win was its largest margin of victory since beating Tulane 62-0 in 1991. Alabama had a 30-8 advantage in first downs and outgained the Aggies 602-172.
As poorly as the offense played against the Crimson Tide, it was the performance of the defense, particularly late in the season, that forced Texas A&M coach Kevin Sumlin to make a change on his defensive staff.
Former Marshall coach Mark Snyder was let go following Texas A&M’s 23-17 loss to LSU in a game that saw the Tigers rush for 384 yards in a six-point victory. Snyder’s defense struggled to stop teams at the end of the year, Texas A&M allowing an average of 38.3 points and 502.5 yards in its final seven games.
This season, the Aggies finished the regular season ranked 103rd nationally in yards allowed per game (449.0) and 111th in rushing defense (223.5). Until a permanent replacement is named, linebackers coach Mark Hagen will serve as interim defensive coordinator for the bowl game against West Virginia.
Sumlin suspended starting quarterback Kenny Hill for violating unspecified team rules prior to the Louisiana Monroe game, and he has not played since. Hill passed for 2,649 yards and 23 touchdowns in eight games before the Allen took over under center.
The Scottsdale, Arizona, resident has completed 61.1 percent of his pass attempts with 1,028 yards and 12 touchdowns in eight games this season.
Texas A&M has five players with at least 30 catches and four with 44 or more catches so far this season. Six-four, 190-pound Josh Reynolds is a receiver to keep an eye on, the sophomore catching 47 passes for 762 yards and 12 touchdowns in 12 games. Freshman Speedy Noil is next with five touchdown receptions, while Ricky Seals-Jones, Malcome Kennedy and Edward Pope each show four TD catches.
A trio of capable running backs has given the Aggie ground game a big boost. Junior Trey Williams leads Texas A&M in rushing with 474 yards and six touchdowns, but he was listed as No. 3 on the Aggie depth chart heading into the LSU game. The No. 1 running back, Tra Carson, shows 448 yards rushing and five touchdowns while No. 2 back Brandon Williams has 374 yards rushing and three scores. Overall, the Aggies are averaging 142.8 yards and 4.6 yards per carry on the ground.
West Virginia, meanwhile, has taken a similar path to Memphis with a strong start that saw the Mountaineers jump out to a 6-2 record before dropping three straight conference games to TCU, Texas and Kansas State.
WVU concluded the regular season with a 37-24 win at Iowa State with a backup quarterback under center. Sophomore Skyler Howard passed for 285 yards and three touchdowns in place of injured starter Clint Trickett.
Trickett passed for 3,285 yards and 18 touchdowns, including some impressive early-season performances in wins against Maryland, Texas Tech and Baylor.
Trickett threw for 511 yards and four touchdowns in a 40-37 road win at Maryland; he passed for 301 yards and two touchdowns in a come-from-behind win at Texas Tech and threw for 322 yards and three scores in West Virginia’s 41-27 win over fourth-ranked Baylor that ultimately cost the Bears a shot at a playoff spot.
Senior Kevin White emerged as one of the country’s top wideouts, the Plainfield, New Jersey, resident catching 102 passes for 1,318 yards and nine touchdowns to be named one of three finalists for the Fred Biletnikoff Award, presented to college football’s top wide receiver.
At one time, White was leading the country in receptions and yards per game but he managed just two touchdown catches over his remaining five games as teams began to focus more attention on him. That opened things up on the other side of the field for Mario Alford, who finished the regular season with 62 catches for 888 yards and a team-best 10 touchdowns. Alford had nine catches for 178 yards and three touchdowns in West Virginia’s final two games against Kansas State and Iowa State.
Like A&M, the three different ball carriers have handled the West Virginia ground game at different points in the season. Rushel Shell leads West Virginia with 766 yards and seven touchdowns, the sophomore running for more than 100 yards three times this year, including a season-high 146 yards in the regular season finale at Iowa State.
Wendell Smallwood has nearly 1,000 all-purpose yards, including 645 on the ground, while No. 3 tailback Dreamius Smith enters the bowl game with 454 rushing yards and five touchdowns.
Sophomore Josh Lambert, a finalist for the Lou Groza Award presented to college football’s top place kicker, leads the country with four field goals of 50 yards or longer and has made 27 of his 36 field goal tries so far this season.
Defensively, the Mountaineers made considerable strides in 2014 under first-year defensive coordinator Tony Gibson. West Virginia’s defense limited Baylor to a season-low 314 yards and showed across-the-board improvement, especially on third down and against the pass where the Mountaineers didn’t allow a single touchdown pass in the second half of any game this season.
This year’s game pits two old coaching buddies in Dana Holgorsen and Kevin Sumlin. Holgorsen was Sumlin’s offensive coordinator at Houston before leaving to run Oklahoma State’s offense for one season before taking the West Virginia job in 2011. Sumlin’s offensive coordinator, Jake Spavital, was Holgorsen’s graduate assistant at Houston and Oklahoma State before joining Holgorsen at WVU for two seasons in 2011-12.
The 2014 AutoZone Liberty Bowl will be played on Monday, December 29 at 2 p.m. (ET) and will be televised nationally on ESPN.
This is the first time these two traditional schools have played each other on the gridiron.
“We faced a very challenging schedule this season with five top 12 teams and playing a tough opponent like Texas A&M in the AutoZone Liberty Bowl will be yet another challenge this year,” said Holgorsen. “We had a good season and getting to play in a bowl game is a great way to reward the players, especially our seniors. We will prepare hard for this bowl game and try and finish this season on a strong note.”
Texas A&M is also making its second appearance in the Liberty Bowl, the first coming in 1975 when the Aggies lost 20-0 to USC.
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