MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – A great college football career concludes today for West Virginia University senior defensive tackle Darius Stills.
 
Unlike some, including one player who apparently opted out at halftime of Tuesday night's Cheez-It Bowl, Darius understandably could have exited stage left and taken a pass on today's Liberty Bowl game against Army to get a head start on his preparations for the 2021 NFL Draft.
 
But he figured a couple of months of training in the Florida sunshine can wait a few extra days.
 
"I love football," he said earlier this week. "I will play as much football as I can anytime, anywhere, and If I have an opportunity to play another game, especially with my teammates and my brother, I am going to play. There is no question about it.
 
"I see people opting out, and I respect everyone's decision regardless because I don't know what situation they have or what goes into it, but for me, I have one more game left to play with my brother so I am going to do it and I will have fun," he added.
 
The Fairmont, West Virginia, native is going to go down in WVU football lore as one of the program's great born and bred state natives.
 
He was recently named to the Associated Press and The Sporting News All-America first teams, becoming the first Mountaineer player with state ties to earn that distinction since Morgantown's Rich Braham did it in 1993.
 
There have only been two other WVU players from West Virginia since the mid-1950s to earn first team All-America recognition: Parkersburg's Rick Phillips in 1988 and Buckhannon's Rob Bennett in 1984.
 
That's it as far as two-way football players go.
 
In the early 1950s, coach Art Lewis' most successful Mountaineer teams were the result of a great run of Mountain State players that included All-Americans Sam Huff, Bruce Bosley and Bob Orders.
 
There have been just two state natives to earn consensus All-America honors at WVU – Bethany's Ira Errett Rodgers and Green Bank's Bruce Bosley – and both of them have their numbers retired.
 
And guess what? 
 
Stills still has a shot at becoming only the third, so that kind of gives you an idea where he now sits among some of West Virginia University's most honored in-state players ever.
 
In the eyes of current state prep football players, Darius Stills is now a big role model.
 
"It means a lot because when I was younger I would go to football camps and people were like, 'Where are you from?' I'm like, 'West Virginia' and they're like, 'Oh, they've got football players there?'" he said. "I'm like, 'We're just as good as everybody else; there is just not that many of us.' Ever since then, I've just believed in that and now I'm proof that there are ballers here and you've just got to find them."
 
Stills added, "Just because we're not from Florida, Texas or California doesn't mean we can't play ball. We produced Randy Moss, one of the greatest players of all time. He's a hall of famer coming out of West Virginia. We have a lot of people (from West Virginia), and I want to be that person that they name also. That's my dream."
 
As for today's Liberty Bowl, Darius' dream is to finish his Mountaineer career on a successful note playing alongside his younger brother Dante, a junior defensive tackle.
 
"It's emotional, but at the same time I feel like I've got some more football to play so it's not really like hitting me as hard as would if I didn't," he explained. "It's crazy because it's my last game here with Dante – not so much because it's my last college game."
 
Stills said the last time he faced an option-type attack was at Fairmont Senior High against arch-rival Bridgeport. The key is to stay low and be aggressive, he says.
 
"They're disciplined, they're nasty and they're good," Stills said of Army. "We've got to respect that, and we're being taught how to go against cut blocks. The last couple of days we have become familiar with that technique and we're preparing. We're going to be ready."
 
Stills is one of 17 seniors on WVU's roster for today's game. The others include Jake Abbott, Alonzo Addae, Chase Behrndt, Charlie Benton, Dante Bonamico, Mike Brown, Zach Davis, Lorenzo Dorr, Tony Fields II, Osman Kamara, Austin Kendall, Jake Long, Kyle Poland, Jeffery Pooler Jr., T.J. Simmons and Dylan Tonkery.
 
Fields announced earlier this month that he was opting out of the bowl game while Addae revealed on Twitter that he plans to take advantage of the extra year of eligibility the NCAA granted players because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
 
Today's Liberty Bowl game against Army is West Virginia's third appearance in the game, and its second since the bowl was moved to Memphis.
 
It's also only the fourth-ever meeting against the Black Knights and the first since 1961, when WVU outlasted Army 7-3 at Michie Stadium.
 
Overall, Army owns a 2-1 record in series play against the Mountaineers.
 
The Mountaineers are 3-0 in New Year's Eve bowl games with victories over N.C. State in the 1975 Peach, Florida in the 1981 Peach and TCU in the 1984 Bluebonnet Bowl.
 
Today's game will be televised nationally on ESPN (Wes Durham, Roddy Jones and Eric Wood) and will kick off at 4 p.m. ET.
 
Mountaineer Sports Network from Learfield IMG College radio coverage on affiliates throughout West Virginia and online via WVUsports.com begins at 12:30 p.m. Liberty Bowl rights agreements preclude MSN from carrying its radio broadcast on TuneIn or the popular mobile app WVU Gameday.
 
Here is today's Countdown to Kickoff:
 
10 – West Virginia's offense has recorded at least TEN first downs through the air in 26 of its last 33 games, including eight of its last nine.
 
9 – The Mountaineer defense has limited five of its NINE opponents to fewer than 300 yards of total offense this season.
 
8 – EIGHT of Jarret Doege's 13 touchdown passes this year happened in West Virginia's first four games of the season against Eastern Kentucky, Oklahoma State, Baylor and Kansas.
 
7 – SEVEN different Mountaineer players have caught touchdown passes this year with five of them catching multiple touchdowns.
 
6 – Over the last SIX years, West Virginia's defense is tied for seventh among all Power 5 programs with 81 interceptions. Incidentally, Army attempted just two passes in its most recent win against Air Force on Dec. 19.
 
5 – Junior running back Leddie Brown's FIVE 100-yard rushing games this season are the most by a Mountaineer running back since 2017.
 
4 – Today's game will be only the FOURTH meeting against Army. The Black Knights own a 2-1 advantage in series play.
 
3 – West Virginia is making its THIRD appearance in the Liberty Bowl and its first since 2014 when it lost 45-37 to Texas A&M in 2014.
 
2 – Army ranks SECOND in the country in scoring defense, allowing just 14 points per game. West Virginia is ranked 22^nd, allowing an average of 20.4 points per contest.
 
1 – The Black Knights have the No.-ONE-ranked pass defense in the country, allowing just 149.9 yards per game. West Virginia's passing offense ranks 26^th nationally averaging 277.2 yards per game.
 
Enjoy today's game and be sure to stop back afterward for complete postgame coverage.