WVSportsNews.com  11.15.09
   
                Dan Jennings came off the bench to contribute 9 points and 12 rebounds

 Morgantown, WV-  West Virginia was without Denis Kilicli serving a 20 game NCAA suspension, Joe Mazzulla was still out with shoulder problems and Devin Ebanks was not on the bench (personal issues) Huggins commented. So WVU had to come up with some solid bench play to pull away from Loyola, MD who they were tied with at the half 31-31.
 The second half the shots started to fall and Huggins changed up the intensity on defense to start an 11-0 run and a lead that continued to grow to the 83-60 final score.
  Butler was the leading scorer with 26 Bryant had 15, Kevin Jones 14 and Casey Mitchell added 13 points in the victory.

 WVSportsNews.com 11.13.09

                                 
  West Virginia could not pull the upset in Cincinnati, OH against the #5 ranked Bearcats in front of 35,105- the biggest crowd in Nippert Stadium history. The record crowd wanted to see if Cincinnati could beat #25 West Virginia for the second year in a row, and take another step in winning the Big East for the second year in a row as well. 

The first scoring drive for Cincinnati saw the return of QB Tony Pike for the end of the drive and he completed a 10 yard TD pass to WR Armon Binns for a 7-0 Cincy lead. West Virginia would answer back with a score of their own as Jarrett Brown orchestrated a drive that was capped off when he took the ball himself and ran in the endzone from 8 yards out to tie the game. In the second quarter WVU would score again on a 37 yard rumble up the middle from FB Ryan Clark and the Mountaineers had a 14-7 lead.

The next big drive for Cincinnati would see them march down the field and the drive would end as Cincy RB Isaiah Pead was stopped in trying to reach the endzone and as he was reaching for the goal line the ball was being knocked loose by the WVU defense and it came out resulting in a West Virginia fumble recovery. The refs ruled it was WVU ball 1st and 10. But, hold on the play was under review and if any video can hold indisputable evidence to overturn the call it could be reversed. The video showed him reaching for the goal line and the ball not secured. It did not show the ball indisputably crossing the goal line since players were covering up the line and the ball was up high above it.You could not tell that it even made it to the white of the goal at all. So it looked as though by rule the video review could not overturn the call by the referees on the field. After the extended delay in the game the review official made a judgement call and reversed the call on the field and ordered it to be called a touchdown taking the ball away from West Virginia and giving Cincinnati the score that would tie the game before the half. The ESPN announcers at the game and in the studio all agreed it was a bad judgement call and an abuse of power for a review official to overturn a field official without indisputable evidence. 

The third quarter would see a Cincy drive by QB Cellaros and at the end of the drive Tony Pike would step back in throw an 8 yard TD pass to D.J. Woods for the only score of the third and a 21-14 Cincy lead.

The fourth would be a hard fought quarter by both teams as West Virginia would mount the first scoring opportunity as they marched down the field they were slowed and a big decision was made. WVU had the ball on the 24 yard line and it was 4th down with 8 yards to go, down 21-14 coach Stewart decided to pass on the field goal try for a first down. With 5.23 second left and plenty of timeouts WVU did not get anything from the gamble as Jarrett Brown was blitzed and as he was in the grasp of a defender re-spraining his ankle he threw incomplete towards the endzone and it was Cincy ball with a 21- 14 lead. They would drive down the field after a big break away run but the WVU defense would push them back and force them into a long field goal and Cincy took a 24-14 lead. 

WVU would get the ball back with just over 2 minutes left and down by 10 they marched down the field and scored on a 3 yard TD pass from Brown to WR Bradley Starks with 39 seconds left in the game. Now still down by 3 they had to get an onside kick recovery and as the attempt was made it bounced to far and into a Cincy players control. Game over.

An overturned fumble recovery for a touchdown, sitting on the ball and not trying to score before halftime, a decision to go on 4th and 8 instead of kicking a field goal. Not winning the Big East the last two years. All questions that Bill Stewart and the WVU Mountaineers will all have to ponder this week.   

"I was going for the win," coach Bill Stewart said."It was going to be tough to stop them. We really hadn't stopped them all night. I couldn't go for the field goal. I figured the game would go to the end."

Cincinnati plays Illinois next at home on Nov. 27 and is now 10-0.

Noel Devine is now the fifth player in WVU history to rush for over 3,000 yards in his career. 
 
WVU next will play another top 10 team in Pittsburgh on Friday Nov. 27 at home.
                               
  

 WVSportsNews.com 11.7.09

                West Virginia defender J.T. Thomas bats the ball into the air against Louisville

Morgantown, WV-  West Virginia wins over Louisville 17-9 in what seemed to be an ugly win, but this time of the year, and being a conference game- a win is a win. In a day that the offense would sputter and see stars Noel Devine and Jarrett Brown both limp off the field with injuries (in wich both did return to the game from), the defense held Louisville to three field goals with constant pressure on Louisville quarterback Will Stein.

 The first quarter was scoreless 0-0 then the Mountaineers moved the ball down field in the second quarter and WVU scored with a Jarrett Brown to Jock Sanders 8 yard TD pass. Brown was 9/17 on the day for 94 yards and 1 TD with 1 Int. The versitile Jock Sanders had the  8 yard TD catch and was used as a running back while Devine was out and registered 66 yards on 12 carries. Devine was held to 56 yards on 13 carries, and the other runner used was freshman sensation Tevon Austin who had a nine yard touchdown run in the third quarter to give WVU a 14-6 lead.

 
                              Jock Sanders takes a handoff from Jarrett Brown

  The offense added a 42 yard field goal from Tyler Bitancurt and the defense held Louisville to just one field goal in the second half. That was the final 17-9 score and although it was not the most beautiful win it was an important win for the Mountaineers as they keep their chances of winning the Big East alive and move to 6-0 at home this season. West Virginia is now 3-1 in the Big East and 7-2 overall.  

Next up for West Virginia is an 8:00pm Friday night game at #4 Cincinnati that will be televised on ESPN2.
  

  WVSportsNews.com  10.31.2009                                                                                                        
                                         
     #20 West Virginia upset by South Florida 30-19

 The West Virginia Mountaineers took their #20 ranking in the A.P. and USA TODAY polls along with the hopes of reclaiming the Big East title into Tampa Florida to play the South Florida Bulls. This was a Friday night national television matchup on ESPN2 with a South Florida team that has been pushed around the last two Big East games in losses to Cincinnati and Pittsburgh, and a WVU team that had a 6-1 record and some close wins of late. 
 
 The game started with a good WVU drive that resulted in a Jarrett Brown TD run that gave WVU a 7-0 lead and then the defense was holding USF until at mid field on fourth and one the Bulls coaching staff challenged their team to get the first down. They lined up and got a few yards and the first down and then on the next play USF QB B.J. Daniels threw a 49 yard TD pass to Carlton Mitchell and the Bulls had confidence that they would build on the rest of the game. The TD pass was one of three Daniels threw on the night as he had an outstanding day in the air and on the ground. Daniels was 13/26 for 232 yards and 3 TD's and he also ran 14 times for 104 yards.

 WVU would answer after being down 12-20 after halftime with a score of their own as Jarrett Brown ran in from 11 yards out for his second rushing touchdown. The extra point was kicked and USF still had a 19-20 lead and that was as close as West Virginia would get as South Florida added a touchdown of their own in the third qaurter to make it  19-27 and it seemed to much much of a deficit for WVU to overcome as their offense would stall the rest of the game and USF added another field goal for the only score between the two teams in the fourth quarter.

WVU Stats-

Passing-
Jarrett Brown 18/31 208 yds. 0 TD 1 Int. 

Rushing-
Jarrett Brown 11 car. 39 yds. 2 TD's
Noel Devine    17 car. 42 yds. 0 TD

Recieving-
Alric Arnett       6 rec. 84 yds. 0
Wes Lyons        4 rec. 34 yds. 0

   Next up for South Florida is at Rutgers for another ESPN game Nov. 12

   West Virginia has a home game against Louisville Sat. Nov. 7 that will be a Big East Network game.


 

  WVSportsNews.com  10.10.2009                                                                                                        

  WVU claims the Ben Schwartzwalder trophy for the 8th consecutive year  

 WVU-34  Syracuse-13  
 
  West Virginia wins in Syracuse New York and makes its eight consecutive claim to the Ben Schwartzwalder trophy. The trophy named after the WV native and former WVU center who later became a head coach at Syracuse winning a National Championship there and coaching greats such as Jim Brown and Heisman winner Ernie Davis. 
 The field in the Carrier Dome was named Ernie Davis field today in honor of the heisman winner and living legend Jim Brown was at the game for the ceremony. That was the only celebration for the Syracuse fans though as WVU dominated the game from the beginning as they jumped out to a 14-0 lead that grew to 27-0 at halftime and led to the benching of Syracuse QB Greg Paulus who also threw an interception to WVU nosetackle Josh Taylor.
  
 Jarrett Brown had a productive day completing 22/30 passes for 244 yards and 1 TD. Noel Devine had 2 touchdowns one from a reception and he carried the ball 22 times for 91 yards and 1 TD. WVU fullback Ryan Clark had another big game as he scored 2 touchdowns for the second week in a row. 
  
  The win improves West Virginias record to 4-1 and sets up next weeks matchup in Morgantown against in state rival Marshall who after winning against Tulane improved their record to 4-2 on the year.

 The game will feature two of the nations leading rushers with Marshall running back Darius Marshall who was first in the nation in rushing yards per game and Noel Devine who was third per game nationally before this week as Darius had 98 yards and Noel had 91 rushing yards so their rankings may change. 

 The WVU vs. Marshall game will be the the ninth meeting between the two schools dating back to 1911. West Virginia is 8-0 against Marshall and are 3-0 against Marshall in the "Friends of Coal Bowl" in wich the series is now named.

Game time 3:30pm Morgantown, WV          

WVSportsNews.com  9.20.2009                                                                                                        
  
  Auburn claws back to win   Auburn - 41  West Virginia - 30

After an hour rain delay in Auburn Alabama that dropped a reported 2 1/2 inches of rain- the anticipated game finally began. WVU came out on fire with Jarrett Brown hitting Bradley Starks for 58 yards on the third play of the game setting up a 1 yard run by Noel Devine and the offensive show from West Virginia gave them a 14-3 lead early and a 21-10 lead to end the first quarter. 

 After the first quarter WVU began to self destruct and the turnovers began to mount. The penalties at inopportune times stopped most offensive charges and Auburn clawed their way back into the game until with 12:07 left in the fourth quarter Auburn took its first lead 34-30 with a 17 yard TD pass to Darvin Adams from Chris Todd. The TD was Todd's fourth on the evening as he was 16/31 284 yards 4 TD's and one pick. 
 
 Down by four points with under four minutes to play WVU had the ball and was hoping  for a game winning drive from their senior QB Jarrett Brown but just as soon as the drive started another screen pass to Noel Devine was broken up and Auburn defender Craig Stevens intercepted the attempt and returned it 15 yards for another score giving them the final score of 41-30 with 3:41 left to play in the game.
  The interception was Brown's fourth of the game as he was 18/32 with 1 TD and 1 fumble.That ended the WVU comeback making it seem that it could not get any worse this night, but it still did- with time running down the next Mountaineer series only got worse when Brown got pressured and threw the ball out of bounds and as he was going down on the play he caught himself with a defender on top of him and seemed to sustain a wrist injury as he had to leave the game. Freshman QB Geno Smith from Marimar Florida entered the game and threw a few rifled passes down field until he was hit while throwing in the pocket and the ball sailed into an Auburn defenders hands giving West Virginia their sixth turnover on the night and sealing the Auburn victory.

 This was a wild offensive game with Auburn usually having a much shorter field due to the six WVU turnovers. WVU finished with 509 total yards 302 passing and 207 rushing with Noel Devine having 128 yards and 3 TD's on 15 carries. Auburn finished with 400 yards, 300 passing and 100 rushing on the night. 

 Auburn moves to 3-0 and probably into the top 25 and West Virginia drops to 2-1 and must now worry about the health of QB Jarrett Brown. Freshman QB Geno Smith might be taking more snaps in practice in preparation for the  next game that will be a Thursday night home game against Colorado. The game will be a rematch that they lost in overtime 17-14 last year at Colorado.

The October 1st Thursday night game starts 7:30 in Morgantown and will be televised on ESPN.

WVSportsNews.com  9.12.2009                                                                                                         

  Morgantown, WV  - Jarrett Brown was 24/31 passing for a career high 334 yards and 4 touchdowns and added an additional 73 yards rushing in 10 attempts in a 35-20 win over East Carolina. The 407 yards from Brown resulted in 509 yards total from a very explosive West Virginia offense that kept East Carolina chasing the speed of WVU all day. The only time the offense was slowed down was when they slowed themselves down with 4 turnovers including two fumbles on punt returns along with many costly offensive penalties. 
  
  Turnovers deep in WVU territory resulted in most of the points for East Carolina on the afternoon. The Pirates were held to 175 yards passing and 62 yards rushing despite the numerous times Patrick Pinckney escaped from being sacked and completed plays for first downs. He never got away every time though as he was sacked four times and rushed on many occasions as the Pirates were held to 237 total yards and 1 forced turnover.
  
  The kickoff problems for WVU started again as the kicker was forced to make a touchdown saving tackle early in the game but after that sigh of relief from the fans most of the remaining kicks were covered well to the finish of the game.
   
  How does the game rate the progress of this West Virginia team? There were many positives on the day against a solid team in East Carolina who is the 3rd oldest team out of the 117 in the NCAA with 17 fifth year seniors including sixth year senior QB Patrick Pinkney. Does WVU still need to do some work? - Yes, but only some fine tuning now. It seems they are well on their way to a very good season by passing the first test that many thought they might fail.
 

 

 WVSportsNews.com  9.05.2009

 Morgantown, WV  - West Virginia took some good shots from Liberty but ends the game on top of a 33-20 final score. Jarrett Brown had an excellent game passing and rushing as he was 19 of 26  for 243 yards passing and ran for a 22 yard touchdown. Noel Devine had 112 yards and 1 TD on 17 carries as the Mountaineer offense put up 438 yards on the day. Liberty had 210 yards passing and only 89 yards rushing against the WVU defense. 
 
 One new aspect of the WVU ofense was the passes completed to tight end Tyler Urban and other recievers over the middle of the field and another new weapon for the offense was Tyler Bitancurt who was 4-4 on field goals from 38,35,45, and 36 yards. 
 
 Special teams on kick-offs still needs to fill some holes as the kicker was needed to tackle or slow down the returner more than Mountaineer fans were comfortable with. As for the return game it gained good field position and was a few shoe string tackles away from scoring.
  
 To sum up it all up 33-20 was closer than some expected but Liberty had a good game plan and some nice athletes on the field. QB Tommy Beecher was 22-33 for 210 yds and 1 TD and showed signs of why Steve Spurrier had him as his starting QB previously at South Carolina and all purpose WR Mike Brown of Liberty had 11 receptions for 157 and 1 TD and showed some major skills as well.
 
 Next weeks opponent is East Carolina who upset Virginia Tech and West Virginia to begin the season last year and started this season with only a 29-24 edging of Appalachian State, but have the ever dangerous QB Patrick Pinkney back for his senior year.