WVU vs. USF: The Might Have Been Bowl

By Darrell Laurant  |   Friday, December 05, 2008  |  Comments( 1 )

College Football
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Saturday night's South Florida-West Virginia game in Morgantown was supposed to decide the Big East championship, a spot in a BCS bowl, and maybe even more. That was before the season started, when there was some speculation (admittedly over the top) that both teams might come into this contest undefeated.

Hardly. They're both 7-4, and what's at stake is basically nothing. Both will go to bowls, but they will be middle-tier, meaningless ones.

So what happened? When you look at the numbers and the injuries and graduation losses for both teams, it's really not a mystery. Neither the Bulls nor the Mountaineers were the same team they were in 2007.

Based on West Virginia's offensive stats, the biggest loss from the previous season (not counting departed coach Rich Rodriguez) was graduated fullback Owen Schmitt. Yes, a fullback. In 2007, the Mountaineers scored touchdowns 75 percent of the time when they entered the red zone. This season, the success rate was only 47 percent. Last season, WVU led the conference in scoring offense. This time around, it was seventh.

What did Schmitt have to do with it? West Virginia's offensive playmakers were -- and are -- undersized, but Schmitt was one of the best lead blockers in the country around the goal line.

Then, too, Rodriguez's spread offense became so widely used that it ceased to be a novelty and teams became better at defending it. Pat White didn't regress as a passer, but he missed having Darius Reynaud to stretch the field. Instead, the top two receivers became backs Jock Sanders and Noel Devine, and the latter is averaging just 4.8 yards a catch.

West Virginia outpassed only two of the teams it faced in 2008, and outrushed all but one.

Speaking of the turbocharged Devine, he was a lethal change of pace when paired with Steve Slaton in 2007. As a featured back in '08, however, he was up and down -- literally. He had his moments (notably a breathtaking performance against Auburn), but was completely stifled on other occasions. Like the offense in which he operated, he was no longer a novelty.

South Florida, meanwhile, ran into injury problems. After a season in which he moved into every Big East quarterback's nightmares with 32 tackles for loss and 14 1/2 sacks, George Selvie missed some time with assorted hurts and has 11 tackles for loss and five sacks through 11 games -- not bad, but not Selvie. And without his constant pressure around the edge, rival QBs had more time to test the collection of new cornerbacks who replaced pro draftees Mike Jenkins and Trae Williams.

The drop-off in rushing yardage between '07 and '08 -- from 2,405 to 1,751 -- was thanks in part to another set of injuries that plagued Mike Ford. None of the other running backs ever really stepped up in his absence, and quarterback Matt Grothe found himself throwing (and getting intercepted) more often. The offensive line was a disappointment, as well, especially given a marked rise in procedural penalties.

None of this, though, means that Saturday's matchup won't be an entertaining contest. If nothing else, both teams have things to prove, and West Virginia would love to get revenge for two straight losses to Jim Leavitt's Bulls.

Call it the Might Have Been Bowl.


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