After a thrilling victory over Pitt last weekend, West Virginia’s (9-3, 5-2) season came down to their final game against South Florida (5-7, 1-6). All week long, Coach Dana Holgorsen has preached about staying focused on this game and letting the BCS work its way out. That focus however, looked like it turned into nerves for much of the contest against the Bulls. Despite a sloppy display on offense with three turnovers, the Mountaineer defense and special teams rose to the occasion to keep West Virginia’s Orange Bowl dreams alive with a 30-27 win.
After a scoreless first-half, Pat Miller set the tone for the defense with his interception off of B.J. Daniels just seven minutes into the second quarter. Miller took the interception 52-yards for the score to give the Mountaineers a 10-0 lead. Daniels drove the Bulls downfield however with a strike to Sterling Griffin that after being reviewed, was ruled a touchdown. West Virginia kicker Tyler Bitancurt added another field goal before halftime to extend the Mountaineer lead to 13-7.
To open up the second-half, quarterback Geno Smith was leading his Mountaineers downfield until Davon Brown fumbled the ball which was recovered by South Florida at their own two yard line. The Bulls capitalized off the turnover with a field goal to bring the game to 13-10. West Virginia’s playmaker Tavon Austin didn’t let that score stand for too long though, as he returned the ensuing kickoff 90-yards for the touchdown to put the lead at 20-10. After a Maikon Bonani field goal cut the deficit to seven points, Daniels scored from a yard out to tie the game at 20-20. The following Mountaineer drive, Smith threw his second interception of the day which was returned by JaQuez Jenkins for the 24-yard touchdown as he jumped the wide receiver screen route to give the Bulls their first lead of the game, 27-20.
After freshman running back Dustin Garrison scored from five yards out to tie the game back up, South Florida set themselves up with beautiful field position with a kick return to the Mountaineer 40-yard line. The Bulls looked to be in prime position to run down the clock and set up for a game-winning attempt by Bonani, that is until linebacker Najee Goode stripped Daniels of the ball on a designed quarterback draw. On fourth-and-10 from South Florida’s 42 yard line, Smith hit his favorite target Stedman Bailey with a 26-yard completion which set up Bitancurt for his third field goal of the night and the Mountaineer victory.
“I wasn’t thinking about much of anything. I was just trying to stay calm and focused,” Bitancurt said. “I’ve kicked one to win a game as time expired, but never to win a Big East championship.”
Smith put on one of his worst performances of the season going 23-of-35 for 237 yards and two interceptions. As Devon Brown said following the game however, “a win is a win.” Garrison led the rushing attack with 87 yards and the big touchdown in the fourth quarter. Bailey and Austin each had seven receptions for 80 and 54 yards respectively.
With the win, the Mountaineers will become Cincinnati Bearcat fans on Saturday as they need a victory over UConn to secure a three-way tie atop the Big East.
“Cincinnati is a good team. They’re well coached. They don’t need our words of wisdom to want to win the game and be co-Big East champs as well,” Holgorsen said. “I think they’ll be playing pretty hard.”
If Cincinnati wins, the tiebreaker will go to the team with the highest BCS ranking at the end of the season out of Cincinnati, West Virginia and Louisville. As of print, the Mountaineers are ranked No. 22, higher than both the Bearcats and Cardinals. The winner of the Big East is thought to receive a bid to the Orange Bowl against either No. 5 Virginia Tech or No. 20 Clemson on January 4th in Miami.
Photo Credits: All-Pro Photography/Dale Sparks Photo
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