The Mountaineers totally dominated the Sooners in the Fiesta Bowl. This was a shocker for several reasons.
1. West Virginia head coach Rich Rodriguez bailed for the Michigan job and no team so far had won a bowl game with an interim coach.
2. West Virginia was coming off a horrible game against Pitt that netted only nine points.
3. Oklahoma had just won the Big 12 hanging 37 on Missouri.
4. Oklahoma coach Bob Stoops had coached BCS games in five of the last six years.
None of this seemed to matter to the Mountaineers who punted only once in the first half and at on point in the second half scored touchdowns on four consecutive possessions. The Mountaineers actually ran 20 fewer plays than the Sooners (78-58) but they averaged 9.1 yards per play. Georgia only averaged 5.0 per play in last night's clobbering of Hawaii.
The Sooners seemed to have no answer for the Mountaineers running game giving up 350 rushing yards on an average of 9.0 yards per carry. It's really hard to lose a game rushing for 9 yards per touch.
The game wasn't without blemishes however. There were 21 penalties for 225 yards.
It was a great win for West Virginia and puts the athletic department in the position of trying to explain the reason to spend millions hiring a new head coach when the interim Bill Stewart man handled the #3 team in the nation so effectively.
No need for Sooner fans to hang their heads though. This is a very young team and all of the skill players are back next year. The Sooners will open 2008 loaded for another Big 12 run.
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Comments (1)
Agreed on all points. See ... (Below threshold)1. Posted by Tom Blogical | January 3, 2008 1:04 AM | Score: 0 (0 votes cast)
Agreed on all points. See what happens when you don't use old, tired cliches? ;-)
WVU used a lot of misdirection to catch Oklahoma out of position. Oklahoma's defense was aggressive, but undisciplined in their approach, unlike the way Pitt attacked the WVU offense.
1. Posted by Tom Blogical | January 3, 2008 1:04 AM |
Score: 0 (0 votes cast)
Posted on January 3, 2008 01:04