USF loss sews up Big East title for WVU

USF loss sews up Big East title for WVU

By Dave Morrison
Sports Editor

MORGANTOWN — It’s official.

With Connecticut’s 15-10 win over South Florida Saturday, West Virginia won the Big East title outright. And with that, the Mountaineers (9-1, 6-0) will play in their first Bowl Championship Series bowl — likely the Sugar Bowl in Atlanta on Jan. 2. The Orange Bowl is also a remote possibility.

BCS bowl invitations will officially be extended Sunday, Dec. 4.

UConn’s win also renders WVU’s game next Saturday at South Florida meaningless.

“We’re obviously excited to win the outright Big East championship,” coach Rich Rodriguez said in a statement released by the university. “Our young men have worked very hard all season to achieve this goal. We have two big games left to play, but this is quite an accomplishment for our program.”

It’s the third straight Big East title for the Mountaineers, but their first outright title in that time.

“It would have been better to go down there and win it like that,” cornerback Dee McCann said.

“But Connecticut did their job and made our job very easy. That doesn’t mean we’re going to not play hard at South Florida, though. We want to keep our winning streak going.”

McCann said he watched the Connecticut-South Florida game with teammates Jahmile Addae and Dwayne Mundle before going to the WVU Coliseum for the LSU-WVU basketball game.

Teammate Abraham Jones watched the game in a concession stand at the Coliseum.

“I’d go back every five minutes and check the score,” he said. “We’re happy to win it outright. We felt that we could do it all the time.”

Not many others pegged the Mountaineers that high. All the preseason talk centered on Big East newcomer Louisville and Pittsburgh, both of whom were in the AP preseason Top 25.

WVU was ranked 47th in the first poll but has steadily climbed to No. 12 currently.

One knock on the Mountaineers was that they lost three-year starter and first-round NFL draft pick Pac-Man Jones, three-year starter and QB Rasheed Marshall and all-Big East receiver Chris Henry.

“What people didn’t know is we replaced those players with players just as good,” said McCann, a senior. “You had Pat White for Rasheed Marshall, me for Pac-Man Jones and Brandon Myles for Chris Henry. I think we were ranked 50th in the preseason and we always thought we were better than that.”

“Our guys believed the whole season that we could defend our Big East title, and we played with that dedication and focus on the field,” Rodriguez said. “I’m very happy for our seniors and our whole football family.”

West Virginia is 25-10 the last three seasons, including 16-3 in the Big East.

The Mountaineers last played in the Sugar Bowl following their unbeaten 1993 season, losing to Florida. They also played in the Sugar Bowl in 1954 and lost to Georgia Tech. Sam Huff, who had his jersey retired Thursday night during WVU’s 45-13 win over Pitt, was a member of that team.

This year’s Sugar Bowl was moved from New Orleans to Atlanta after the Louisiana Superdome was damaged during Hurricane Katrina.