West Virginia continues its climb back to superiority

WVU handles Auburn with a big second half

The West Virginia Mountaineer football team struggled mightily in the first half, making mistakes and committing turnovers on each of their first two possessions. The second half, however, was a different story.

WVU senior quarterback, Pat White, had thrown one interception all year coming into the game. White struggled with the Auburn defense early as he threw two interceptions on the Mountaineers first two drives of the game. "I tried to give it away early, but my teammates -- offensively, defensively and on special teams -- all hung in there for me," White said.

White would play a near perfect game from then on, throwing for 174 yards and 3 touchdowns on 13-for-21 passing. This was the 16 th game in his career that he’s thrown for at least two touchdowns, making WVU 14-2 when he accomplishes that feat. The Tigers defense contained White’s running ability as they held him to a season low in rushing yards (8) and the lowest of his career since 2005 when his Mountaineers defeated Rutgers 24-17.

The WVU running game was carried by sophomore running back, Noel Devine, who racked up a career-high 207 yards on just 17 carries along with his third touchdown of the year. Devine now has eclipsed the 100-yard mark on the ground in four of his last five games. "We just didn't have an answer the second half," Auburn head coach, Tommy Tuberville said. "Pat White and Noel Devine had great speed. We couldn't stop the run with the four-man front. We couldn't tackle. Then we started blitzing and turned some receivers open."

Auburn jumped out to an early 10-0 lead and later extended it to 17-3 in the first half. West Virginia then scored 31 straight points to defeat the Tigers 34-17. The win is the fourth in a row for WVU.

Auburn was playing in its first non-conference road game since 2003 and now has lost three straight, which hasn’t happened since 1999, coach Tommy Tuberville’s first season. The Tigers just managed to gain 78 yards in the second half and were held scoreless for the final 40 minutes and 20 seconds of the game.

Defensively, Auburn came into Morgantown with the 9th-ranked defense in the nation. This, however, didn’t stop the Mountaineer offense from gaining 445 total yards (271 of which came on the ground). “It's very difficult to watch them score like that," said Auburn linebacker Josh Bynes. "We've got to get better defensively."

The only scoring that took place in the first quarter was a Wes Bynums 19-yard field goal after the first of two Pat White interceptions. A time consuming, 20-play drive ensued for the Tigers, but they were stopped at the 2-yard line by the WVU defense.

Auburn capitalized on the second interception as well as they scored a touchdown early in the second quarter to go up 10-0. Brad Lester caught a 16 Yard Pass From quarterback Kodi Burns. Burns finished the game 13-for-21 and passed for 111yards and this touchdown. He also ran for 82 yards and another score.

A 23-yard Pat McAfee field goal and a Kodi Burns 9-yard rushing touchdown had West Virginia staring into a 17-3 deficit well into the second quarter.

WVU would close the gap before halftime though, as Pat White connected with a streaking Alric Arnett deep across the middle for a 44-yard score. With the extra-point, West Virginia kicker, McAfee, became the Big East all-time leader in extra-points made (191).

The Mountaineers would do all the scoring in the second half and out-gain the Tigers 288-78. Pat White would hook up with Dorrell Jalloh twice for touchdowns and Noel Devine would finish off his outstanding game with a 30-yard touchdown run with 2:26 left.

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Auburn took good care of the ball as their only turnover came on the last play of the game, as Kodi Burns was intercepted by Ellis Lankster on a hail-mary type play. West Virginia would only commit two turnovers on the two Pat White interceptions.

Auburn is now a disappointing 4-4 overall on the season and 2-3 in the tough Southeastern Conference. They will now travel to Mississippi this week to take on the 4-4 Ole Miss Rebels in a SEC battle.

West Virginia is now 5-2 overall and 2-0 in the Big East. With the losses to Pitt and South Florida this past week, WVU finds itself at the top of the Big East standings, a place that the Mountaineers are becoming accustomed to. They will travel down to Connecticut to take on the second-place Uconn Huskies and the nation’s second leading rusher in Donald Brown. The ‘Eers defeated UConn 66-21 last year in Morgantown and ran all over the Huskies, something both teams will look to do on Saturday as they both rank in the Top 20 in rushing yards in the nation.

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