West Virginia Mountaineers vs Connecticut Huskies Football Recap

History nearly repeated itself this past weekend near the country roads of West Virginia, but not quite. That’s good news for the favorite in the 2011 Big East race.

For almost three full quarters, the Connecticut-West Virginia game looked just like last year’s upset win for the Huskies: low scoring, sloppy, uneven, choppy, and basically filled with failure. In 2010, West Virginia fumbled seven times, continuously shooting itself in the foot despite establishing a pronounced ability to move the ball. On almost every occasion when the Mountaineers mounted a sustained drive, pounding the ball down Connecticut’s throat, the boys from Appalachia eventually fumbled the rock, turning the red zone into a disaster area. WVU repeatedly raised its rifle, about to shoot the Huskies dead, only to develop an oily trigger finger and miss the mark. Eventually, the Huskies – given many more lives than they should have had – pounced on the Mountaineers and clawed them apart in overtime.

Yes, last year’s meeting between these two teams marked an occasion in which neither team was able to finish any drives or generate any appreciable degree of point production. This year’s contest at Milan Puskar Field in Morgantown, West Virginia, was acquiring the very same trajectory, and that’s why the locals were nervous at halftime.

Thankfully, their team woke up before allowing this game to become an overtime fear festival.

West Virginia took control of the game in the third quarter. Trailing 10-9, Connecticut had the ball deep in West Virginia territory, driving with a chance to potentially take the lead. Instead, the Mountaineers forced a Johnny McEntee fumble and returned it 83 yards to the Connecticut 12 yard line where WVU quarterback Geno Smith hit speedy receiver Tavon Austin for a 12 yard touchdown on the next play. The touchdown sparked a run of 33 consecutive points as West Virginia extended its lead from 10-9 to 43-9 before the Huskies could add any additional points.

Geno Smith continued his emergence as one of the nation’s best quarterbacks. Smith finished the game completing 27 of 45 passes for 450 yards and four touchdowns and no interceptions. Smith tossed touchdown passes of 12, 84, 22 and 27 yards, all in the second half. A week after freshman Dustin Garrison rushed for over 200 yards against Bowling Green, he was held largely in check by a superior Husky defense that has been stout against the run all season. This was the second consecutive week that Connecticut allowed the opposing quarterback to pass for more than 400 yards.

> Find a great selection of West Virginia Mountaineers merchandise and more online along with Big East football gear from Big East Fans partner sites.

 

By: Matt Zemek
DFN Sports Senior Staff Writer