PISCATAWAY, N.J. — The snow-globe conditions for West Virginia’s 41-31 victory over Rutgers on Saturday afternoon provided a fitting backdrop for two Big East programs caught in the disorienting swirl of conference realignment.
The former Rutgers player Eric LeGrand, center, led his teammates onto the field. LeGrand was paralyzed in a game last season.
The Big 12 announced on Friday that West Virginia would join the conference. Its departure, following Pittsburgh and Syracuse out of the Big East, has left that league on unstable footing. Officials from Rutgers, meanwhile, have maintained contact with other conferences.
On Saturday, at least, Rutgers and No. 25 West Virginia were both still angling for positioning in the Big East standings. No. 24 Cincinnati (6-1, 2-0) is in first place.
Playing in a steady snowfall, the Mountaineers (6-2, 2-1) outlasted Rutgers in the fourth quarter, taking the lead for good with 6 minutes 18 seconds left on a 1-yard touchdown scramble by the junior quarterback Geno Smith, who also threw two touchdown passes.
On the ensuing possession, the freshman Rutgers quarterback Gary Nova fumbled the slippery football while trying to pass, effectively ending the game. The Scarlet Knights (5-3, 2-2) have lost 17 straight times against West Virginia.
“It’s a tough one,” Rutgers Coach Greg Schiano said. “It hurts. No excuses.”
About two hours before kickoff, three pick-up trucks, two small utility vehicles and a tractor plowed up and down the field at High Point Solutions Stadium, moving like Zambonis at a hockey rink until strips of artificial turf were revealed from under the snow.
Neither team moved the ball particularly smoothly, but the wet snow contributed to that. There were fumbled snaps, dropped passes and a botched hold on a field-goal attempt. Players also had trouble staying on their feet, requiring them to make cuts with short, careful steps.
“This is as bad of conditions as I’ve ever played in or coached in my whole career,” West Virginia Coach Dana Holgorsen said. “The first half especially because the field was covered in ice and slush.”
The conditions contributed to Nova’s fumble while dropping back to pass in the fourth quarter. It was also continued a troubling trend: Nova has turned the ball over eight times in the past three games.
On Saturday, he threw two interceptions to go with two touchdown passes.
“The ball slipped out of my hand, but I’ve got to have two hands on the ball,” said Nova, who threw for 235 yards but completed only 18 of his 46 passes. “I’ve got to make those plays. I don’t use the excuse that I’m a freshman.”
Leading by 31-28 at the start of the fourth quarter, Rutgers tried a fake field goal after driving to West Virginia’s 11. The Mountaineers’ Darwin Cook broke up the pass from the holder, Patrick Kivlehan, to receiver Brandon Coleman.
That set up West Virginia’s decisive 11-play, 89-yard scoring drive. Smith ended it on fourth-and-goal, attempting to hit Tyler Urban on a slant out of a shotgun formation before rushing to the right corner and diving into the end zone.
“In that situation, you’ve got to go all out,” said Smith, who passed for 218 yards and completed 20 of 31 attempts. “There’s 11 guys out there battling for you, and I wanted to be the guy battling for that touchdown.”
For Rutgers, it was a crushing conclusion to a day that started emotionally. The former defensive tackle Eric LeGrand, paralyzed from the neck down in a game against Army last year, led the team onto the field in his wheelchair. The Rutgers players walked behind him in an arm-in-arm chain.
“It was very emotional and exciting,” Coleman said. “I wish we could have pulled this out for Eric and this program.”
The loss left Rutgers in difficult position, and bolstered the case that West Virginia is the class of the Big East. The Mountaineers, the first ranked opponent the Scarlet Knights faced this season, rebounded from a 49-23 loss to Syracuse last Saturday.
The game was partly overshadowed by the news of West Virginia’s plan to leave the Big East, in part because of the uncertainty about when that will happen. The university has said it intends to join the Big 12 in July 2012, but the Big East does not plan to allow it to leave before its 27-month exit period is over — the same timetable being followed by Pittsburgh and Syracuse, who will both join the Atlantic Coast Conference. That would mean that Mountaineers could not join the Big 12 until January 2014.
The Big East is having its annual meeting of the conference’s presidents and athletic directors on Tuesday in Philadelphia. The meeting will focus on the league’s future in the ever-shifting college sports landscape.
The off-field machinations will play out in due time, but even as falling snow obscured the view Saturday, the Big East gained some clarity about the state of its standings entering the final month of the regular season.
No comments:
Post a Comment