saevrick

Well, karma's a bi-- er, not so nice thing.

Yeesh.. glad our Mountaineer has a musket then...

Must be from BC though, the colors match, right down to the pansy pink stockings..

Wow.. I would've told them to shove their conference and went independent.. probably wouldn't have been the best decision, but you can disrespect someone only so much..

I hope getting into the BigEast really helps USF out.  It's great to see football programs grow stronger and widen their fan base.  I don't know how much it'll help recruiting, since Florida already produces so many wonderful players, but hopefully The Bulls can grow even bigger and better.

I'm starting to get as excited about USF getting into the Big East as USF fans are

*laughs* That wouldn't be hard considering our winter was about 6 months long.  50 degrees is practically t-shirt weather here, so if it's averaging over 65 our team will probably deem it hot.

Are you saying Louisville can't win the C-USA in 2004, but they could win the Big East if they were in it now?

Thank you, I'll do that if I can get the chance to get away from school come that time.  

I don't believe so.. I think Chad was from Knoxville, TN, while John is a Charleston, WV native.  I can't find anything that says otherwise.

By John Antonik for MSNsportsNET.com

April 17, 2004

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – Kay-Jay Harris ran for two touchdowns for the Blue team and Chris Henry caught 13 passes for 200 yards for the Gold in Saturday’s annual Gold-Blue Spring game at Mountaineer Field.

The contest ended in a 20-20 tie.

“Obviously we’re not in game shape and we got a little tired in the heat but I’m glad it happened because it showed our players how much they need to work this summer to play our style of football,†said Mountaineer coach Rich Rodriguez.

The Gold team crossed the goal line on its first possession when quarterback Charles Hales slipped in from two yards out. Hales directed a lengthy 15-play drive that began at the Gold 30.

The Gold team tacked on three more at the start of the second quarter when freshman kicker Andy Good converted a 22-yard field goal.

The Gold team led at the half, 10-0.

In the second half the Blue team finally got on the scoreboard when Harris turned the corner and raced 24 yards for the first of two TDs. His second score came eight minutes later on a 10-yard run. Harris had a third TD called back when clipping was called on a 92-yard TD scamper.

“I thought Kay-Jay ran very average in the first half and he didn’t stick it up in there,†said Rodriguez. “He ran harder and better in the second half.â€Â

Sandwiched between two Brad Cooper field goals was a nifty 25-yard Chris Henry touchdown catch where he was able to wrestle the football away from the Blue defender before stepping out of the back of the end zone.

Good completed the scoring with a 29-yard field goal as time expired.

“The only thing I wasn’t pleased with was the Blue offense in the first half,†said Rodriguez. “I didn’t think they played with any intensity and didn’t have any leadership and we addressed that at halftime.â€Â

Harris was the leading rusher for the scrimmage running 15 times for 96 yards. Freddie Little paced the Gold team with 48 yards on 11 carries.

Charles Hales and Dwayne Thompson combined to throw for more than 300 yards for the Gold team. Hales finished the day 11 of 14 for 153 yards while Thompson completed 13 of 21 passes for 154 yards and a touchdown.

“I think Charles Hales has proven that he is a guy we can win with … not just at quarterback but also at receiver,†said Rodriguez. “Charles is going to play a lot of football for us at both spots.â€Â

Rasheed Marshall completed 6 of 11 passes for 90 yards for the Blue team, while Adam Bednarik hit on 9 of 13 passes for 75 yards.

“Clearly Rasheed had the best spring of all of the quarterbacks and he will be the starter going into the fall,†said Rodriguez. “But knowing if he starts to slip or the other guys do a great job they will be nipping at his heels.â€Â

Marshall played the scrimmage in a black jersey meaning defenders were not allowed to hit him.

“We weren’t really scheming on either side and when you start substituting on both sides you’re not sure if they’re all going to be on the same page so we didn’t want that to happen,†said Rodriguez. “Plus, he had kind of proven himself over the first 10 or 11 practices when it was live that we didn’t need to do more of that with him.â€Â

Rodriguez says the Blue quarterbacks were handicapped by the fact that wide receiver Miquelle Henderson wasn’t able to play with a strained groin and Dee Alston left during the first series after catching a 21-yard pass.

“The next thing you know the Blue offense is missing two starters at wide receiver and the two most veteran players you have so that probably didn’t help their passing game,†said Rodriguez.

John Pennington led the Blue team with 5 catches for 82 yards. He also caught 4 passes for 43 yards for the Gold to finish the scrimmage with 9 catches for 125 yards.

Pac-Man Jones picked off a Rasheed Marshall pass and also had a pass deflection for the Gold defense. Freshman Davaznzo Tate led the Gold defense with 8 tackles. Linebacker Scott Gyorko was in on 6 stops and Vince Beamer and Kevin McLee added five tackles each.

Linebacker Marc Magro forced a Kay-Jay Harris fumble when he put a crushing hit in the running back. Harris was able to recover the ball.

Linebacker Brad McClung had 13 tackles for the Blue defense and safety Ridwan Malik added 10. Jason Hardee forced a fumble for the Blue defense that was recovered by linebacker Bobby Hathaway. The Blue team had three sacks recorded by Hathaway, L.J. Montinar and Joe Sykes.

There were no live special teams for Saturday’s scrimmage and the beginning of each drive started at the 30 yard line.

A crowd of 7,517 witnessed the scrimmage.

“It was a great crowd today and I really appreciate the support,†said Rodriguez. “There was a tremendous atmosphere out there for our guys for the spring game.â€Â

Saturday’s Gold-Blue game concludes spring practice for the Mountaineers.

“We’re still not good enough not to play hard and win,†Rodriguez said. “Sometimes when you get extremely talented you can not play your best and still win or you can have a lack of execution and overcome it with some big plays. We’re not good enough to do that so that tells me that we’ve got to continue to do what we’ve been doing: play hard, execute well and hope the other team makes some mistakes and go from there.â€Â

Scoring Summary

Gold – Hales, 2 run (Good kick)

Gold – Good 22 FG

Blue – Harris 24 run (Cooper kick)

Blue – Harris 10 run (Cooper kick)

Blue – Cooper 24 FG

Gold – Henry 25 pass from Thompson (Good kick)

Blue – Cooper 30 FG

Gold – Good 29 FG

Individual Statistics

Rushing: Blue – Harris 15-96, Bednarik 5-39, Mundle 8-37, Marshall 3-minus 3, Total 31-169; Gold – Little 11-48, Colson 10-29, Thompson 9-24, Hales 6-19, Jackson 3-10, Total 39-130.

Passing: Blue – Bednarik 9-13-0-75-0, Marshall 6-11-1-90-0, Total 15-24-1-165-0; Gold – Thompson 13-21-0-154-1, Hales 11-14-0-153-0, Total 24-35-0-307-1.

Receiving: Blue – Pennington 5-82, Austin 4-34, Harris 2-8, Alston 1-21, McClintic 1-12, Myles 1-9, Mundle 1-minus 1, Total 15-165; Gold – Henry 13-200, Pennington 4-43, Jackson 3-46, Little 2-minus 2, Colson 1-17, Bolden 1-3, Total 24-307.

This somewhat alleviates my worries, but there's still a lot to work on.  Great showing by Kay-Jay (15-96 yds-2 TDs), Henry (13-200 yds-1 TD) and Pennington (5-82 yds) as well.  Things are slowly shaping up.

I would be really surprised if RJ isn't packed when Pitt goes down there.  I'd be green with envy to be able to watch my home team be able to play in such an awesome stadium.

Any of you been to wherever UCF plays?  Our guys are going down there this year to play.. wondering if it's worth the trip, or safe in that regard.

Not a problem, glad I could help.  

So they didn't want USF right away, but they won't let the Bulls go right away either... what a silly conference, it's good they'll get away from all that.

I'm beginning to think smazza's use of the word "thorn" may have been too kind.

What's behind all the beef between C-USA and USF? Or is it just C-USA in general has a beef with everyone?

Quick defenses are definitely the flavor of the day.  Our own 3-3 relies on speed heavily to put pressure on the QB, but really doesn't offer much against a heavy passing offensive scheme.  We were creamed through the air last year.  Doesn't help much we are weak on the LB position.

Good luck getting the cohesion you need to win the C-USA.  I'm really pulling for all of you guys (Cincy, UL, USF). Or at least give TCU the pounding they deserve...  

Yep, Coach Rod is defintiely one of a kind and he's doing some amazing things to the program here at WVU.  I miss the old jerseys though  :-/

WVU knows all about not being respected, but I think that's what lights the fire under'em to do better every year.  Just watch Lee Corso talk about us once and you'll be convinced  ;D

Either way, good luck to your Bulls, but it sounds like they don't need it!

If it's decided between WVU and BC, then I'll be very happy since we get them at home!

What's the general consensus of how the Bulls are going to fair in C-USA this year?  Collegefootballnews.com has you guys placing 6th (behind Lousiville, TCU, So. Miss., Memphis and Cincy) in the conference.  Is that a fair assessment?

Wow, I can't really keep to the topic anymore..

That would've been pure heaven.  Everyone wanted it except C-USA I'm guessing.  The shame really is the fans who have to watch you guys (and by that I mean all those schools newly accepted into the BigEast) play the 2004 year in a sort of Limbo.  We didn't want to play in a 7-team BE either.  C-USA won by holding onto you another year waiting for their other schools, ACC got their wishes (minus BC), and we were left scratching our heads.

Oh well, in 2005 we'll be the real winners.

UConn was originally slated to take Temple's place in the 2005 season after they left (*cough* kicked out), but due to the obvious expansions, UConn's BigEast application was accepted so they could begin in 2004.

I feel a bit silly leaving UConn out of the "threat list".  Another team that will need to be watched closely and never underestimated.  This is what is going to make the 2004 season so unpredictable.

Teams such as Syracuse, Rutgers, and UConn all have the abilities to knock off (or at least give a good run at) any team in the BigEast given the right situations.  Heck, even Temple showed what a motivated team can do (24-23 loss in OT vs VTech last year).

I'm not saying these team will win the BigEast, but they will make it very interesting to say the least.  Come 2005, this conference will be as enjoyable to watch on the unpredictability scale as the basketball side.  Is this going to be one helluva conference or what!?

I'm just going to say my Mountaineers should take the top spot (since through all my rambling, I've seemed to ignore the actual topic of the thread), albeit a rough road with the lack of depth and injuries we've been suffering this spring.  The defense seems to be solidifying, but that could be an illusion due to the poor showing the offense has made in practices.  Injuries at tailback has made it really difficult to keep practices concrete on the offensive side..

Thankfully it's still spring, heh.

I'm a bit biased since I go to WVU, heh, but I really think it'll be a toss-up between Pitt, BC and WVU.  It may come down to the Backyard Brawl in Pittsburgh to decide the conference champion this year.  I'm fine with either WVU or Pitt winning the conference, so long as BC doesn't for the sake of the rebuilding process.  Last thing we need is for the title to be taken by a team heading off to the ACC.  I really don't want to see another shared title either...

Be sure to watch for Rutgers-- I think they'll scare some people this year.  They may play a vital role to see who gets the loss that places them out of contention for the top spot in the BigEast.

Thanks for the info  

A 16 team basketball conference should be interesting nevertheless.

Here's to hoping the BE brings home another basketball championship!

Here's to hoping my Mountaineers can continue to grow and become more competitve once again on the court.

How exactly does the RPI index work anyway? (Least I admitted I was dumb to the fact of how basketball goes eh?)

Think WVU was still beat up from the Pitt game, but I'm not going to take anything away from Rutgers. They have a wonderful team together and the RAC is a tough, tough place to play.  I think even if WVU had been 100% they still would've gotten beat, but maybe not by as much as they did.  It's a shame our 100th year of basketball couldn't have been more of a Cinderella story..

It's hard to say really.. both conferences have outstanding teams which usually play hard.  Thankfully though the additions of Miami and VTech sort of weakened the ACC basketball programs overall, while the NBE is importing some great ones.  I'm not a basketball buff, so if I sound ignorant to the fact I'm deeply sorry.  Just my honest opinion from what I've seen or heard.  Regardless, the NBE is going to be wonderful to watch as the teams will beat the snot out of one another every week, which is the most important thing I think for the guys on the court-- just to be out there having fun.

Another Big East board at ESPN.com

You could always try the Big East fan forums.  They always seem lively.

Big East Board at Collegefootballnews.com.

I believe WVU is 9-2 at home (losses to Northeastern and VT I believe), and Pitt's two losses (Seton Hall and UConn) are both at away games.  Pittsburgh has won 4 of the last meetings between these two teams.  Pitt is definitely the favorite coming in, but if the Mountaineers play focused and Pitt sleeps a little bit this game could be decided in the 2nd half.  WVU has always had the habit of falling apart in the 2nd half however.. case being they were only down by 5 points entering the 2nd half against UConn, but ultimately lost the game by a whopping 30 points (outscored 27-52).  Revenge?.. maybe, doubtful but maybe.  I don't know if it'll be an easy win necessarily, but Pitt should prevail.  The only way to have a chance of winning for WVU is if they (please excuse the cliche) bring their A game.. maybe add a few pluses at the end there..

While I agree Penn State would make sense in the Big East, I just don't see it happening.  The Big Ten is a solid conference, and I think a fear of losing potential funds would probably play a part.  I would have to do some research to confirm that however.  But, if the Big East wants to court Penn State, they need to do so while JoePa is running the show.  It was his dream in the first place to have an eastern football conference.  It would only be right to have Temple in that though..

Notre Dame would never leave their football independence UNLESS they were to lose their tv contracts in the future.  Even when Notre Dame doesn't compete in a bowl game, they still make as much off of TV contracts as most schools do after bowl season, which of course as everyone knows they do not have to share with anyone else.  If Notre Dame couldn't take a spot from the current BigEast in bowl games, then there is a slight, albeit it be a very slight, chance they would join one of the conferences.. I doubt it would be the Big East however..  

The only whammy I would see is when the Big East football playing school break off from the basketball-only schools.. which is going to happen sometime within the next decade I would speculate.  Till then, all bets are probably off.  I would hope though when the split does occur that the football schools expand to at least the 12 minimum for a championship game..