West Virginia has little pity for Syracuse
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. (AP) – Syracuse’s poor first half of the season hasn’t generated much sympathy from West Virginia. Not when the Mountaineers (4-2, 1-0 Big East) have lost to Syracuse (1-5, 0-2) in six of their last seven meetings.
Not when the Orangemen could easily be 3-3 if not for an overtime loss at Auburn and a one-point setback at Temple on a missed extra point in the closing seconds.
Not when West Virginia’s offense has been one-dimensional the last few games.
Not when the Mountaineers’ week before playing Syracuse was shortened by a snafu with its charter airline service.
Despite a 40-0 victory over Rutgers, West Virginia coach Rich Rodriguez has his own problems to deal with, and he figures Syracuse will be both mad and confident when it comes to Morgantown on Saturday.
“Most of our guys haven’t beaten them, so it’s going to be a challenge for us,” he said Tuesday. “We have a tremendous amount of respect for them regardless of their record.
“They’re not that far off, so I don’t think they are going to be lacking confidence in playing West Virginia.”
Using the nation’s top running game to bowl over opponents worked in the first half of the season against teams like Cincinnati and East Carolina.
Do strictly that against bigger defenses from the Big East and the Mountaineers won’t stand a chance, so Rodriguez wants to see marked improvements in the passing game.
Sophomore Rasheed Marshall has thrown for just 187 yards combined in the last two games, part of which was due to wet conditions at Rutgers. In that span he’s completed just 20-of-48 passes.
“We’ve simply got to get more accurate. That’s kind of a broken record, but we’ll keep working on that,” Rodriguez said. “It’s not always the quarterback’s fault. We’ve got to get open more and get off the press coverage. We need to be prepared to throw the football better and more.”
West Virginia’s preparations for Syracuse got much tougher after the Mountaineers arrived back in Morgantown on Sunday evening, one full day after the Rutgers victory.
The team’s Florida-based charter plane experienced fuel and other problems while at the airport in New Jersey. After spending six hours sitting on the plane, the team was forced to spend another night in a hotel.
Monday’s practice was canceled to allow the coaches to study films, a task normally reserved for the previous day.
“It would have been miserable if we had lost,” Rodriguez said. “Our kids handled it well and there was a lot of bonding going on.
“The wives don’t get to go on every trip, but this was the one trip that they decided to go too. So there the husbands were stuck with their wives for six hours. I think my wife learned the entire game plan.”