Oct 9, 2002 3 min read

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. (AP) – Eighty points. Eleven touchdowns. One game. One team. Rich Rodriguez doesn’t care to reminisce much about West Virginia’s rampage against Rutgers last season.

His players have an idea what the Scarlet Knights (1-4, 0-1 Big East) might be thinking about the 80-7 rout when they play the Mountaineers (3-2, 0-0) on Saturday.

“They will be waiting for us,” said West Virginia wide receiver A.J. Nastasi. “They will come out fired up.”

The Mountaineers set or tied nine Big East records in the contest, including the most points ever by a conference team and the most by West Virginia in 50 seasons.

It was by far the highlight of a 3-8 season, Rodriguez’s first.

“Anybody that was there at the game knows it was a freaky thing,” Rodriguez said Tuesday. “They had eight turnovers – eight turnovers! Every one of them, I think we got touchdowns off of. That doesn’t happen.

“I don’t put too much stock in last year’s game other than seeing what we did well and looking at ways to tackle.”

Both Rodriguez and Rutgers coach Greg Schiano didn’t seem comfortable talking about the issue this week.

Getting back at West Virginia certainly isn’t high on the Rutgers coach’s wish list.

“I don’t really buy into that stuff too much,” Schiano said. “If it’s incentive at all, it’s incentive to ourselves because we let it happen to us.”

Rodriguez agreed. When asked whether Rutgers might seek revenge, he said, “For what?

“We threw the ball four times in the second half. You can’t help it if a guy picks the ball off you and he goes and scores a touchdown, or you give the ball to a running back and he goes the distance.”

Whether payback occurs depends on which Rutgers team shows up Saturday: the one that beat Army 44-0 and led then-No. 11 Tennessee 14-7 at halftime two weeks ago, or the one that scored no more than 19 points in its four losses, including to Buffalo of the Mid-American Conference.

Many at West Virginia are betting on the former.

“These guys will be out for blood,” said co-defensive coordinator Todd Graham.

Speaking of betting, Rodriguez scoffed at a comment that West Virginia was labeled a two-touchdown favorite Saturday.

“The people who are doing that were probably looking at last year’s score, too,” he said.

Like last year, West Virginia enters the Rutgers game coming off a one-sided loss.

Last week’s 48-17 home defeat to Maryland shocked the Mountaineer program.

West Virginia was held to its lowest yardage total of the season one week after setting a Big East record for rushing yards against East Carolina.

Rodriguez said the loss devastated his players.

“They took it to heart. Sometimes it’s good to take a loss tough because that means it is important to you,” he said.