Hurricanes Host Mountaineers Tonight
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Oct. 25, 2001
By MARK LONG
AP Sports Writer
MIAMI (AP) – West Virginia coach Rich Rodriguez has watched plenty ofvideotape on the top-ranked Miami Hurricanes, and he hasn’t found aweakness.
“We’re a few bullets shy,” Rodriguez said. “We might be going into agunfight with a pen knife.”
The Mountaineers (2-4, 0-2 Big East) will try to upset the Hurricanes (5-0,2-0) Thursday night at the Orange Bowl, where Miami has won 12 consecutivegames. The ‘Canes hope to make the task even tougher by playing with aconfidence level higher than it has been in recent years.
“We are not intimidated. We look at it as a challenge,” West Virginiaquarterback Brad Lewis said. “This is the best team in America, maybe thebest team we will play. It’s on national television, and they will belooking to make a statement just like we are.”
Miami’s statement is simple: Win every game convincingly. The Hurricaneswere fourth in the Bowl Championship Series standings released Monday,behind Oklahoma, Nebraska and UCLA. They might need two of those teams tolose, or else they might be left out of the national championship pictureagain.
“We’ve got to go undefeated,” running back Clinton Portis said.
The ‘Canes beat Florida State 27-24 last year and finished the regularseason 10-1, but they dropped below the Seminoles in the final BCS rankingsand didn’t get a chance to play Oklahoma in the Orange Bowl for the nationaltitle.
“You use different things to motivate your team,” Miami coach Larry Cokersaid. “I hope our team wants to go out and play well and get the respectthey deserve throughout the country. The only way you do that is you go out,be an excellent, dominant football team.”
The Hurricanes have outscored their opponents 224-62, including a 49-27 winover Florida State on Oct. 13 that snapped the Seminoles’ 54-game homeunbeaten streak.
That game re-emphasized Miami’s fearlessness.
“If we play like we’re capable of playing, we’ll beat anybody,” linebackerJonathan Vilma said.
Rodriguez knows that, too. It has been evident in the game tapes.
“You watch film, you look for a weakness and you don’t really see one,” hesaid. “Their strength offensively is they’re very efficient.”
Miami quarterback Ken Dorsey is 19-1 as a starter and has thrown 11touchdown passes and three interceptions this season. He needs just threemore TD passes to break Steve Walsh and Vinny Testaverde’s school record of48.
Portis is averaging 6.2 yards per carry and nearly 100 yards per gamedespite sitting out much of the second half in blowouts against Rutgers andTroy State.
Miami’s offensive line, anchored by tackles Bryant McKinnie and JoaquinGonzalez, has yet to give up a sack this season.
“It might be the best (offensive line) I’ve seen in college football in 17years of coaching,” Rodriguez said. “And not just because of the talent, butthey’ve got a lot of experience. Maybe four of them, at least, will beplaying in the NFL.”
Miami might be even stronger on defense, where it has 18 sacks, 10 fumblerecoveries and nine interceptions. The defense has shut down three spreadoffenses already this season – Rutgers, Pittsburgh and Troy State.
The Mountaineers could be next.
“We are not going down there with the mindset that we are overmatched,” WestVirginia offensive tackle Lance Nimmo said. “We are going down there to gainrespect for our program. We are not intimidated. If anything, we’re excited,we want a chance to play, to see how we match up.”
