WVU vs. UNLV: Trying to Get Excited About Saturday's Game

West Virginia is apparently paying UNLV around $750,000 to travel across the country for an apparent throttling by the heavily favored Mountaineers.

This is far cheaper than the $1.2 million that Ohio State is paying Colorado to come to Columbus next fall, but its still a good chunk of money for a game that likely won't be sold out.

So is there anything to get excited about as a Mountaineer fan? Of course.

Here are five things to look forward to on Saturday:

1. Bill Stewart-Jeff Mullen

West Virginia has a legitimate shot to finish the season with eight consecutive wins and an 11-1 record. What will keep that from happening? Most likely the coaching tandem of Stewart and Mullen. These guys can make each week interesting. So let's see what we get this time.

2. Noel Devine

While I hope he doesn't play much, it will be nice to see how Devine looks after the bad bone bruise in his foot from the LSU loss. Two or three 50-plus yard runs would be a nice sign.

3. Omar Clayton

The UNLV quarterback is a talented, dual-threat quarterback that could create some issues for WVU's defense. He leads the Rebels in both rushing and passing.

If the Mountaineers can get pressure on Clayton and contain him the game could be a rout for WVU. If Clayton gets loose it could be a much longer day than most are expecting.

4. New faces

Games like this are tailor made for getting the back ups some action, so let's hope Stewart has found a true back-up for Devine and he gets plenty of action Saturday.

This is crucial because Devine is likely to get banged up again this year and someone other than Ryan Clarke should get the bulk of the carries. If that's Tavon Austin, Jock Sanders or Trey Johnson it doesn't matter, but give us something better than what we saw at LSU.

5. Conference games

Big East action is less than a week away as WVU hosts South Florida in a Thursday night ESPN game. The Mountaineers have struggled with the Bulls since USF joined the conference, but WVU should be fine at Mountaineer Field at night.

Stewart claims the Mountaineers aren't looking ahead, but because of the short week he'd be foolish if he didn't spend at least one day preparing for USF.