West Virginia-South Florida: Thursday Night College Football Preview

The boys from ESPN will once again return to Morgantown tonight for another exciting, energizing and electrifying Thursday night Big East match up between the West Virginia Mounataineers and South Florida Bulls.

The powers at be in Las Vegas say that the mountain men should win this one by 10 points but as we’ve seen in the past, the Bulls are sure to have a few tricks up their sleeve.

South Florida has been a true thorn in West Virginia’s side in recent years, coming out on top in three out of the last four meetings including last year’s 30-19 victory.

This time around, both teams will be looking for quick turnarounds after shortened weeks of practice.

Skip Holtz’s South Florida team comes into the game standing at 3-2 after a sluggish 13-9 home loss at the hands of an ever improving Syracuse team, while Bill Stewart’s Mountaineers, now 4-1, come in fresh off of a dominating 49-10 performance against a less than stellar UNLV squad.

Stewart’s bunch have had two weeks to get over their disappointing effort down in Baton Rouge in a loss to LSU, and it’s obvious that sophomore quarterback Geno Smith has found his was back on track and regained his confidence, completing 12-of-16 passes for 220 yards and three TDs in the win over UNLV this past weekend.

Smith will face a much stiffer test in this match up as he faces off against a South Florida defense that currently ranks No. 1 in the Big East against the pass. The Bulls feisty secondary includes talented cornerbacks Kayvon Webster and Quenton Washington along with safeties Mistral Raymond and Jon Lejiste.

Raymond and Lejiste, the two safeties, are both savvy defensive backs who can move around the field and cause trouble for opposing quarterbacks. Legiste is the type of player that the Bulls love to move around and use on blitzes and special coverages.

Smith will have to fit the ball into some tight windows tonight but he looks to have the type of arm strength it takes to handle such a task.

The real match up for the West Virginia offense will come down in the trenches. The South Florida Bulls, as always, have a few stud pass rushers, most notably defensive end Craig Marshall, who will be looking to get in Smith’s face all game long.

Marshall, who had a three sack performance in last week’s loss to Syracuse, is absolutely a player that the West Virginia offensive line, which has been somewhat shaky so far this season, must account for at all times.

South Florida defensive coordinator Mark Snyder, the former coach at Marshall, knows this West Virginia offense well having faced them the last four years as leader of the Herd. Expect Snyder to dial up a gameplan that could be somewhat tricky for the Mountaineers offense to handle at first.

It will be important for the West Virginia offense to get running back Noel Devine, who has been bothered by a foot injury he sustained in the LSU game, involved early and often. The key is to get Devine on the outside and away from big 300 lb. nose guard Terrell McClain and stifling middle linebacker Sam Barrington.

On the other side of things, the key to stopping South Florida’s offense is simple - contain dual threat quarterback B.J. Daniels. The sophomore threw for 232 yards and added 104 on the ground in last year’s victory down in Tampa.

West Virginia has to use pass rushing defensive ends Julian Miller and Bruce Irvin to their benefit and get Daniels out of rhythm and frustrated early.

This game will no doubt be important for both schools and it should serve as a catalyst for the second half of the season and the rest of their Big East slates.

This will mark just the second time rookie head coach Skip Holtz takes his South Florida team on the road. In their first try, the Bulls fell apart in the second half against a superior Florida Gator team, losing 38-14 in the hostile confines of The Swamp.

West Virginia will surely be looking to get the South Florida bugaboo out of their system and a win in front of the home crowd underneath the bright Thursday night lights would certainly set things up nicely for a run at a Big East Championship.