Heading into their second Big East game of the 2007 season in Syracuse’s Carrier Dome on Oct. 6, 2007, one word best described the overall mood of the 13th-ranked Mountaineers — bad.
They hadn’t played well the previous week, dropping their conference opener on the road to a very good South Florida team, with a hefty cost of a whopping eight spots in the rankings.
Looking to rebound against a traditional rival, coach Rich Rodriguez had pounded his players hard during practice, and it was time to take it out on the other guys.
It didn’t take long for the Mountaineers to draw first blood, as Michigan transfer Ryan Mundy’s interception gave junior quarterback Pat White a very short field to work with at the Syracuse 37. Five plays later, bruising fullback Owen Schmitt, working on his 10th face mask so far on the season (he’d broken the others) took a handoff at the 7 and angled left to the pylon for the opening score.
Syracuse came back after an exchange of punts to tie it up on a Curtis Brinkley 1-yard run and the extra point booted by morgantown High alumnus Patrick Shadle. White, coming off a painful thigh bruise suffered against South Florida, looked plenty healthy on the next WVU possession as they marched 77 yards on 13 plays to regain the lead, White’s 1-yard sneak finishing the drive.
Although the score was close early in the second quarter, a big play by the Mountaineers defense ignited the WVU sideline and signaled the end of Syracuse’s hopes for an upset. Senior nose tackle Keilen Dykes gathered a tipped pass at the Orange’s 19 and rumbled, bumbled, and stumbled into the end zone for an unlikely but energizing Pick-6. Before the half ended, Schmitt capped a 51-yard drive with his second touchdown of the day from the one, and Pat McAfee nailed a 49-yard field goal at the horn to build the lead to 31-7.
And the Mountaineers didn’t take their foot off the gas pedal once the second half started. Wide receiver Darius Reynaud hauled in a 20-yard scoring strike from White less than three minutes in to stretch the lead once more, and later in the quarter, McAfee split the uprights from 23 yards out to make it 41-7.
The few Orange fans were given one last chance to cheer on the next possession when Anthony Robinson hooked up with wide out Mike Williams on a 61-yard touchdown strike. But backup QB Jarrett Brown, entering the game when White went down with another hard hit, finished off a 9-play, 84-yard drive with a 4-yard scoring jaunt at the beginning of the final quarter, and later, freshman running back Jock Sanders scored his first collegiate touchdown with an 11-yard run to push the final score to 55-14.
The win, Rodriguez’s 100th as a head coach, really seemed to turn the Mountaineers in the right direction, as they snapped off five more wins in a row, including impressive victories against three ranked Big East foes, to climb all the way to No. 2 in the country, with only a Dec. 1 home date with lowly Pitt standing in the way of a chance to play for a national championship.
Just a week after hanging 66 points on No. 20 UConn, the Backyard Brawl turned into the Backyard Bawl, as the Panthers devastated the entire state with a 13-9 upset, and Rodriguez left his alma mater for Michigan.
Still, the resilient Mountaineers somehow found the will to pull off their own miracle upset, overwhelming heavily favored No. 3 Oklahoma in the Fiesta Bowl, 48-28, to finish 11-2 and kickstart the Bill Stewart era.
