Our First Mountaineer Football Game - WVU vs Colorado 10/8 ESPN

Maureen and I went to our first WVU football game on this past Thursday. We left Crofton around noon and arrived in Morgantown around 4:00PM. The traffic into town was much less than I had anticipated and we were able to park about 1/4 mile from the stadium. We setup our little tailgate and enjoy steamed shrimp, pretzels and beer.
Jamie called after swim practice around 5:30 and let us know she didn't have a ticket to the game. Students need to request tickets earlier and with her hectic schedule she had neglected to order a ticket. Fortunately, I was able to trade my tickets plus a little cash for a set of three tickets together. We met Jamie about a half hour before kickoff and went into the game. We wanted to makes sure we saw the WVU Band perform prior to the game. Our seats were about 10 rows off the field in the corner where the team comes out. They were very nice seats.

This picture was taken from our seats. The opposite side is the student section. The stadium holds 60,000 and is full at all the games. Note all the gold in the place. The entire place was filled with WVU fans. It's pretty much the only football in the State. I was impressed how well behaved everyone was. Maybe I just didn't see any inappropriate behavior.

Former West Virginia All-America quarterback Major Harris was honored  between the first and second quarters. A highlight package of his career was played at halftime. He's the 11th player or coach with WVU ties to make the Hall and the first since Don Nehlen (who spoke at the swim team banquet the next evening) in 2005.

Devine rushes for 220, W.Va. beats Colorado 35-24

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. (AP) Noel Devine's best performance helped West Virginia overcome a second straight game of turnover troubles.

Devine ran for a career-high 220 yards and a touchdown, leading the Mountaineers to a 35-24 victory over Colorado on Thursday night.

Jarrett Brown threw two touchdown passes and redshirt freshman fullback Ryan Clarke ran for two fourth-quarter scores for West Virginia (3-1).

Devine had a season-high 22 carries, and coach Bill Stewart decided to use the 5-foot-8 junior more often when West Virginia had difficulty handling Colorado's blitzing defense in the second half.

Both teams played sloppily despite having an extra week to prepare and have plenty of problems to sort out heading into their conference openers.

West Virginia's defense allowed another quarterback to pile up the passing yards. The Mountaineers, who play at Syracuse on Oct. 10, lost four first-half fumbles to Colorado and have 10 turnovers in the past two games.

Colorado's Cody Hawkins threw two touchdown passes but was intercepted three times and Colorado (1-3) managed three total points on four other drives that went inside the 30.

The Buffaloes kept Brown mostly in check, but couldn't match Devine's speed.

Devine professed his love for playing on Thursday nights but refused to play up his performance, focusing on refusing to sour on his team for its turnovers.

Devine went 77 yards for a score on West Virginia's second play from scrimmage and ran 56 yards late in the second quarter that set up Brown's 6-yard scoring pass to Jock Sanders.

Devine ran nine times during a 14-play drive midway through the fourth quarter that ended in Clarke's 1-yard TD run for a 28-17 lead.

After Colorado turned the ball over on downs deep in its own territory, Clarke tacked on an 8-yard scoring run to put the game out of reach.

Brown, sixth in the nation in total offense at 335 yards per game, twice overthrew wide-open receivers far down field and finished 12 of 19 for just 148 yards. He was sacked three times.

Colorado's Rodney Stewart had another solid game against the Mountaineers. Last year he rushed for 166 yards, the most ever by a Colorado freshman. Stewart had a 36-yard TD run in the first quarter and finished with 105 yards on 21 carries.

Cody Hawkins kept his cool at times, avoiding the blitz to hit Scotty McKnight with a 29-yard scoring toss on fourth-and-7 early in the third that cut Colorado's deficit to four at 21-17. But Colorado didn't score again until the final seconds of the game.

Hawkins went 27 of 52 for 292 yards. Riar Geer caught eight passes for 113 yards.

Colorado was outgained 405-392 after a 24-0 home win over Wyoming on Sept. 19.