Published: December 01, 2008 11:33 pm      

Leavitt hopes cold won’t have bad effect

MORGANTOWN — More winter-like weather is in the long-range forecast for Saturday night when West Virginia is host to South Florida in the regular-season football finale for both teams.

Since the Bulls will be coming up here from sunny, hot Tampa, coach Jim Leavitt was asked Monday on the Big East media teleconference whether he thinks the cold weather will affect his team.

“I’m not sure,” he replied. “I hope not. It’s going to be cold. But both teams have to play in it. Hopefully, we’ll play well.”

Leavitt pointed out the obvious: South Florida can’t simulate practicing in cold down there, even though it actually will have had two weeks to prepare for this game. The Bulls will be seeking a third consecutive victory in the short series with WVU.

“I don’t think it will bother our players,” Leavitt said in returning to the question. “Probably not as much as what some people might think. Maybe I should (think it will be a problem), but I really don’t.”

The Bulls have a 7-4 overall record, but are only 2-4 in the Big East. They have not played since a week ago Sunday when they defeated Connecticut, 17-13.

West Virginia is coming off its 19-15 loss at Pitt last Friday in Pittsburgh. The Mountaineers are 7-4 overall, 4-2 in conference play.

Leavitt said, “We know it’s going to be a great challenge for us Saturday night. But we’re excited about playing them.

“Everyone tells me that West Virginia is a very explosive team. They have a very good team that plays very good defense.

“Their kicker/punter (Pat McAfee) does a great job.”

A reporter recalled that WVU and USF were rated as the Big East’s top two teams in preseason, attributed the Mountaineers’ unexpected slip to too much hype, then asked Leavitt how he would explain his team’s failure to measure up to expectations.

“It would probably take a long time to answer that,” Leavitt replied. “There have been a number of different things. No. 1, the Big East is a very good conference. A lot of close games we were in. In a couple games we did not play well in the fourth quarter.

“We lost a lot of players on defense, including both tackles on offense. We had some injuries. Those are probably bad excuses. We need to do better. But the Big East is a very good conference.”