By Dave Morrison
For the second straight week, Noel Devine was the Big East offensive player of the week.
After his 178-yard performance against Connecticut, in a 28-24 win, including the game-winning 56-yard touchdown run with 2:10 left, it’s not surprising.
Second is the operative word, since Devine looked like he was destined for a career-low day at the half, with 10 carries for seven yards.
Then came the second half.
Devine rolled up 171 second-half yards, which included the game winner and also a 63-yard jaunt to the one, that set up a TD toss from Jarrett Brown to Tyler Urban.
“I’m just trusting my line, believing in them,” Devine said afterward. “That’s all it is. We believe in each other as a team.”
And it showed against a resilient UConn team that was mourning the death of cornerback Jasper Howard last week.
Devine’s belief was so strong that he told teammates, including fullback Jarrett Brown and Ryan Clarke, that he was going to score a touchdown.
“That’s just the kind of belief he has in himself,” Brown said. “He carried us, no doubt about that.”
“If there is a better one in the country, I haven’t seen him,” coach Bill Stewart said to a few reporters after his press conference Saturday.
Chris Neild, who ended the game with his first career interception, agreed.
“I wouldn’t say the defense won it,” the defensive tackle said, disagreeing with Stewart’s praise of the Mountaineer defense after the game. “We gave up what, 500 and some yards (503). Noel carried us today. He won the game. But that’s the kind of talent that he has. He has that speed and he’s a player.”
His scoring play wasn’t necessarily designed to go the distance. But then with Devine, that’s always an option.
The Mountaineers trailed 24-21 and were willing to move the clock and the chains and settle for a tie.
“That play was to get another first down, because we knew they would be in prevent (defense),” Stewart said. “In a perfect world, I would have like to have seen him (Devine) score with three seconds left, but I would take that score from Noel during any point in the ball game.”
Devine, averaging 130.3 yards per game, is currently third in the nation in rushing heading into Friday’s game at South Florida. The game will be shown live on ESPN.
Stewart anticipates a tough venue and a tougher opponent, especially defensively. WVU won last year’s game in Morgantown, 13-7 in the regular-season finale.
“All you can do when they load up the box is throw the deep ball and try
to beat one-on-one coverage,” Stewart said. “You have to do more than that, and our guys bought into that plan.
“Our players, because of the success South Florida has had the last two years and how they were shutting us down with their great defense, we told our players to just believe in us (the coaching staff). The plan will work if you stay in the framework of the offense. Defensively, we have always had low-scoring games with them.”
In other news, Tavon Austin was named the Big East special teams player of the week. He returned the opening kickoff 98 yards for a touchdown and had two kick returns for 118 yards.
The game time for the Louisville game Nov. 7 has been set for noon. The Big East Network will broadcast that game live.
