2008 West Virginia Mountaineers football team explained

Year:	2008
Team:	West Virginia Mountaineers
Conference:	Big East Conference
Conference Link:	Big East Conference (1979–2013)
Short Conf:	Big East
Aprank:	23
Record:	9–4
Conf Record:	5–2
Hc Year:	1st
Off Coach:	Jeff Mullen
Oc Year:	1st
Def Coach:	Jeff Casteel
Dc Year:	7th
Off Scheme:	Spread
Def Scheme:	3–3–5
Stadium:	Mountaineer Field at Milan Puskar Stadium (Capacity: 60,000)
Champion:	Meineke Car Care Bowl champion
Bowl:	Meineke Car Care Bowl
Bowl Result:	W 31–30 vs. North Carolina

The 2008 West Virginia Mountaineers football team competed on behalf of West Virginia University during the 2008 NCAA Division I FBS football season. The team was coached by Bill Stewart, who took over after he led the Mountaineers to a 2008 Fiesta Bowl victory over the #3 Oklahoma Sooners as the interim head coach after the departure of former head coach Rich Rodriguez. The team finished the season with a 9–4 record and a win over North Carolina in the Meineke Car Care Bowl.

Coaching staff

Head coach Bill Stewart is the Mountaineers 32nd head coach in school history. He returns defensive coordinator Jeff Casteel and defensive line coach Bill Kirelawich. His new hirings are associate head coach, recruiting coordinator, fullback, and tight ends coach Doc Holliday, assistant head coach and safeties coach Steve Dunlap, running backs coach Chris Beatty, offensive line coach Dave Johnson, and cornerbacks coach David Lockwood. Jeff Mullen, former quarterbacks coach at Wake Forest, was announced as the offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach. The receivers coach was named on January 29, Lonnie Galloway, the receivers coach from Appalachian State.^[1]

Spring Game

The Gold & Blue Spring Game was held on Saturday, April 19, 2008, at Mountaineer Field. A record crowd of over 25,000 fans attended as the Gold defeated the Blue 59–15. Kicker Pat McAfee was four-for-four on field goals with a long of 47 yards, and starting quarterback Pat White and backup Jarrett Brown both had touchdown passes. Brown also had a four-yard touchdown run and two backup kickers hit a field goal each. The defense recorded six sacks in total, and walk-on defensive back Darnell Christianled all corners with 3 passes deflected. Sophomore linebacker Pat Lazear had the only interception on the game off of a White pass. Backup runningback led all ballcarriers with 54 yards on 17 carries while sophomore Brandon Hogan led all receivers with 49 yards on 6 catches.

Rankings

Game summaries

Syracuse

Noel Devine 18 Rush, 188 Yds^[2]

Auburn

^[3]

Statistics

Team

	Team	Opp
Scoring
Points per Game
First Downs
Rushing
Passing
Penalty
Total Offense
Avg per Play
Avg per Game
Fumbles-Lost
Penalties-Yards
Avg per Game

	Team	Opp
Punts-Yards
Avg per Punt
Time of Possession/Game
3rd Down Conversions
4th Down Conversions
Touchdowns Scored
Field Goals-Attempts-Long
PAT-Attempts
Attendance
Games/Avg per Game

Scores by quarter

Offense

Rushing

Name	GP-GS	Att	Yards	Avg	TD	Long	Avg/G
	8–8	132	909	6.9	3	92	113.3
	7–7	102	545	5.3	44	4	77.9
Jock Sanders	8–8	30	168	5.6	19	2	21
	5–1	32	157	4.9	35	1	31.4
Mark Rodgers	5–0	12	69	5.8	19	0	13.8
Total
Opponents

Passing

Name	GP-GS	Cmp-Att-Int	Pct	Yds	TD	Lng	Avg/G
Pat White	7–7	99–142–3	69.7	885	13	44	126.4
Jarrett Brown	5–1	22–30–1	73.3	114	1	25	22.8
Total
Opponents

Receiving

Name	GP-GS	Rec.	Yds	Avg	TD	Long	Avg/G
Jock Sanders	8–8	35	263	7.5	6	25	32.9
Alric Arnett	8–8	19	226	11.9	3	44	28.3
Dorrell Jalloh	8–8	17	202	11.9	3	35	25.3
Noel Devine	8–8	22	96	4.4	0	17	12
Wes Lyons	4–0	9	90	10	0	19	22.5
Will Johnson	4–2	7	48	6.9	1	12	12
Tito Gonzales	3–0	4	35	8.8	0	11	11.6
Tyler Urban	2–0	1	25	25	2	25	12.5
Bradley Starks	3–0	4	20	5	0	13	6.6
Total
Opponents

Defense

Name	GP	Tackles				Sacks	Pass Def.	Interceptions			Fumbles		Blkd Kick
Name	GP	Solo	Ast	Total	TFL-Yds	No-Yds	BU	No.-Yds	Avg	TD	Rcv-Yds	FF	No.
	8	24	37	61	4.0 – 10	.5 – 3	2	3–48	16	0	1–30	0	0
	8	28	26	54	2.0 – 4	0	5	0	0	0	0	0	0
Sidney Glover	8	23	22	45	4.5 – 18	1.0 – 7	2	0	0	0	0	0	0
	8	27	17	44	1.5 – 11	0	4	1–31	31	0	0	0	0
Anthony Leonard	8	12	31	43	1.5 – 4	.5 – 3	1	0	0	0	0	1	0
J.T. Thomas	8	12	25	37	3.5 – 24	1.5 – 15	3	0	0	0	0	2	1
Chris Neild	8	9	23	32	2.5 – 6	1.5 – 4	0	0	0	0	0	1	0
Brandon Hogan	8	15	13	28	0	0	3	2–50	25	0	2–0	0	0
Franchot "Boogie" Allen	8	13	13	26	2.5 – 4	1.0 – 2	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Eain Smith	8	10	15	25	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
John Holmes	8	7	13	20	3.5 – 25	3.0 – 24	1	1	0	0	0	2	0
Robert Sands	8	8	11	19	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Doug Slavonic	8	3	15	18	2.5 – 9	2.5 – 9	1	0	0	0	1–0	1	0
Ovid Goldbourne	8	5	12	17	.5 – 3	.5 – 3	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
	4	6	11	17	2.0 – 4	0	1	1–11	11	0	0	0	0
Pat Lazear	8	4	11	15	1.0 – 3	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Kent Richardson	8	8	5	13	1.0 – 1	0	1	0	0	0	0	0	0
Nate Sowers	7	7	6	13	.5 – 1	0	1	1–0	0	0	0	0	0
Pat Liebig	5	1	10	11	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Guesly Dervil	7	4	5	9	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Zac Cooper	8	3	5	8	1.0 – 8	1.0 – 8	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
GP	Solo Tackles	Ast	Total Tackes	TFL-Yds	Sacks:No.-Yds	Pass BrUp	No. Int-Yds	Int Avg	Int for TD	Fumbles:Rcv-Yds	FF	Blkd Kick -->	Total

Special teams

Name	Kicking								Punting
Name	XPM	XPA	XP%	FGM	FGA	FG%	LG	No.	Yds	Avg.	TB	-20	LG
	25	25	100	9	10	90	52	37	1643	44.4	5	18	65
Total

Name	Punt Returns					Kick Returns
Name	No.	Yds	Avg	TD	Long	No.	Yds	Avg	TD	Long
	20	171	8.6	0	36	3	67	22.3	0	31
Brandon Hogan	2	17	8.5	11	0
Mark Rodgers						13	301	23.2	0	44
Jock Sanders	1	0	0	0	0	5	108	21.6	0	32
Total

Notes and References

[West Virginia Mountaineers football#Current Coaches|West Virginia Mountaineers football article]
https://web.archive.org/web/20141015113404/http://espn.go.com/ncf/recap?id=282850277 ESPN
https://web.archive.org/web/20141015113402/http://espn.go.com/ncf/recap?id=282970277 ESPN