EAST HARTFORD, Connecticut - After a brief stop at
home, Pat White and West Virginia continue their quest for a
shot at the national championship on the road.
Playing away from Morgantown for the third time in four games,
the fourth-ranked Mountaineers take on Connecticut in a Big East
Conference matchup on Friday.
Fifth in the first Bowl Championship Series rankings, West
Virginia (6-0, 1-0 Big East) has the nation's second-longest
winning streak at 13 games. The Mountaineers have won 31 of
their last 35 regular-season games and are 22-4 in the Big East
since 2002.
After two road games, West Virginia was back at home Saturday
and rolled to a 41-17 victory over Syracuse. White rushed for
247 yards and four touchdowns on just 15 carries and Steve
Slaton added 163 yards on 20 rushes against the Orange.
White's dominating performance was the fourth-best rushing total
in Mountaineer history and a Big East record for quarterbacks.
Led by the White-Slaton backfield tandem, the Mountaineers lead
the nation in rushing at 328.3 yards per game.
West Virginia can't afford to look past the Huskies to its next
road test, a matchup at No. 6 Louisville on November 2 that will
have major Big East and national title implications.
Connecticut (3-3, 0-1) is coming off a 21-7 victory over Army.
Terry Caulley helped the Huskies snap a two-game losing streak
with a 98-yard TD run in the first quarter, which enabled him to
become the first running back in program history to eclipse the
3,000-yard mark.
This will be the third meeting between the schools. West
Virginia posted a 45-13 victory last season in Morgantown and a
31-19 triumph at Connecticut in 2004.