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Opponent:
Date: September 26, 1998
Location: Mountaineer Field
Kickoff Time: 12:00 Noon
TV Coverage: MSN Tape Delayed
Attendance: 48,819
1998 Records:
Score:
Setting Up the Game
If you looked at the schedule before the season started, this game looked like game 2 of a 4 week "cruise" for the Mountaineers. In 1997, Tulsa was 2-9 and ranked dead last in defending the run. Only problem was that this game wasn't played in 1997
Tulsa had soundly beaten a division 1-AA team in week one and then knocked off heavily favored Oklahoma State in week 2. For their efforts, their defense was now ranked 16th in the nation, limiting opposition to 100 yards rushing while the offense was putting up 539 yards per game.
It took WVU a few snaps in game two to get into the groove but they showed their fans that the 1998 version of the Mountaineer offense was more than just Amos Zereoue. Marc Bulger was coming of age and a host of Mountaineer receivers were catching passes all over Mountaineer Field.
Injuries had hit the Mountaineers deeply on the defensive side of the ball. In two games they had lost their starting rush linebacker and strong cornerback along with a backup free safety who was challenging for a starting position. How would they be able to handle this team that used "every offensive scheme known to man" from a no huddle offense and reportedly created confusion for defenses? On the other side, was Tulsa really that good? The win over div 1-AA SW Missouri State was expected but it was rumored that Oklahoma State had taken them too lightly and did not prepare properly for the game.
This was the only game on the Mountaineers 1998 schedule for which there was no live TV coverage. As game time approached, the temperatures were rising to the mid 80 degree level. The crowd filtered into Mountaineer Field but several sections were completely empty as it was reported the students were "boycotting" the game. A small group from Tulsa was in the corner of the endzone. As it turned out, they were only to be heard from once during the game.
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The story
No. 19 West Virginia was worried that its injury-depleted secondary wouldn't be able to keep up with Tulsa's pass-happy offense. The Mountaineers' solution Saturday
was to let Tulsa stop itself with turnovers and let tailback Amos Zereoue run wild.
West Virginia forced six Tulsa turnovers, five of them in the first half, and Zereoue rushed for 192 yards and three touchdowns to lead West Virginia to a 44-21 victory.
 Marc Bulger (shown right) passed for 253 yards and two touchdowns for West Virginia (2-1). John Fitzgerald passed for two scores and Charlie Higgins rushed for 143 yards for Tulsa (2-1), which lost its bid to go 3-0 for the first time since 1978.
The Golden Hurricane offense, which was averaging 306.5 yards passing, managed just 228 against the Mountaineers.
"Tulsa is a pesky bunch of guys. Their offense will give you headaches. We're awful happy to have won this game, that's for sure," said West Virginia coach Don Nehlen.
Zereoue's touchdowns in the third quarter on runs of 32 and 11 yards helped West Virginia break away from a 20-14 halftime lead.
West Virginia's defense picked off two errant Fitzgerald passes in the first half. The Mountaineers got a third interception in its own end zone when Tulsa kicker Bryan Archibald took a botched field goal snap and threw it up for grabs in the second quarter. The turnover led to one of Jay Taylor's two second-quarter field goals for West Virginia.
 Zereoue's (shown left) first touchdown, an 18-yard run in the first quarter, gave West Virginia a 7-0 lead that Tulsa answered with a 13-yard touchdown pass from Fitzgerald to Wes Caswell.
Taylor's field goals of 22 and 40 yards gave West Virginia a 13-7 second-quarter lead before Tulsa went up 14-13 on Fitzgerald's 8-yard pass to Damon Savage.
Bulger gave West Virginia the lead for good with a 1-yard pass to Shawn Foreman over Tulsa's Marshall Gordon in the corner of the end zone with seven seconds remaining in the half. West Virginia, which already had used its timeouts, drove 60 yards on nine plays in 1:14 for the go-ahead touchdown.
Up 26-14 after Zereoue's second touchdown and a failed 2-point attempt, West Virginia went up 34-14 on a 14-yard pass from Bulger to David Saunders. Tulsa set up the score with another critical turnover when on fourth-and-1 from its 30, Golden Hurricane coach Dave Rader decided to go for the first down instead of punt. Fitzgerald fumbled the snap on a quarterback sneak and West Virginia recovered at the Tulsa 26.
"The turning point was a bad call by the head coach -- going for it on fourth down," Rader said. "I shouldn't have put our team in that kind of position."
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For the record
West Virginia's 520 yards of total offense marks the first 500-plus game since late in the 1996 season against Rutgers.
It took Rahsaan Vanterpool 46 games to set West Virginia's career
receptions mark of 126. David Saunders broke it Saturday and now has 131 in just 26 games.
When Saunders became the school's receptions leader, it
marked the first time since World War I that West Virginia's all-time receiving leader and all-time rushing leader (Amos Zereoue) were on the field at the same time.
Jay Taylor's 86th consecutive extra point broke Paul Woodside's record. Taylor, a junior, has never missed.
Bulger's performance was his 10th 200-yard passing game, tying him with Jeff Hostetler and Chad Johnston as the school's leader.
Tulsa fumbled seven times (losing three), a Mountaineer Field record.
Amos Zereoue turned in his 15th 100-yard game of his career which is a school record. Zereoue moved into second place on the BIG EAST all-time rushing list with 2,881 yards. Rutgers' Terrell Willis (1993-95) has 3,114 yards.
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What we liked
Once again we'll say that we liked that we got the "W" in this one. It was certainly a beautiful hot day, more like you'd expect in early September than at the end. Most likely we've seen our last game in shorts and shirts as we don't play at home again until the end of October. By then there will be a chill in the air and maybe the usual raindrops!
Probably at the top of the list of things that we liked was the play of the "young" kids, many of whom have been forced into action because of injuries. Scooter Davis had a great day for his first start for Nate Terry turning in 10 tackles, second best on the team, Mark Thurston who had a solid game again filling in for Gary Stills at RLB, and Greg Robinette who filled in for Charlton Forbes at Nose Guard. Then there was the continued impressive play from "youngsters" Barrett Green, Kyle Kayden, Jerry Porter and Mark Plants. This group of defensive players has been a pleasant surprise at their new positions. Throw in the solid play of guys like John Thornton, Gary Thompkins, Kevin Landholt, Chris Edmonds and Charlie Fisher and this defense has come along much better than we expected.
On the offensive side of the ball, it was great to see Amos controlling the game again. 192 rushing yards plus 6 pass receptions for 42 yards and several kickoff returns is what most people would call outstanding. But for Amos, it's just an average day! Fortunately, we're able to get that performance from Amos because of the solid play of Marc Bulger and his army of receivers.
Marc didn't have one of his best statistical days against Tulsa but his value on the field goes beyond stats. The drive for the touchdown before the half wasn't a thing of beauty by any means. But in addition to the 7 points it put on the board it shows us how this kid can operate under fire. The leadership he showed in that drive rivals that shown by Jeff Hostetler years ago in the infamous TD drive against Pitt. That drive built Marc's confidence in himself and that of his players in him.
Our offensive player of the game would have to go to Amos. It wasn't one of his best performances but few even have one of Amos' average days. Our defensive player of the game goes to the threesome of Barrett Green, Scooter Davis and Jerry Porter. Green turned in his third "leading performance" in three games as he lead the Mountaineers again in tackles, recovering one fumble and getting an INT, Davis was only one behind him and did an excellent job in his first ever start, and Jerry Porter did it all with tackles, interceptions and pass breakups. Just too bad he had to have that one fumble or he would have won hands down!
We would also be remiss if we didn't tip our hats to the coaching staff for a great job, particularly to coach Holmes. It was reportedly his idea to use the zone defense that appeared to confuse Tulsa. And along those lines, a tip of the hat to strength coach Alan Johnson for his summer preparation. It was obvious that the Mountaineers were the strongest and best conditioned kids on the field last Saturday.
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What we didn't like
Strangely, there are as many problem areas that need work after this win as you might have in a loss. Coach Nehlen was very upset with the teams lack of focus in the first half and we have to agree. They've got two games to eliminate this problem. When we get into the meat of the Big East schedule this team is going to have play every snap of the entire game. If it takes them a quarter to show up, the game may be out of hand by then.
The numbers of penalties in this game went down, as did the yardage, but those we did have were critical and brought back some large gainers. The truly dumb penalties like lining up in the wrong formation were eliminated. We need to spend some time on techniques now.
You normally only get one or two chances to turn a game around. This week it was like Tulsa was just trying to give the game away and the Mountaineers wanted no part of it. The fumbles and dropped interceptions will come back to haunt us in a tight game. We need to capitalize on every opportunity. And along those lines, we need to eliminate those things we do that invite mistakes. Jerry Porter jumping over tacklers on a run back will more often than not result in a fumble or his injury. As Kenny Rogers used to say "You gotta know when to hold them and know when to fold them".
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Injuries
Charlton Forbes is back on the injury list and this time it appears he'll be out several weeks. Charlton injured his knee and was replaced by Greg Robinette. Fullback Anthony Green went down early with an ankle injury, and while X-rays were negative, he didn't return to action during the game. At this time it is not known how long he will be out. And finally, linebacker Mark Plants bruised a knee but should be ready by next week.
For further injury details and updates, see Kevin Kinder's Football Injury Report page.
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General Comments
How many more injuries can this team have and still be able to be competitive? The injuries have forced WVU to put some of the young, inexperienced kids into action and fortunately they have all responded positively. Couple that with the fact the opponents we've faced in games 2 and 3 turned out to be "inferior" to the Mountaineers. But this problem cannot continue without having a devastating affect on the Mountaineers season. Most likely anyone getting injured beyond normal bumps and bruises from here on out will not be available for the key Big East match ups that are just around the corner.
And finally we have to admit that we bought into the "hype" about Maryland and Tulsa. Both teams had big games the week immediately before they met the Mountaineers and caused some concern. Without a doubt it's been the Mountaineer offense that's allowed us to confuse these two opponents and chalk up the victory. This multi-dimensional offense is fun to watch and will create problems for any Mountaineer opponent.
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What's Next
Next up is 1-2 Navy. The Mountaineers travel to Annapolis this Saturday at 12 Noon for their first away game of the season. Navy was defeated by #25 Tulane this past Saturday 42-24. The Midshipmen have a young team but feature a high powered rushing game. In their loss to Tulane they ran for almost 300 yards.
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The Stats
(19) WEST VIRGINIA 44, Tulsa 21
1ST 2ND 3RD 4TH FINAL
--- --- --- --- -----
Tulsa 7 7 0 7 21
West Virginia 7 13 21 3 44
Scoring
First Quarter
WVU- 8:36 left in quarter
TD- Zereoue 18 run (Taylor kick)
UT- 3:54 left in quarter
TD- Caswell 13 pass from Fitzgerald (Archibald kick)
Second Quarter
WVU- 8:42 left in quarter
FG- Taylor 22 yards
WVU- 5:20 left in quarter
FG- Taylor 40 yards
UT- 1:21 left in quarter
TD- Savage 8 pass from Fitzgerald (Archibald kick)
WVU- 0:07 left in quarter
TD- Foreman 1 pass from Bulger (Taylor kick)
Third Quarter
WVU- 8:58 left in quarter
TD- Zereoue 32 run (Pass failed)
WVU- 5:57 left in quarter
TD- Saunders 14 pass from Bulger
(Foreman pass from Bulger)
WVU- 2:27 left in quarter
TD- Zereoue 11 run (Taylor kick)
Fourth Quarter
WVU- 8:35 left in quarter
FG- Taylor 31 yards
UT- 0:22 left in quarter
TD- Wall 5 run (Archibald kick)
UT WVU
--- ---
First downs 26 31
Rushes-yards 42-192 38-260
Passing 228 260
Comp-Att-Int 23-47-3 22-39-1
Return Yards 11 46
Punts-Avg. 4-35.8 3-42.0
Fumbles-Lost 7-3 2-2
Penalties-Yards 7-53 5-57
Time of Possession 29:10 30:50
Individual Statistics
***RUSHING ***
Tulsa- Higgins 11-143, Williams 15-56, Fitzgerald 11-2,
Caswell 1-1, Wall 3-(minus 2), Smith 1-(minus 8).
West Virginia- Zereoue 23-192, Swoope 12-59, A.Brown 1-15,
Bulger 2-(minus 6)
***PASSING***
Tulsa- Fitzgerald 23-44-2-228, Wall 0-2-0-0,
Archibald 0-1-1-0.
West Virginia- Bulger 21-36-1-253, Lewis, 1-3-0-7
***RECEIVING***
Tulsa- Caswell 6-88, Smith 5-48, Savage 4-33,
Brown 3-18, Fisher 2-9, Higgins 2-31, Brister 1-1
West Virginia- Saunders 6-61, Zereoue 6-42, Foreman 4-73,
Ivy 2-36, Becht 2-27, A.Brown 2-21
A-48,819
What others are saying about the game
Same story-different story teller!
Hey, this is only our opinion and we've been known to make a mistake or two. Check out these other fine sites by Mountaineer fans to see what they have to say about the Mountaineer victory.
Kevin Kinder's Review of the Tulsa game
( Kevin's a little more conservative than I. He understands
this game and his coments show it! )
Visitors Since August 15, 1996
© Copyright 1998 Jay Paulovicks
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