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By BOB HERTZEL
WV News
MORGANTOWN -- We all turned the clock back at 2 a.m. Sunday morning, just a few hours after West Virginia turned the clock back at Mountaineer Field while beating up on a defenseless BYU team, 37-7, to clinch a bowl bid.
All of a sudden, it was 2007 again and maybe they were running 66 points on a No. 20 team from Connecticut, gouging them for 517 rushing yards and seven ground touchdowns. Didn't matter who got the ball, Pat White, Noel Devine, Steve Slaton, Jock Sanders or backup quarterback Jarrett Brown; Sanders averaging 19.3 yards on his three carries, Brown 29.3 on his three carries.
And that was nothing about Pat White averaging 11.3 per try and Devine 10.7.
That was a long time ago but this offense did its best to emulate it, helped no doubt by a Cougar rush defense that ranked 127th in the nation before this embarrassment.
They were unstoppable … this year's freshman sensation Jaheim White breaking loose for 146 yards on 16 carries, an average of 9.1, and last year's freshman sensation CJ Donaldson powering his way to 102 yards while averaging 7.3 a try.
Quarterback Greene chipped in with 23 rushing yards for 5.5 a try and threw for 205 yards. completing 12 of 24 with 2 touchdowns.
By the time they finished adding up the yardage, WVU had merged the running and passing yards to 517 yards.
"The stats tell the story," Brown said, emphasizing the defensive end of it with holding the Cougars to 277 yards and 7 points as well as the offense. "I've been waiting for this. This was the first time we played well in all three phases of the game -- offense, defense and special teams," Brown said.
And as fans left the stadium, they noted that the trees, so bright with color just a few days earlier, now were shedding leaves the way Donaldson shed tackles, symbolizing that November had truly arrived.
Ah, November, Thanksgiving and Black Friday, a nip in the air, the brightest sunshine of the year when the skies are not green … and the time when football teams prove who is for real.
That's the point Neal Brown had pounded into the heads of his players as they no longer are looked upon as the 14th and last place team in the Big 12, as predicted in the media's pre-season poll, were hoping that could contend for a spot in the championship game.
"Championships are won in November and our league race is wide open," Brown said early this week. "There are seven teams that still have an opportunity to play in Dallas and it's whoever performs the best in November that are the teams that are there."
It seems odd to be hearing talk of championships around here, yet this is the reality as the Mountaineers now stand at 6-3 and now have games remaining with a trip to Oklahoma, suddenly caught in the grasp of a two-game losing streak; Cincinnati and then a trip to Baylor.
This offensive revival has gone on now for a month. In the last four games WVU has averaged 37.5 points a game, 265 rushing yards and 518.8 total yards.
As B.B. Cook sang, "The Thrill Is Back."
It is the freshman White who is putting most of the thrill into the proceedings, showing speed yet patience; running hard straight ahead yet making shifty cuts so that he can run through tackles or simply avoid them.
His ceiling is higher than the WVU Law School that sits on the hill behind Mountaineer Field.
"He's going to be great," Brown said, noting that it started with him figuring out how important his practice habits and approach were and that, having seen success, he probably would slip away from it.
And Donaldson now seems to have found a way to turn his power and ability to read holes and cut into the back he seemed destined to become last year before breaking his ankle in Game 7 last year, ending what well might have been a 1,000-yard freshman season.
He added two short touchdowns, giving at least one TD in eight straight games.
"I thought C.J. set the tone for us," Brown said. "His run on fourth and 1 in the first drive was a 'man-run'. They stuffed it and he used second effort to get the first down."
The team fed off that as did the crowd and it snowballed on BYU, which honestly really had no chance talentwise and without its starting quarterback, but they were not going to beat WVU on this night if they were allowed to start every drive at midfield.