First Quarter LIVE Blog: West Virginia at Louisville

The Vitals:

West Virginia (7-0, 2-0) at Louisville (7-0, 2-0)
7:30 PM Eastern, ESPN

This is the game many people have been waiting for, a top-10 matchup between undefeated Big East powers. Louisville held a huge fourth quarter lead in last year's matchup before the Mountaineers stormed back to force overtime. West Virginia ultimately emerged victorious 46-44 in three overtimes.

The game propelled West Virginia into the Sugar Bowl (and an upset win against Georgia), while also putting frosh back Steve Slaton onto the national stage after a six touchdown performance.

For more on this game from our West Virginia and Louisville bloggers, please be sure and visit these links:

John Radcliff-West Virginia
Louisville FanHouse

Also, our Big East representative Charles Rich has done some outstanding entries about tonight's game/the teams involved.

I will begin the LIVE blog around 7:30 Eastern tonight, feel free to join the conversation, adding comments below.

Pregame:

Well, ESPN is rightly hyping this, but it's good for college football. Both fan bases have a lot invested in this game and the college football fan base as a whole is quite interested in this matchup.

Sentimentally it's hard not to pull for Louisville a little, as I love me some bourbon and the ponies.

Heh, they just brought up a quote from Howard Schnellenberger in 1985 saying (and I'm paraphrasing here) "Louisville is on a collision course with a national championship, the only element is time"

Lou Holtz on hitting "be the windshield, don't be the bug!" Heh.

It's 38 degrees on the field, 15 MPH wind, with Louisville fans properly attired for a "blackout". The Louisville cheerleaders are wearing warm pants, West Virginia's are toughing it out in their skirts.

Heh... my friend who is a university of Arizona alum just IM'd me this: "If Louisville can have a program like this, so can Arizona". I'm not quite so sure about that.First Louisville Possession

First play, first down, 22-yard pass. I like the call.

Another first down on the pass to Mario Urrutia after a 5-yard run. Already they're in West Virginia territory.

First down again, this time to Patrick Carter. It looks like the entire middle of the field is open based on West Virginia's defensive front presented on this drive. Kind of tentative, no? They're reading instead of reacting. Looks like they'll be happy for force the field goal at some point in this drive once the field narrows.

SACK. John Holmes got around the edge on the blitz. Should we call him "Big John" Holmes? Do you think his parents knew that story before naming him?

Herbstreit's noting Brian Brohm's poor footwork on that second down throw.

Pass underthrown on third and 17, so field goal time.

It's good, Louisville 3, West Virginia 0

First West Virginia Possession

Louisville has unveiled a new defensive look, with its defensive tackles split wide, two inside linebackers and safeties shaded inside. That's nine in the box, folks. We'll see how well this works.

Third and one... Schmitt is STUFFED and fumbles the ball, Louisville recovers. Huge turnover/mistake there for West Virginia.

There's a flag after the play, however, personal foul against Louisville's Omobi Okoye, knocking them 15 yards back after the change of possession.

Second Louisville Possession

First down from just inside the 50 yard line. Great field position here.

Fellow FanHouse NCAA lead sends me this link about West Virginia's John Holmes.

West Virginia has a linebacker named John Holmes. The press box sounded like a Beavis and Butthead sketch after his name was first announced. John Holmes. Huh Huh Huh

BTW, Louisville had to punt the ball (touchback), so wasted opportunity there.

Second West Virginia Possession

Pat White's from Daphne, Alabama which is not far from where I live. Surprising that he didn't end up at an SEC school with his athleticism, but sometimes kids in small towns slip through the cracks.

Update: Charles comes through again, adding that White was recruited as a receiver by a handful of SEC teams, but he wanted none of that.

No sooner do I speak of him that he fumbles the ball on a first down scramble. Luckily he recovered the ball.

Louisville's doing a good job so far chasing down the West Virginia run game.

Second and nine, shortgun/empty backfield, pass falls incomplete. Good call to mix things up a little, however.

And this time they do connect on pretty much the same play. Darius Reynaud hauls it down for 26 yards on third down and long. That's nails by White.

TOUCHDOWN!

Slaton ran untouched 42 yards on a simple inside draw. Louisville bit on the outside run action and had nobody to make a play in the middle of the field. Seven plays, 80 yards, 3+ minutes.

West Virginia 7, Louisville 3

Third Louisville Possession

Oh wow... Mario Urrutia just dropped a pass wide open in the middle of the field. Great play-action as Brohm had all day to throw.

Oh wow AGAIN. On a nice screen pass, Kolby Smith eluded a tackle and got into West Virginia territory before being tackled by... himself! That could have been a touchdown if not for the stumble on the turf.

You knew this was coming: Rick Pitino in the booth.

My old man spends a few days in Louisville every several months for work, and he's seen Pitino a few times just having dinner at some of the town's restaurants. I saw him at Opening Day at Del Mar Racetrack two years ago as well.

Huuuuge play by Brohm, who eluded a sack on third down and made an underneath completion to keep the drive alive.

Kolby Smith just bowled over one Mountaineer defender and nearly another on a 20-yard run. That looked fun. He's pushed the Cardinals to the West Virginia 11 yard line now. Again they need to find a way to get a touchdown instead of a field goal.

End of the quarter, see you at the Second Quarter LIVE Blog!