Paw Prints – UConn Huskies (9-2, 5-1) at West Virginia Mountaineers (9-1, 4-1)

This week

The UConn Huskies travel to Morgantown, WV to take on the West Virginia Mountaineers for the Big East Championship on Saturday at 3:30 PM.

Here are the rosters for the Huskies and the Mountaineers.

The Line/Prediction

West Virginia is favored by 17.5 points and the over/under is 50. My prediction is West Virginia 34 UConn 23.

Tickets

As of the time of this post, there are still tickets available. The extra tickets will be on sale on Friday from 9 AM to 5 PM and Saturday 9 AM to 2 PM at the Mountaineer ticket office. They are not available online but you can call 1-800-WVU GAME for tickets.

Getting To The Game

Here is everything you need to know about Mountaineer Field at Milan Puskar Stadium. Here is their football gameday policies along with directions to the stadium. Here is the parking policies and parking map. Here is a seating chart for Milan Puskar stadium. Here is the weather for tomorrow’s game as well.

BROADCAST INFORMATION

Television

For the second time this season, UConn will appear in an ABC Regional telecast. The game will be shown locally on WTNH TV-8 in New Haven. Bob Wischusen (play-by-play), David Norrie (color) and Jeannine Edwards (sidelines) have the call. Here is the coverage map for the game.

Radio

For the 16th consecutive season, WTIC 1080-AM in Hartford serves as the flagship station for the UConn Radio Network. WTIC is the state’s only 50,000 watt signal and can be heard in 23 states and parts of Canada. Veteran UConn announcers Joe D’Ambrosio (play-by-play) and Wayne Norman (color commentary) return to call the action with Kevin Nathan on the sidelines. The UConn pregame show begins 90 minutes prior to kickoff and is hosted by Bob Joyce, while at home games, the UConn Tailgate Show will air two and a half hours prior to the game with Arnold Dean. UConn football games are also broadcast over the internet at WTIC.com. For a full list of stations on the WTIC/UConn radio network, click here.

West Virginia Radio

Mountaineer Sports Network – (Tony Caridi – play-by-play, Dwight Wallace – analysis, Hoppy Kercheval – host) will broadcast the game live.

Sirius Radio Broadcast – The MSN broadcast of the West Virginia – Connecticut game can be heard live on Sirius Channel 123.

Internet broadcasts of WVU games are available by accessing MSNsportsNET.com and clicking on the Live Event Coverage button down the left-hand column of the athletics home page.

Last Week:

UConn beat Syracuse 30-7 while West Virginia beat Cincinnati 28-23.

History:

This is the 4th meeting between the two squads with West Virginia coming out on top all three times. This is the first time the two schools have not faced each other at night. WVU has outscored the Huskies 113-43 in the three games.

Connections:

UConn tackles, tight ends and special teams coach Dave McMichael served as an assistant coach at West Virginia from 1983-2000 under Don Nehlen.

UConn’s Corey Stringer played at Harding High School in Warren, Ohio along with WVU’s Sidney Glover.

UConn’s Lawrence Green and WVU’s Anthony Leonard played together at McKeesport High School near Pittsburgh.

Other News:

UConn comes into the game ranked #20 in the AP poll, #21 in the USA Today poll and #20 in the BCS standings while West Virginia is ranked #4 in the AP poll, #3 in the USA Today poll and #3 in the BCS standings.

If UConn loses to WVU tomorrow, the odds are UConn will end up in the Meineke Car Care Bowl. They had been the favorites to go to the Brut Sun Bowl but now it looks as though Cincinnati is the front-runner. However if UConn wins, they will be the Big East’s representative in the Bowl Championship Series.

UConn’s 9-2 record thus far ties for the second-winningest season in the school’s 109 years of football. UConn won a school-record 10 games in 1998 as it advanced to the Division I-AA Quarterfinals.

UConn is 2-1 all-time when playing as a ranked team. This is their first ranked vs ranked matchup.

The five wins in the Big East are just one shy of the six total Big East wins by the Huskies since joining the league in 2004.

UConn went a perfect 7-0 in 2007 at Rentschler Field. UConn joins the 1993 West Virginia Mountaineers as the only teams in Big East history to complete a season with a perfect 7-0 record at home.

UConn’s success in 2007 has been its impressive +15 turnover margin as the Huskies have created 26 turnovers while giving the ball away just 11 times. UConn’s ratio ranks fifth in the nation in this critical category.

UConn has scored a school-record eight times this year on either defense or special teams, the third most of any school in the nation. Wake Forest has 10 non-offensive touchdowns. The Huskies have five interception return touchdowns this year, two kickoff return touchdowns and a punt return touchdown.

UConn has significantly outscored its opponents this year in each of the four quarters. UConn has outscored its opponents 73-37 in the first quarter in 2007, 82-51 in the second quarter, 79-29 in the third quarter and 79-40 in the fourth quarter. The four quarters add up to a 313-157 advantage for UConn in scoring margin this year.

UConn had worn it’s gray pants in their previous road games this year but will go back to their traditional blue pants for the game.

UConn’s defense has intercepted 21 passes so far this year. The 21 interceptions trail only Cincinnati’s 23, for the most in the nation.

UConn has allowed just six rushing touchdowns this year, a sum that ties for third in the nation.

The UConn defense had not allowed an opponent to score 20 points in a game until its 10th game when Cincinnati scored 27.

Next Week:

UConn is off and will continue practicing until they play their bowl game. The BCS Selection show will be held on December 2nd and it is possible that UConn will know their bowl before that.