FOOTBALL BLOG - WVU Athletics

James Madison Award Winners

FOOTBALL BLOG

By Mike Montoro for WVUsports.com
September 16, 2012 06:43 PM

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – The West Virginia University football coaching staff has named its award winners for outstanding performance in the Mountaineers’ 42-12 win against James Madison on Saturday, Sept. 15.

Offensive Champion – Andrew Buie; Defensive Champion – Josh Francis; Special Teams Champion – K.J. Dillon; Offensive Scout Champion – Devonte Robinson; Defensive Scout Champion – Austin Copeland.

West Virginia (2-0) faces Maryland (2-1) on Saturday, Sept. 22, at Milan Puskar Stadium in a non-conference game at Noon. The game will be televised live on FX.

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Football Moves Up to No. 8

FOOTBALL BLOG

By John Antonik for WVUsports.com
September 16, 2012 12:04 PM

West Virginia moves up one spot to No. 8 in this week’s Associated Press Top 25 poll, released earlier this morning.

Second-ranked USC fell to Stanford on Saturday night and dropped to 13th in this week’s poll.

The Mountaineers (2-0) are coming off a 42-12 victory over James Madison last night at FedEx Field in Landover, Md. Quarterback Geno Smith completed 34-of-39 passes for 411 yards and five touchdowns to become West Virginia’s career passing yardage leader, surpassing Marc Bulger’s 8,153 yards accumulated from 1996-99. Smith now has 8,191 career passing yards.

In two games so far this year, the senior is completing 88 percent of his pass attempts for 734 yards and nine touchdowns with no interceptions. In fact, Smith right now has as many TD passes as he has incompletions.

This week’s appearance in the top 10 marks the 80th time for the Mountaineers and the second straight week; West Virginia began the season ranked No. 11.

WVU was No. 8 in last week’s USA Today Coaches’ Poll and will likely move up one spot to No. 7 when the new poll is released later today.

West Virginia resumes non-conference play this weekend, facing 2-1 Maryland in a noon game at Milan Puskar Stadium that will be televised nationally on FX. The Terps are coming off a 24-21 loss to Connecticut yesterday in College Park.