By John Antonik for
MSNsportsNET.comNASHVILLE, TENN. --West Virginians are well-versed with the long-time saying thank God for Mississippi.
That is in reference to West Virginia's yearly national standing above Mississippi in education and annual income.
Now count West Virginia football coach Don Nehlen, a transplanted West Virginian by way of Canton, Ohio, among those giving thanks to Mississippi after the Mountaineers snapped their eight-game bowl losing streak with a convincing 49-38 win over the Rebels Thursday afternoon in the Music City Bowl.
"We're pleased as the devil to have won. We've had a long dry spell," Nehlen said. "If nothing else, the jokes will disappear in Morgantown for a while. This game was something."
WVU scored the first six times it had the football on the way to its most points ever scored in a bowl game. It eclipsed the 33 scored in a Sun Bowl loss to Oklahoma State in 1987.
Nehlen, who won his 202nd career game Thursday, completes his West Virginia career as he started it -- with a victory.
In 1980, Nehlen won his first career game at West Virginia by defeating Cincinnati, 41-27 in the Mountaineer Field opener.
Nehlen also won his first bowl game at WVU by defeating Florida, 26-6 in the 1981 Peach Bowl. Following wins over Kentucky and TCU in the Hall of Fame and Bluebonnet bowls, he endured a NCAA-tying eight-game bowl losing streak from 1987-98.
At the game's outset, things appeared to fall into West Virginia's favor; the Mountaineers hadn't led in a bowl game since the 1994 Sugar Bowl against Florida.
West Virginia, dusting off some new wrinkles, scored the first five times it touched the football on the way to a huge, 35-9 halftime lead.
Much like No. 14 Kevin White 16 years before in the 1984 Bluebonnet Bowl, maligned No. 14 quarterback Brad Lewis played the half of his life to lead the Mountaineers to an insurmountable lead.
"I don't think we've ever had a quarterback with a better half," Nehlen said. "I've never seen our offense execute that way."
Lewis completed seven-of-seven passes for 216 yards and four touchdowns in the first half, and finished the game hitting 15-of-21 passes for 318 yards and five touchdowns.
"We knew coming in that Ole Miss played a lot of man-to-man and we knew that with Khori Ivy, Antonio Brown and our tight ends that they couldn't match up with our speed," Lewis said.
Lewis threw two TD passes each to Khori Ivy and Antonio Brown, and one to fullback Wes Ours at the game's outset.
"Coach told us all week don't win for him, win for ourselves," said Brown, whose 156 receiving yards were the second-most of his career. "But deep down in our hearts we knew we were going to win this for the coach."
Lewis finished the season completing 123-of-249 passes for 1,819 yards and 13 touchdowns. The Shadyside, Ohio, native came into the game completing just 48.4 percent of his passes.
Mississippi's All-American defensive back Ken Lucas was supposed to shut down West Virginia receivers Ivy and Brown, but the duo combined to torch the Rebel secondary for 12 catches for 255 yards and four touchdowns.
"I'm sure they played with great emotion, but they executed extremely well, about as well as any offensive team I've seen in quite some time," Cutcliffe said. "That's a tribute to Don Nehlen and his staff. Those guys were toned up and ready to go."
Brown completed the season with 51 receptions for 873 yards and three touchdowns, while Ivy caught 47 passes for 806 yards and seven scores. Ivy finished his Mountaineer career second in receiving yards with 2,412, while his 19 touchdown catches moves him past Cedric Thomas for second place as well.
Tailback Avon Cobourne complimented a lethal passing game by rushing for 125 yards on 27 carries. It was his 10th career 100-yard game.
Cobourne's effort pushes him over the 1,000-yard mark for the second straight season with 1,018 yards. Last year as a freshman, the Cherry Hill, N.J., native gained 1,131 yards in 10 games. He now shows 2,149 yards for his career, moving him into ninth place on the WVU career rushing chart.
Cobourne's Mississippi counterpart Deuce McAllister, projected by some as the top pick in the NFL draft, could manage just 22 yards on 13 carries. All told, Ole Miss could muster just 96 rushing yards on 31 carries for the game.
Mountaineer fullback Wes Ours got things started with a 40-yard touchdown pass from Lewis with 9:27 left in the first quarter.
After a Mississippi field goal, West Virginia scored another TD on its very next possession when Lewis found a wide-open Ivy for an 11-yard touchdown. On the play, Ivy made a nifty one-handed catch to extend his school-record consecutive pass catch streak to 40 games.
Ole Miss followed with another field goal before West Virginia scored its third touchdown on a 35-yard hookup from Lewis to Brown.
Brown and Lewis met again for West Virginia's fourth score of the first half on a 60-yard pass play with 3:59 left.
The Mountaineers put its fifth touchdown on the board after a Ricky Sherrod interception placed the ball deep in Rebel territory. Mountaineer fullback Wes Ours scored his second touchdown to give WVU an insurmountable, 35-9 halftime lead.
The Mountaineer scoring continued to start the second half when returner Sean Terry took the opening kickoff and raced 99 yards for a touchdown to give the Mountaineers a 42-9 lead. For Terry, it was his third kickoff return for a score this season.
The Mountaineers expanded the lead to 40 on a 10-yard TD pass from Lewis to Ivy, before Mississippi made its comeback by scoring the game's final 22 points.
"I wasn't really expecting a
comeback," backup quarterback Eli Manning said. "I was just trying to score
a couple of points."
Mississippi outgained West Virginia, 490-465, though most of those yards
came in the second half when the contest was already decided.
Nehlen finishes his career with a 202-128-8 overall record, including a 149-93-8 mark at West Virginia. The Mountaineers, 7-5, have won seven games in a season for the 13th time under Nehlen since 1980.
The Big East Conference is also 2-0 in bowl games after Boston College defeated Arizona State, 31-17 in the Aloha Bowl.
The Big East is also a perfect 3-0 in Music City Bowl games against the Southeastern Conference with West Virginia's win Thursday.
Mississippi finishes the season with a 7-5 overall record.
Scoring Summary
WV -- Ours 40 pass from Lewis (Rauh
kick)
UM -- Binkley 23 FG
WV -- Ivy 11 pass from Lewis (Rauh kick)
UM -- Binkley 47 FG
WV -- Brown 35 pass from Lewis (Rauh kick)
UM -- Binkley 26 FG
WV -- Brown 60 pass from Lewis (Rauh kick)
WV -- Ours 1 run (Rauh kick)
WV -- Terry 99 kickoff return (Rauh kick)
WV -- Ivy 10 pass from Lewis (Rauh kick)
UM -- Miller 7 run (Binkley kick)
UM -- Armstrong 23 pass from Manning (Binkley kick)
UM -- Rayford 18 pass from Manning (Binkley kick)
UM -- Sanford 16 pass from Manning (Manning pass for conversion)
Individual Statistics
Rushing -- WV: Cobourne 27-125, Ours 3-5, Brown 1-3, Lewis 2-minus 13, Total 33-120; UM: Gunn 8-34, Miller 7-32, McAllister 13-22, Sanford 3-8, Total 31-96.
Passing -- WV: Lewis 15-21-1-318-5; UM: Miller 16-31-2-221-0, Manning 12-20-1-167-3, Total 28-51-3-388-3.
Receiving -- WV: Brown 6-156, Ivy 6-99, Ours 2-47, Berton 1-16; UM: Collins 5-65, Rayford 2-61, Armstrong 3-59, Taylor 3-56, Heard 4-46, Sanford 3-28, Zeigler 2-23, McAllister 2-17, Tucker 1-12, Stackhouse 2-7, Total 29-388.
