TAMPA, Fla. (AP) -The telephone conversations between childhood buddies have become more pointed, with West Virginia’s Noel Devine and South Florida’s Quenton Washington boasting about what will happen when they meet again on the football field.
“He has his trash talking,” Devine said, “and I have my trash talking.”
It’s all in fun, of course, though the teams they play for are not particularly fond of each other. The Big East rivals meet for only the fifth time Friday night and, as usual, stakes are high. No. 20 West Virginia (6-1, 2-0) is trying to remain unbeaten in conference play, while South Florida (5-2, 1-2) is hoping to rebound from a pair of crushing losses.
“They have handled us pretty well in two of the last three outings,” West Virginia coach Bill Stewart said, recalling a Bulls’ upset in Morgantown in 2006 and another tough loss in Tampa two years ago.
both times.
“I hope we can take our A-game,” said Stewart, whose team prevailed 13-7 at home last December, “because we’re going to need it.”
South Florida is trying to regain the edge it had in rolling to a 5-0 start, including road victories over Florida State and Syracuse that helped the Bulls climb into the Top 25 for the first time this season.
Coach Jim Leavitt has watched his team get outscored 75-31 the past two weeks in a pair of lopsided losses to Cincinnati and Pittsburgh, the teams West Virginia is chasing in the Big East standings. The Bulls’ defense, ranked among the nation’s best through five games, yielded 887 yards to the Bearcats and Panthers.
Leavitt doesn’t have much of an explanation. The Bulls also struggled after fast starts the past two years.
“We are who we are,” Leavitt said, noting his team has hurt itself with turnovers, penalties and other mistakes.
“The bottom line for me is playing good football. I want to get back to playing good football,” Leavitt added. “If a team beats you, they beat you. But I want to play good football and give ourselves a chance.”
West Virginia is coming off a 28-24 win over Connecticut, which was playing its first game since the stabbing death of Huskies player Jasper Howard.
t was his fifth 100-yard performance of the season and moved him within 89 of topping 1,000 yards for the second straight year.
Devine is one of 24 players on West Virginia’s roster from the state of Florida. He and Washington attended North Fort Myers High School – about two hours south of Tampa – and have known each other since their youth football days.
“We’re both busy, but here and there I call him to see how he’s doing and check up on him. … We’ve been knowing each other since I first started playing when I was 12,” Devine said, recalling a conversation the friends had earlier this week.
“He knows how it goes. He played on the same team with me. We know what we’re both capable of doing. We’re just going to go out, play and have fun and compete against each other. We’re going to have a lot of people from home watching, so it’s exciting.”
Washington, South Florida’s starting cornerback, is looking forward to the meeting, too. He described the talk with Devine as “just catching up, nothing serious.”
“I did tell him this game was going to be different,” Washington said.
Devine, who’s averaging 130.3 yards rushing, said some family members planning to be at Raymond James Stadium for the nationally televised game will be watching him play for the Mountaineers in person for the first time.
He’ll keep an eye out for his old friend, too, but won’t seek out Washington before the kickoff.
“We’re friends. But when it comes down to ball, we ain’t friends on the field,” Devine said. “Afterwards.”
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