Pitt
West Virginia
Panthers Drop West Virginia, 23-17
11/24/2001 12:00:00 AM | Football
Nov 24, 2001
By ALAN ROBINSON
AP Sports Writer
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. - Nick Lotz kicked two field goals in the fourth quarter on drives highlighted by Antonio Bryant's receiving and Pittsburgh won its fourth in a row, beating West Virginia 23-17 Saturday to end the Mountaineers' worst season since 1978.
Bryant, taunted before the game by West Virginia's top-ranked defensive secondary, had a 27-yard scoring catch among his 11 receptions for 186 yards as the Panthers (5-5, 4-3) got back to .500 after being 1-5 following a five-game losing streak.
The Panthers, which has now beaten West Virginia in consecutive seasons for the first time since 1986-87, will go to the Tangerine Bowl if they beat Alabama-Birmingham in a postponed game Saturday and Notre Dame loses one of its final three. Pitt played in the Insight.com Bowl a season ago.
West Virginia finished 3-8 - and 1-6 in the Big East - in coach Rich Rodriguez's first season, its worst record since the Frank Cignetti-coached Mountaineers were 2-9 in 1978. Rodriguez already has had a worse record than predecessor Don Nehlen ever had in his 21 seasons in Morgantown, Nehlen's worst record was 4-7.
Brenden Rauh kicked a 23-yard field goal for West Virginia that tied it at 17 early in the third quarter. But Pittsburgh retook the lead on Lotz's 23-yarder with 14:51 remaining on a drive in which Bryant made three catches for 34 yards. Later, after West Virginia punted, Lotz added a 19-yarder following Bryant catches of 24 and 16 yards.
Before that, the Mountaineers rallied from a 10-0 deficit behind backup quarterback Rasheed Marshall after starter Brad Lewis broke a collarbone early in the game to take a 14-10 lead in the second quarter.
Marshall, a former Pittsburgh high school quarterback, ran 44 yards for a touchdown and found A.J. Nastasi on a 10-yard scoring pass play three plays after James Davis recovered a fumble by Pitt quarterback David Priestley.
But Pittsburgh, which had beaten West Virginia only three times in their previous 13 meetings, needed only three plays to retake the lead at 17-14. Priestley connected with R.J. English for 38 yards, with a 15-yard personal foul penalty added on, before finding Bryant two strides behind cornerback Lance Frazier in the end zone with 2:35 left before halftime. Bryant has six touchdown catches in his last three games.
Priestley was 17-of-29 for 269 yards against a West Virginia secondary that came into game allowing only 122 yards passing per game, the best in NCAA Division I-A. One of those Mountaineers defensive backs, Richard Bryant, said he didn't know much about Antonio Bryant - chosen as the nation's best receiver a year ago - and predicted he would be the better Bryant in the game.
Richard Bryant was barely noticed, although he was in coverage when Antonio Bryant made a 38-yard reception in the second quarter that led to the first of Lotz's three field goals, a 21-yarder that made it 10-0.
Pittsburgh drove to the West Virginia 1 in the final minute, but quarterback Rod Rutherford was stopped short of the goal line on fourth down with 18 seconds remaining. Marshall ended the game by throwing three consecutive incompletions.
