By John Antonik for MSNsportsNET.com
November 27, 1999

MORGANTOWN, W.VA. -- It's a safe bet that Pittsburgh coach Walt Harris has seen enough of West Virginia quarterback Marc Bulger.

The Pittsburgh native threw four touchdown passes and accumulated 331 yards to lead West Virginia to a resounding 52-21 win on a beautiful Saturday afternoon at Mountaineer Field.

"I guess he had a bad day compared to last year," joked West Virginia coach Don Nehlen. "He played a half of the East Carolina game healthy, and the Pittsburgh game healthy. You can see what he means to our team."

Bulger completed two long touchdown passes of 77 and 54 yards to Jerry Porter, and also found tight end Anthony Becht for a 34-yard touchdown, and flanker Carlos Osegueda for a five-yard score to cap a brilliant cap off a brilliant WVU career that ended with 25 school records.

"We obviously were not very good on defense and West Virginia and Bulger showed that," said Harris. "He (Bulger) got himself ready to play even though he was hurt."

In four games against Pitt, the 6'3", 210-pounder had a career in itself. Including a 409-yard, six-TD performance last year, Bulger completed 73-of-113 passes for 1,097 yards and 11 touchdowns.

Bulger wasn't the only star on a day when WVU piled up 623 total yards. Freshman Avon Cobourne established a Mountaineer Field record with 210 yards on 26 carries. The Cherry Hill, N.J., native scored on touchdown runs of 17, four and three yards. Cobourne's afternoon enabled him to establish a WVU freshman rushing record with 1,139 yards, besting Amos Zereoue's 1,035 yards produced in 1996

Cobourne's season total ranks sixth on the WVU single season rushing list, and extends West Virginia's streak of having a 1,000-yard rusher to four straight years

"I always thought Amos (Zereoue) was the complete package, and now I think Avon has become the complete package," said Nehlen. "He's a good little athlete."<

The tone for the afternoon was set on West Virginia's first scoring play on its second possession of the game

Bulger lofted a long pass downfield for a streaking Jerry Porter. The senior jumped up and snatched the football out of the hands of Pitt defender Demetrious Rich, and raced 77 yards for West Virginia's longest scoring play of the year. Porter finished the afternoon with three catches for 139 yards and two touchdowns.

"That was a big play for us," admitted Bulger. "I just threw it up there and he got it. If the guy would have intercepted it, I would have thought to myself here we go again."

Pitt answered with 4:46 left in the first period when Nick Goings blasted in from a yard out, but the Mountaineers reeled off four straight touchdowns to put the game out of reach.

West Virginia's maligned defense produced two turnovers and limited the Panthers to just 232 total yards, including 76 on the ground. One of those turnovers was Perlo Bastien's 13th career interception, placing him seventh on the WVU career interception list.

Quarterback John Turman had trouble operating all afternoon and finished the day completing just 13-of-31 passes for 156 yards. He was sacked five times and pressured on several other occasions.

The loss squashed Pittsburgh's bowl hopes after the Panthers upset Notre Dame two weeks ago to put them in a position to get six wins to qualify for a bowl game.

Instead the Panthers were handed another lopsided loss in a series that has been dominated by West Virginia since 1988. The Mountaineers are 8-2-1 during that stretch and have beaten the Panthers by more than 30 points five times. It's the second straight year West Virginia has scored more than 50 points against Pitt.

The Panthers still hold a healthy 56-33-3 all-time advantage in series play since the two teams began playing in 1895.

The West Virginia win avoided its worst season during the Nehlen era and the lowest winning total since posting a 2-9 record in 1978.

"Our kids are now in a better frame of mind for the winter," admitted Nehlen of today's victory. "This has been a tough season."

Pitt ends its year at 5-6.

Scoring Summary

WV - Porter 77 pass from Bulger (Ja Taylor kick)
Pitt - Goings 1 run (Lotz kick)
WV - Cobourne 17 run (Ja Taylor kick)
WV - Osegueda 8 pass from Bulger (Ja Taylor kick)
WV - Porter 54 pass from Bulger (Ja Taylor kick)
WV - Becht 34 pass from Bulger (Ja Taylor kick)
Pitt - Grim 7 pass from Turman (Lotz kick)
WV - Cobourne 4 run (Ja Taylor kick)
WV - Cobourne 3 run (Ja Taylor kick)
WV - FG Ja Taylor 26
Pitt - Goings 1 run (Lotz kick)

Individual Statistics