MORGANTOWN \u2013 Seven home games, including LSU and Pitt, a road contest at Maryland and a season ending ESPN Thursday night game at USF highlight the 2011 football schedule announced today by West Virginia University Director of Athletics Oliver Luck.<\/p>\n
\u201cI believe we have a very attractive and compelling schedule, including a visit from SEC powerhouse LSU,\u201d Luck said. \u201cWhile five of the first six games allows us to play a good portion of the home schedule in the warmer fall weather, it also provides for a very challenging final six games of the season with four road contests. Overall, I believe it\u2019s a schedule that will challenge our football team and our fans will enjoy.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Mountaineers open their schedule with five of the first six contests at home against Marshall (Sept. 3), Norfolk State (Sept. 10), LSU (Sept. 24), Bowling Green (Oct. 1) and Connecticut (Oct. 8). WVU travels to Maryland on Sept. 17.<\/p>\n
After the first open week on Oct. 15, West Virginia then faces four of the final six games on the road at Syracuse (Oct. 22), Rutgers (Oct. 29), Cincinnati (Nov. 12) and USF (Thurs., Dec. 1). The Mountaineers host Louisville on Nov. 15, and the annual Backyard Brawl will be played on Friday, Nov. 25 in Morgantown.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s exciting to have our schedule completed so that our fans can start planning for the fall,\u201d WVU football coach Bill Stewart said. \u201cThe schedule has a very strong mix of non-conference and BIG EAST opponents. We have a lot of work to do in the spring on both sides of the ball, and Sept. 3 will be here very quickly.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Bowling Green game will be designated as the Homecoming game on the WVU campus, while Louisville will be part of Mountaineer Week festivities.<\/p>\n
In WVU\u2019s non-conference schedule, the Mountaineers face teams from the Atlantic Coast Conference, Conference USA, Mid-American and the Southeastern Conference. This marks the sixth straight year that WVU has played a team from the SEC (seventh including the Sugar Bowl in 2005). Seven of WVU\u2019s 12 opponents played in bowl games last season.<\/p>\n
This will be the ninth straight year that the Mountaineers have played a Thursday night game.<\/p>\n
Day Date Opponent Time<\/p>\n
# – Homecoming<\/p>\n
^ – Mountaineer Day<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
MORGANTOWN \u2013 Seven home games, including LSU and Pitt, a road contest at Maryland and a season ending ESPN Thursday night game at USF highlight the 2011 football schedule announced today by West Virginia University Director of Athletics Oliver Luck. \u201cI believe we have a very attractive and compelling schedule, including a visit from SEC […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2935,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2933","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-college"],"yoast_head":"\n