Gator Bowl is not first meeting for coaches

JACKSONVILLE - The Gator Bowl won't be the first coaching matchup between West Virginia's Rich Rodriguez and Georgia Tech's Chan Gailey.

The pair met when Rodriguez was the coach at NAIA Glenville State and lost to Gailey's Division I-AA Samford squad 20-14 in the 1993 season opener.

Glenville nearly pulled off the upset, driving deep into Samford territory, but couldn't score the clinching touchdown.

``I remember getting a check for $20,000. Minus the Greyhound bus expenses down and to stop at Subway sandwiches on the way down and back, we pocketed probably 15 grand, which was a big deal for us,'' Rodriguez said. ``So I remember getting the check ahead of time, because you always want to make sure you get the check before the game. And then I remember leading most of the game and losing in the last two minutes or something.

``I was really upset after the game that we thought we had a check and a win. We didn't get the win. Chan got us in the end there.''

Glenville advanced to the NAIA national championship game that year before losing to East Central, Okla., 49-35.

Rodriguez moved on to become offensive coordinator at Tulane and Clemson before taking over at West Virginia in 2001.

Gailey's Samford team went 5-6 in his only season there. He became wide receivers coach with the Pittsburgh Steelers in 1994 and 1995 and was instrumental in getting Glenville wide receiver Chris George on the Steelers' practice squad.

Gailey is best known as the Dallas Cowboys' head coach in 1988 and 1999. He's been at Georgia Tech since 2002 and lost to Wake Forest in the Atlantic Coast Conference championship game last month.

``Playing for the ACC championship in a tough league is a pretty good job by him,'' Rodriguez said.

Gailey noted Rodriguez used a run-and-shoot offense at Glenville and has an ``innovative'' version of the spread offense at West Virginia.

``What he has done is he's taken his personnel and put them in a position to be very successful,'' Gailey said. ``He hasn't let his ego get in the way of doing what's best for his team.''

Eric Wicks and Vaughn Rivers went to the same high school and have followed similar paths at West Virginia.

Both graduated from Pittsburgh's Perry Academy. Both are defensive backs. And both made key plays in triple overtime in their careers to preserve key wins.

Wicks tackled Louisville quarterback Brian Brohm on a 2-point conversion try to end a triple-overtime win over Louisville last season that propelled the Mountaineers to its first Bowl Championship Series berth.

On Dec. 2, Rivers broke up a 2-point conversion pass from Rutgers' Mike Teel to preserve the Mountaineers' 41-39 win that gave them a Gator Bowl berth.

``They are guys who came in a little bit under the radar,'' coach Rich Rodriguez said. ``There's pretty good football in the city league. Not a lot of guys have gone on Division I football, but the guys that have had pretty good success. Vaughn and Eric have had good careers here, and still got some plays to be made, I hope.''

Dan Mozes is known as the other All-American on West Virginia's offense.

With running back Steve Slaton getting most of the attention, Mozes, a senior, just keeps plugging along on the offensive line whether he gets noticed or not.

But it's been that way his entire career.

He started as a redshirt freshman at left guard, was moved to center a year ago and adapted quickly, even though the first two snaps in a game went over the quarterback's head.

``Last year I had to step up and play center when I was play left guard my whole career. And just being able to do something like that means more (for) team success because we're not worried about the individual accolades,'' he said.

He'll play in his final game Monday in the Gator Bowl.

``Dan has probably does as much as an offensive lineman as you could possibly do, leading our rushing attack and being a leader up front since his sophomore year,'' Rodriguez said. ``You've got to be an dominating player to be an All-American. But I think it's more than that. You've got to be a guy that leads a successful team. He's done that as well.''

The Gator Bowl won't be Rodriguez's final coaching job of the season. He's scheduled to coach in the Hula Bowl on Jan. 14. He's never been to Hawaii. Other coaches will be Fresno State's Pat Hill, Houston's Art Briles and Georgia's Mark Richt.

(Copyright 2006 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)