Joneses Show Way for Missouri

TUCSON —  West Virginia couldn’t quite keep up with the Joneses in Saturday night’s Insight.com Bowl.

Quarterback Corby Jones rushed for three touchdowns and defensive back Julian Jones intercepted a pass and blocked a punt that led to a safety as No. 23-ranked Missouri defeated West Virginia, 34-31.

“We just did this for my dad and for the team,” said Corby Jones, whose father Curtis, a Missouri assistant coach, died of a heart attack in July.

Julian Jones, who also had 10 unassisted tackles and a 39-yard free kick return that helped set up a score, was named the game’s outstanding player.

“Julian played a fantastic game,” Missouri Coach Larry Smith said. “There he was thrown into a tough position, and he responded.”

The sophomore started at cornerback because senior Wade Perkins was suspended for the game for unspecified team rule violations.

“I was sad for Wade because I knew it would have been his last game,” Julian Jones said. “I tried to come in and do the things that he would have done for our team, because he is a big-time player.”

West Virginia’s Marc Bulger completed 34 of 51 passes, both records in this bowl game, for a school-record 429 yards and four second-half touchdowns that almost allowed the Mountaineers to overcome a 21-point deficit.

Bulger’s four touchdown passes tied a bowl record. His leading receiver, Sean Foreman, caught a bowl-record 11 passes for 189 yards.

Bulger’s nine-yard scoring pass to Amos Zereoue cut Missouri’s lead to 31-24 with 10:27 to play, and his one-yard touchdown pass to David Saunders made the score 34-31 with 2:11 to play.

But Missouri’s Dwayne Blakley recovered the onside kick attempt and the Tigers (8-4) ran out the clock.

West Virginia (8-4) lost its eighth consecutive bowl game, tying South Carolina’s NCAA Division I record. South Carolina’s streak ended with a victory over West Virginia in the 1995 Carquest Bowl.

“In the second half, our game plan was perfect,” Bulger said. “If we could have played like that in the first half--I think that we clearly were the better team--but we didn’t. And the streak continues.”

Corby Jones and Devin West, in their final collegiate games, led a 76-yard, 14-play fourth-quarter drive that consumed 6:43 before stalling at the West Virginia 1. Brian Long’s 18-yard field goal with 3:44 to go put the Tigers ahead, 34-24. A facemask personal foul penalty kept the drive going.

“That really, really put it to us,” West Virginia Coach Don Nehlen said. “But there’s not much I can say. We didn’t play very well early. We dug ourselves a hole.”

West, the No. 5 rusher in Division I-A, pounded West Virginia’s defense for 46 yards in 12 carries in the critical drive and finished with 125 yards in 31 attempts. Zereoue, the nation’s No. 6 rusher, managed only 32 yards in 22 carries.