Article Photos

MORGANTOWN - The eyes and "eers" of Mountaineer Nation figure to be divided this afternoon, as West Virginia University's two high-profile athletic programs will spend the first day of the new year basking in the national spotlight.

At 1 p.m., New Martinsville native Bill Stewart's 18th-ranked WVU football team will face Florida State and retiring coach Bobby Bowden in the Konica Minolta Gator Bowl in Jacksonville, Fla.

At 2:30 p.m., Bob Huggins' sixth-ranked basketball team will square off against No. 4 Purdue at Mackey Arena in West Lafayette, Ind.

Both games will be nationally televised, with the bowl game on CBS and the basketball game set for ESPN.

The football game against Florida State marks West Virginia's seventh - and likely last - appearance in the Gator Bowl, including the fourth in the past seven seasons. The Big East's 14-year affiliation with the Gator Bowl ends this year.

It's the third time the Mountaineers have met the Seminoles in the game. Florida State won both previous games, 31-12 in 1982 and 30-18 in 2005.

Though Florida State, at 6-6, looks to have had a very average season, those who rank such things concluded it played the eighth-toughest schedule in the country. West Virginia (9-3) ranked 40th on those same charts.

That's why Stewart is so quick to sound the alarms.

"I'm going to tell you right now, and all West Virginians everywhere, if the West Virginia University football team of 2009 thinks they are going up against a 6-6 bunch of five-hundred pansies, we are going to get whipped," Stewart said. "We are going to get whipped decisively, and we should get whipped. We are going to get our hats handed to us. I don't have to browbeat my football team, our football team, your football team, by saying, 'don't overlook them.'

"Our guys are smart enough ..."

Christian Ponder, Florida State's junior quarterback, suffered a season-ending shoulder injury against Clemson and has been replaced by redshirt freshman EJ Manuel, who has led his team to two victories in three starts.

Since West Virginia's last game, it has lost its associate head coach and recruiting coordinator, Doc Holliday, to Marshall University and two defensive starters, tackle Scooter Berry and bandit safety Nate Sowers, to ineligibility.

Starting for Berry will be Josh Taylor, a former walk-on, and in for Sowers will be Boogie Allen.

Allen has plenty of experience, having played 44 games in his Mountaineers career, while all of Taylor's playing time has come this season.

After the game, the Seminoles will say goodbye to Bowden, a former WVU coach, and welcome coach-in-waiting Jimbo Fisher, a Clarksburg native. Bowden is retiring after a 44-year career as a head coach that has seen him win 388 games, second-most all-time to Joe Paterno.

West Virginia is appearing in its eighth straight bowl game and has won four in a row.

Meanwhile, the entire college basketball world will be focused on the WVU-Purdue game, which matches two of the countries six remaining Division I unbeatens and a pair of coaches who love man-to-man defenses.

The Mountaineers (11-0) are coming of a last-second victory against Marquette on Tuesday on a 20-foot jumper by leading scorer Da'Sean Butler with 2.3 seconds left, while the Boilermakers (12-0) defeated Big Ten foe Iowa, 67-56, that same night.

Today's game will be the first meeting in 29 years between the two schools. Purdue leads the all-time series 4-0.

"No letup, there can't be any letup," West Virginia forward Kevin Jones said. "We know they're a top-5 team. They're also an undefeated team. So that will be a big game."

Purdue, which has won 17 of its last 18 games dating back to last season, features 6-foot-4 guard E'Twaun Moore, a 1,000-point scorer who averages a team-best 16.4 points per game; 6-8 forward Robbie Hummel (14.8 points, 6.9 rebounds) and 6-10 center JaJuan Johnson (13.8 points and 6.5 rebounds). Johnson has as many offensive rebounds as he does defensive this season.

Purdue's starters, on average, are two inches shorter than the group Huggins has been running out at the start of the last three games. In a similar situation Tuesday, Marquette's guards took advantage by driving the lane and kicking out to open shooters. The Golden Eagles hit 7 of 10 3-point attempts in the first half against the Mountaineers and forced West Virginia into 16 turnovers by game's end.

WVU's No. 6 ranking is the highest it's enjoyed since being ranked sixth on Feb. 23, 1982.

The New Year's day game for the Mountaineers is its first since 1949. The only other time the team played on Jan. 1 was in 1938.