By Bill Koch
The Cincinnati Enquirer

MORGANTOWN, W. Va. - West Virginia football coach Rich Rodriguez saw enough of Gino Guidugli last year at Nippert Stadium to know what the junior quarterback means to the University of Cincinnati football program.

Guidugli rallied UC from a 35-17 fourth-quarter deficit to within a missed field goal of a tie. He passed for 275 yards in that game, a 35-32 Mountaineer victory.

"I had a lot of respect for him before we played them and even more after," Rodriguez said. "Even if he's not having his best game, they are not out of it. To me, he is the key not only to their team, but to their whole program. It all revolves around Gino. They know that with him in there, they have a chance to win every game."

Like last year, Guidugli and the UC offense have had two weeks to prepare for West Virginia's stack defense. And after handing the ball so frequently to running backs Richard Hall and Derrick Eddington in the Bearcats' season-opening win over East Carolina, Guidugli is eager to display his passing ability in today's noon game at Mountaineer Field.

"That's what a quarterback does," Guidugli said. "So I'm looking forward to it."

If they're going to upset West Virginia (1-1), the Bearcats (1-0) will need a strong game from Guidugli and his crew of young, still untested receivers.

"These guys have a little bit of growing up to do," UC coach Rick Minter said of the Bearcats' receivers. "But the test is going to be this week right off the bat. The sledding is going to be a lot tougher on offense. The wide receiver corps has to step up and make some plays. I know Gino is ready to do what he needs to do, to light it up and do what he needs to do to win."

West Virginia held UC to 137 rushing yards last year.

"The defense they run, you don't face any other time all year," UC's Hall said. "They've got three linemen and three linebackers they stack over each other, and there's three safeties. The way they rotate it is pretty neat just to watch it. To play against it is going to be tough."

West Virginia will test UC's defense with a spread offense similar to UC's. Because the Bearcat defense practices against it all the time, it should be well prepared.

The problem for UC is that West Virginia quarterback Rasheed Marshall is more athletic than Guidugli, which is why Minter has used wide receivers Mike Daniels and George Murray, both former quarterbacks, on the scout team occasionally this week to give his defenders a taste of Marshall's ability.

West Virginia is expecting a crowd close to 60,000 for a game that's being billed as a preview of a new Big East Conference rivalry - assuming that UC moves from Conference USA to the Big East in the next few years.

The Bearcats are eager to experience the big-time atmosphere.

"It's going to be exciting," Hall said, "to be out there in front of 60,000. I didn't get to play that much against Ohio State (last year), so I didn't get the true feeling of it. I know it's going to be loud. We've got the silent count ready. I'm looking forward to it."

UC at West Virginia

Kickoff: Noon today, Mountaineer Field (63,500), Morgantown, W.Va.

Records: UC 1-0, West Virginia 1-1.

Radio: WCKY-AM (1360).

TV: Ch. 19. Series: West Virginia leads 11-0-1.

Line: West Virginia by 7.

What to watch: UC, which gained 361 yards rushing against East Carolina, won't find the ground yards so easy to come by this week, so expect quarterback Gino Guidugli to throw more than the 25 passes he attempted in the season opener.

UC	Team stats	WVa.
489.0	Offense avg.	427.5
361.0	Avg. by rush	261.5
128.0	Avg. by pass	166.0
203.0	Defense avg.	383.0
57.0	Avg. by rush	162.5
146.0	Avg. by pass	220.5
40.0	Avg. points for	32.5
3.0	Avg. pts. against	15.5

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E-mail bkoch@enquirer.com