ORLANDO, FLA. West Virginia's Harris will be at home at UCF
Central Florida's George O'Leary makes his return to coaching.
ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) -- A week after a record-setting performance, West Virginia running back Kay-Jay Harris will try to put on another show playing close to home.
The 10th-ranked Mountaineers play at Central Florida tonight, not far from where Harris attended high school in Tampa.
"The Citrus Bowl is 30 miles away from my house. I really want to give my home crowd something to cheer about," he said. "They are going to expect something big from me, especially after [last] week."
Recent output
Harris ran for 337 yards and four touchdowns in the season-opening rout of East Carolina, shattering single-game rushing records for the school and Big East. He also set school bests for yards in a quarter (168) and half (223).
He's not promising a repeat performance, but he's not ruling out it out, either.
"That night was one night," said Harris, whose previous career-high was 78 yards, also against East Carolina. "You never know what's going to happen. If things start rolling, the offense is clicking, there's no telling what could happen."
Added coach Rich Rodriguez: "East Carolina's struggled against the run, but it's still hard to get that many yards if your back's not hot. And he was hot that night. Hopefully, he can get hot again sometime soon."
The word's out
Now that Harris has jumped from obscurity, the Mountaineers believe it won't be long until opponents make him their defensive focus.
"Depending on what happens on the ground, the pass attack is going to be big," said quarterback Rasheed Marshall, 6-of-15 for 143 yards and a TD against the Pirates, but with two interceptions. "Central Florida knows we are going to try to run on them. If they stop that, what's going to be our answer? Our receivers and quarterbacks need to be ready for this weekend."
While Harris celebrates a homecoming, across the field will be a man rejoicing in his long-awaited return to college coaching.
George O'Leary missed UCF's opener at Wisconsin to attend his mother's funeral. That added a week's delay to the two-year exile he endured after Notre Dame fired him for lies on his resume.
"I thought that we went out, and we had opportunities to get some things done that we didn't," O'Leary said of the 34-6 loss to the Badgers.
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