Members of the Syracuse Orange appeared to believe that the West Virginia Mountaineers were faking injuries on defense to try to slow down their offense, and that accusation sparked a brief on-field scuffle during the first quarter of Friday’s game.
Syracuse speeding up the field, a West Virginia injury timeout halts it. Cuse players clearly think he’s faking and a mini-confrontation is quickly broken up.
— Niko Tamurian (@NikoTamurian) December 28, 2018
Many on Twitter, including a number of Syracuse fans, saw things the same way — as did a handful of fans from rival teams who faced the Mountaineers this season.
Hey look… A West Virginia player faking an injury when the opposing offense is driving. What a joke. They did this every 3rd play against Iowa State. #fakeinjury #unprofessional #WVU
— Chris Bellcock (@bellzisu) December 28, 2018
And West Virginia just faked an injury on Syracuse’s first drive. This should be fun!
— chris osgood (@orz_bftb) December 28, 2018
West Virginia does the “injury thing” every game against up tempo teams. Did it all year.
— Chad Straight (@ChStraight) December 28, 2018
West Virginia doing what they do best…..faking injuries on defense
— Matt Hillis (@M_Hillis13) December 28, 2018
The Orange are known as one of the quicker offenses in the NCAA, and they like to run a lot of plays. It’s not implausible that a rival team might think to adopt a tactic like that.
Faking injuries is not an accusation thrown around lightly, but it has been thrown around at times. It will be interesting to see if Dino Babers or his team decide to make anything of this after the game.
