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The Elks maintain the faith … and frosty cold PBR!
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Welcome to a place that just won’t engage in the “Fire Pete Carroll” chatter. Not this night! A quick tip of the cap to thacker who as an out-of-stater has to go to great lengths to catch games like tomorrow’s against Marshall. He kindly passed along a few tips to track the Mountaineers in a game that might be the beginning of the end not be available in your media market.

For a televised Internet stream broadcast of Saturday’s game, the only offerings that I can find are via ESPN360 via the following ISP broadband providers, a viewer must have one of the listed ISPs as their service
provider:  http://sports.espn.go.com/broadband/espn360/affList 

For a radio Internet stream broadcast, Marshall University via their own radio station, WMUL, provides live streams and will stream the game. http://www.marshall.edu/wmul/   A direct link for pregame starting at 2:00 PM EDT and for the 3:30 kickoff:  http://www.marshall.edu/wmul/live.asx

I’m not going to lie to you: I have no idea how else to watch a game than from a press box or on television. I know WVU suggests CBS Sportsline, but I’m told it’s less than reliable and not free. From time to time, Yahoo! will have an arrangement, but it’s not available this week. I actually think it has to do with the other team, though I could be wrong. Point is I’m not sure and I guess what I’m asking is how else can people watch the game if they’re out of the area? Let’s face it … a couple of WVU’s remaining games won’t be picked up for television.

Moving on, one more closer look: Coaching. I want to preface this properly. WVU is one double-pass away from a 2-1 record and people calling the O.C. gutsy instead of clueless. A really good play-call almost changed the fortunes of one game and one season. Bad coaching didn’t throw a poor pass or run a loose route. Devil’s advocate, I know, but also a razor’s edge.

Conversely, people will say it should have never come to that and the coaches should have found ways to avoid such a fourth-quarter predicament — never mind they nearly escaped. I can get with that. There should be better results in short yardages. Different play-calls, packages, personnel? Sure. But what about the penalties and the fumble and the other player errors? Believe me, they’re coached not to hold or cheap-shot and to maintain possession.

As for the clock management, sure, it looked bad and could have been handled better, but there was a plan. Again, it nearly worked but another failure on third-and-short ruined it. If they get that first down, it’s a different situation, I say. We can agree to disagree there, but I’m curious what Stewart’s sideline demeanor has to do with anything. A camera catches him closing his eyes and fussing with his headset and that turns him into Inspector Clouseau? Not buying it. It just makes him an easy target for an audience taking this all very hard.

What I’ve seen is a team that did not look prepared for what happened at ECU and admitted as much afterward. I think they were much more ready for Colorado and that enviroment and the impovements on defense and running the ball were good signs. You’ll get a better idea of how good these coaches are tomorrow.

Onto the Feedback. As always, comments appear as posted, though sometimes, it’s just a misunderstanding.

Birch said:

I met Beilein one time at a Coaches Caravan tournament. He was using the urinal next to me and when he was done, shook my hand without washing his hands. That will always be my lasting memory of him.

Touch me, it’s so easy to leave me, all alone with the memory, of my day in the john.

Jeff said:

I’ll never hold a grudge against Beilein. Our basketball program was A MESS when he came. It was a fun 5 year run with him and he left the program on solid ground for Huggs. As for Rodriguez, I don’t miss him a bit. He had a very mediocre run after the Sugar Bowl when you consider the talent he had and the schedule we played. Look it up.

The 180 on Beilein remains intriguing to me, though makes me wonder that if things continue at the current rate within the football program, will The Product be revered the same way?

oklahoma mountaineer said:

Coach Belein, in the public forum, always seemed to appreciate the school during his time @ WVU. I believe, in his mind, he sees himself in a better place — I’ve said it before on the blog– he has a much better chance of winning/contending for the Big 10 conference than he did for the Big East on a consistent basis.

Lesser conference, less schools, and a more suburban area….good spot, if he can recruit inner city Detroit kids to a non-playground offense.

I agree … and remember, it’s a league in which deliberate, low-scoring offenses can win.

Erinn said:

What a lovely image, Birch …

I love John Beilein. I won’t deny it. I appreciate his tenure at WVU and I appreciated the manner in which he exited WVU. Of course it hurt, but it made sense when the big picture (WVU politics) was examined. I can’t say the same for Rodriguez. He was part of the good ol’ boy network Beilein was never allowed to be a part of and he abused it to no end. Then he turned his back on it and badmouthed it. Where Beilein was an outsider and sometimes quirky, Rodriguez — the Golden Boy of West Virginia — could have had it all and was simply an ass (even though we all greedily enjoyed his W’s).

If you want a better image than that of Birch’s urinal memory, I like to remember Beilein’s man hug for Gansey in the “One Shining Moment” montage from the Elite Eight run.

I think what hurt the most about Beilein’s departure — and P-Rod’s as well, until he started acting the way he did — was that that it hurt so much and that no matter how much people wanted him/them to remain, there was nothing the people could do. They shelled out all that money for tickets and T-shirts and DVDs and road trips, so on and so forth, and were consistently proud and boisterous in support of the coach and the team and it didn’t mean a thing in the end. As for the image, Erinn, that’s a fine one to keep. What was so cool about that time was everyone has their own memory. Mine is of the sold-out crowd inside Madison Square Garden chanting “ACC” in the final seconds of WVU’s win against Boston College in the second round of the Big East Tournament. All of a sudden, WVU realized it was good and people were paying attention.

OB1 said:

WVU loses to MU = me showing up to the remaining home games with a bag on my head.

At least you’d show up.

overtheSEC said:

The wife and I are making the trip from Knoxville up to Morgantown for Saturday’s Coal Bowl (still a ridiculous name). I’m less concerned with a full stadium than I am a crowd that is more easily irritable. Will there be groans if we fail to convert on 3rd and 1? Will there be boos if a bubble screen goes for only 3 yards on a 3rd and 8? If we execute well all day, we never may have to find out.
We won’t be the only people in attendence that will only make it to one game this year. I’d hate to think that a rebuilding year combined with discontent fans may put enough doubt in a recruit’s mind to reconsider his verbal, but I imagine that players who have yet to commit may find a restless Mountaineer Field the reason to attend a different university.
This Marshall football game has become more and more like the Marshall basketball game in that we have nothing to gain by playing this game. Like you said Mike, if we win, so what, it’s Marshall. But if we lose to the team that SI picked to finish 115 out of 119 FBS schools, OB1 won’t be the only one

So am I going too far here by saying this is an enormous game? And if Marshall does win, does it say, “Well, it’s just WVU …” I need to hide.

Shannon said:

Who would’ve thought at the beginning of the season that Marshall would be a must-win not for Marshall, but for West Virginia? Not I.

I’ll hide right behind Shannon.

Vicki said:

The blundering turd vs Gomer in Mr. Roger’s neighborhood. After all of the years of poking self-proclaimed redneck fun at ourselves, using the “Toilet Bowl” title has finally come to fruition. The real collegiate version pilots Saturday in Morganberry. Maybe Barney will inadvertently lock them all in the “locker” rooms and spare any further embarassment.

Strong debut for Vicki.

Homer said:

I love it when the WVU fanbase breaks down into the two familiar camps — “Be glad for what we have!” v. Great Expectations. Gaining converts for either side won’t happen, and the debate won’t be resolved. Meanwhile, I will keep wondering what it takes for them to throw the ball down field like the other 118 teams in FBS.

Actually, I believe the governor can make it happen.

Beer Baron said:

Those who think Coach Stewart would be fired if he loses to Marshall, or the remainder of the schedule, have been smoking wacky weed. The University would not do that because you just do not do public business that way. A dismissal would come at the end of the season, and he would not be terminated. The administration would ask him to resign, and he’s a gentleman, so he would.
Now, that being said, let me tell all you whiny, fair-weather, second guessing “coaching experts” something.
ANYTIME you have a coaching change, a team will NOT be the same. ANYTIME you lose three key offensive players the caliber of Slaton, Schmitt and Renaud, a team will NOT be the same.
That’s before you look at the defensive team personnel losses.
Face it, it’s a rebuilding year with a great quarterback.
All the bullcrap about a national championship was just that…bullcrap.
So, support your coach and his team, or throw your tickets away and quit bitching.
I’ve been in the stands more than forty years. I’ve seen better teams; I’ve seen worse teams; I’ve seen better coaches; I’ve seen poorer ones.
It is what it is; take it or leave it, and quit complaining.

Well put and all the problems are put in their proper perspective. However, Stewart’s great appeal when he was hired was not that he led the team to the Fiesta Bowl victory or that he gave a hurting fan base a big hug. It was continuity and that he could organize the remaining parts and reload and keep the program at its current level while moving onward and upward. He knew who was there and what they could do and hired assistants he thought were good fits. I don’t mind the talk of building a program — that’s his job, after all — but there’s been way too much talk about who isn’t here and how that’s affected who is here. I think Stewart needs a Mike Gundy moment.

Gary said:

Hey, if you can hire a guy after one game you should be able to fire after one game.

One question: If WVU football was a stock today

Buy, Sell, or Hold???

Better question: Could the Fed save this team?

Karl said:

Jarrett Brown is going to play another position vs. Marshall. Just like Brantwon Bowser and Reid Williams were going to start in game 1 … I’ll believe it when I see it.

And by the way, is him playing even a good thing? How overrated is Jarrett Brown? He had one good game against Rutgers in 2006. The only two times he’s seen significant playing time since were last year against USF and Pitt — two of the most critical losses in WVU history. I’m not impressed.

Yeah, Stewart’s bating about .025 with his player predictions this season, so I’m not buying the JB stuff yet. As for No. 16, you can’t overlook any of those three games. He was tremendous against Rutgers with about 10 minutes notice, but he had no help against Pitt (true, he had a bad, bad fumble, but the play-calling was almost scandalous) or USF (snaps, drops, etc.). Here’s something: Super prep WR Logan Heastie plans to enroll in January and that’s apparently got super prep QB and Heastie pal Tajh Boyd trying to see if he can do the same. If Boyd gets here in January, lives in he weight room and goes through spring and summer practice, do we have a situation?

Homer said:

I believe nothing this failure of a coaching staff has to say until they beat a Division I-A aka FBS team.

Hey, 268 days and counting. (Try to) Enjoy the weekend!