(Foreword: Don’t forget Texts From Game Day. I’m bummed last week’s edition was done in by the Raymond James cell phone chaos, but I’m confident we can keep the ball rolling!)

Welcome to the Friday Feedback, which would like to thank Steve Kragthorpe. People wonder if Krags perhaps went over the line with some comments he made this week about his rumored job status as well as his opponent tomorrow.

The first one, I think, is hilarious. The second one? Well, it’s harmless. And needed. And maybe that’s the problem.

What happened to WVU v. Louisville? Imagine if he said that in 2007. What if Bob Petrino had said that? A hard hat would indeed be a necessity for the game … and likely not enough protection. The sad truth today is this game has no spice to it and even if Kragthorpe was trying to pepper it with some zingers, it didn’t really work.

This was once the highlight of the Big East season and an annual matchup the conference suits could gather around and say, “Hey, this is going to work out for us.” Now? “Geez, is that John Congemi?”

I know the teams aren’t going to be dynamos every year, but this has happened so fast. Obviously, there was 2006. Two years ago a Louisville player allegedly spit in Pat White’s face and Pat was pissed. Then Louisville more or less acted as if it didn’t happen while Pat begged to differ. A year later Pat set the NCAA career rushing record for quarterbacks — and went way out of character and openly taunted Louisville on one touchdown run.

Now WVU is nearly a three-touchdown favorite. One coach is fighting for his job and the other is fighting a restless fan base. The game is on the Big East Network and you’re possibly looking at a crowd under 55,000 tomorrow.

Nothing short of the Energizer bunny leading Louisville out on the field will immediately restore the fervor. “What if Louisville wins?” you say. So what? Three years ago, sure, that was a big deal because it kept WVU out of the national title picture. This year? I hardly think anyone will foster a disdain for the Cardinals if they keep WVU out of the Car Care Bowl.

Onto the Feedback. As always, comments appear as posted. In other words, hold yourself accountable! 

The thoughts of thousands, the words of one.

Mack said:

I guess in the world of sports promotion, which is exactly what these pieces are, this is the only thing to care about with this game because watchig bad versus mediocrity (and spending 100 bucks to do so, in the cold even!) just isn’t that appealing.

Yeah, and isn’t football much better on TV than it is live? If nothing else, Kragthorpe made this week a tad more interesting. I like the way the guy’s behaving. He’s not ignoring the extracurriculars and he’s tipping his cap to the opponent with the most well-intended sarcasm I’ve seen in quite some time.

overtheSEC said:

Our home field advantage is disappearing quickly. When we used to fall behind (and we did that often) the crowd would try to rally the team. Now it seems like the burden is more on the team to rally the crowd.
Who cares if our secondary gave up a boneheaded 80 yard TD to UConn? When you’re in the stands you make some noise and get behind your guys. The only time that you should ever boo your own team in college athletics is poor sportsmanship and maybe a complete lack of effort.
Kragthorpe knows he’s just a 10 point lead away from the boo-birds and the “here-we-go-again”s.

Interesting hypothesis there. Visiting teams are now of the mindset, “Hey, if we get up 10, their fans roll over on their team!” I wonder if that’s ever discussed. People always talk about how booing affects recruiting, but it has to inspire the opponent. Also, I’ll add a third condition to boo: The appearance of a mistake you’ve seen far too many times to ignore any longer.

thacker said:

Those who can make it to Mountaineer field don’t realize just how damn lucky you are.

As far as Louisville or as in anything, not much more dangerous and unpredictable than a person who believes, literally, that they have nothing to lose and combines that with a healthy dose of a fear of losing.

Oh. And today is “National to Hell with Grammar Day”.

He touched on a good point here. There are a lot of people who are in the stands because they can. There are many who aren’t because they cannot. An infusion of one at the expense of the other would help … but that’s another story for another day.  

Dave said:

I wish that WV would play with the “nothing to lose” attitude rather than the, “let’s get this so precise on every single play, you go left then right, I’ll come from the left and fake, maybe, or I’ll go forward, you fake going forward and go left, then right, then if you could bounce on a right foot and wave your left hand … everybody has 5 things to remember at the time and dependant on the snap and … damn, there goes another long pass.”

Someone here or elsewhere commented on injuries seeming to be higher this year. A big part of that is that we’re in every single game. When you have the occasion 60-10 blowout of UConn, you can give your backups reps and keep people safe. Instead, we’ve been in just about every game, so there has not been a lot of mop-up time to keep guys safely off the field.

Paralysis by analysis, as a basketball coach here used to say. Never mind he had the most detailed offense on the planet. He was onto something. Eventually you have to have the system down to a point where you just play and trust yourself to remember what you’ve been taught and read and react appropriately. Good point on the close nature of the games this year, too. The only time WVU mass-subbed was at Syracuse and Stewart waffled and put some starters back in because he didn’t like what the backups were doing. That leads to another point, though it doesn’t have anything to do with injuries. I thought it was a bad sign Jarrett Brown played the whole game against Liberty. I remain convinced the fact the backups didn’t play much at all meant something about this team.

Mack said:

This is a ridiculous argument. Cody Endres played a good game against WVU but his receivers couldn’t catch the ball. Any team with any semblance of a passing game who commits to it will rack up a ton of points.

The argument is WVU has a better chance against a pocket quarterback than a scrambler … and I don’t see how that’s ridiculous. Can Pike shred WVU? Yes. Can Stull intangible WVU? Yes. Can either dance around blitzes, sprint right, stop short and throw a first-down dart? Can either consistently break contain? I don’t think so. The Mountaineers have a lot to worry about the next few games because teams will pass on them, but they don’t have to worry about a mobile quarterback. Unless Collaros plays next Friday.

Dave said:

“That’s the point, though. WVU hasn’t seen a QB like Daniels in quite some time and won’t again until either the bowl or next year’s game against the Bulls.”

Mike,
Unless you think Daniels is better, our defense played against a much more elusive and better QB in our system the past 3 1/2 years, every day.

Whoa! He’s not better than Pat, but the first-team offense practically never goes against the first-team defense in practice during the season. Let’s suppose for a moment it does happen, though. First, the defense knows the offense and knows the quarterback. Second, this defense hasn’t seen Pat White this year. The whole “We practiced against Pat!” explanation isn’t worth much to me.

rekterx said:

Watching Daniels made me think, “This is how the fans of other teams felt when Pat White was our quarterback.”

I like our chances against Louisville and Rutgers. I also think that Cincy is beatable. But I think that Pitt is probably the most underrated team in the country and that they will come to Morgantown and put a butt kickin’ on the Mountaineers.

If we lose only to Pitt down the stretch I think we finish in second ahead of Cincy who will have been beaten by both Pitt and WVU. And I like UCONN, if not Rutgers, to give USF their third conference loss.

While the loss to USF was very disheartening, the outpouring of hatred toward Bill Stewart on certain chatboards does not speak very well of many WVU fans. I do not think that Stew has proven he is “not” the man for the job.

Reed Williams Tuesday night: “We watched Pat kill teams for how long? That was basically what happened to us.” The rest of the season shapes up to be quite strange. I don’t think people would be surprised to see 2-2 … or 4-0. Louisville shouldn’t — shouldn’t — be a problem. Start there and see how things look here and elsewhere Sunday morning. A lot can change.

HailDubVee said;

…..I really think if you stop sPitt running game then you can contain and stop Stull but like the past two sPitt loses, Wvu could not stop the run just look at what McCoy did agaisnt WVU..gotta shut the run down to beat pitt and WVU can stop the run if the defense decides to tackle!..I really think Cincy will lose to either WVU or to Pitt…..if WVU can force some early Cincy tunrovers and convert them to touchdowns then they will win but Cincy has only like 5 turnovers all year (NO LOST FUMBLES) so we shall see….by the way do they still serve beer at Nippert? i was there back in 2002 and it was total craziness with WVU fans being able to drink! haha

They still serve beer there. It’s the sneakiest facility in the Big East. The stadium shows its age, but I like the fact it’s in the middle of campus and sunken into the ground. It’s surprisingly loud, too, and that probably has a lot to do with the beer.

thacker said:

Williams’ pain may be with him for the rest of his life. I hope it reminds him, when it gets intense, that ‘all go and no quit’ always carries a price … that the price is worth every moment.

I think Reed would probably agree with that on all accounts. He seems to be in a pretty good mood about this, relatively speaking. He’s determined to maximize his final five games … which is where it gets sad. The kid was a NFL prospect at the beginning of last year. It’s a brutal life that asks a lot of you and rarely ever reciprocates appropriately.

EER96 said:

It is easy to see that Reed Williams is injured and has played through a lot of pain. There was a play inthe USF game where he broke through to rush the QB and couldn’t raise his hands above his shoulders – if he physically could have, he would have easily batted the pass down or deflected it. Thank you Mike Barwis for wrecking Reed’s career…

Shoulders are like knees in football. Once they go on a player, the game speeds up and he slows down. That’s a pretty good illustration of how it plays out on the field. If you can’t move your arms quickly or adequately, it also becomes really difficult to defend yourself. That said, no one’s going to be smarter about this than Reed.

rekterx said:

There shouldn’t be any doubt that some college football players “over develop” their bodies. They place strains on their body that is beyond what their individual God given physical frame can truly endure. In Reed Williams I believe you are looking at Exhibit A.

The guy has been the classic overachiever. Good, but not great, athlete. Smart. Highly motivated. He has a nose for what is unfolding on the football field. But the guy is now going to walk around the rest of his life with two bad shoulders because he probably went a little too far in the weight room.

The irony of the whole thing is that Rod and Barwis, those who pushed him beyond his limits, weren’t around for his most significant performance: The Fiesta Bowl.

There’s a beauty in that irony, yes? Remember, too, that Stewart was the guy who recruited Williams.

ccteam said:

Wish things were different for him. As for the Mountaineers, it isn’t much of a mystery as to why the defense isn’t as good as expected. They have lost their two best players and their leaders (Williams and Berry). Not too many teams could make up for that.

They do miss Berry — who, believe it or not, might play tomorrow! — as well as Reed, but I also thin they miss M0rtty Ivy and Ellis Lankster and even specialists like Johnny Holmes. I can’t believe I’m saying this, either, but they’ve lacked a little Quinton Andrews at times, too, though I’d guess Stewart is OK with that. Rank all the explanations and you’re going to find one that separates itself from the others. WVU has given up a ridiculously large number of big plays. It contributes to everything — total defense, scoring defense, red zone defense, so on and so forth.

Homer said:

How many times does USF have to beat WVU before the Mountaineer players come into the game fired up and taking the opponent seriously?

If it hasn’t happened already …

Karl said:

Maybe we’re looking at this wrong, Homer. I’m beginning to wonder if maybe it’s USF who has the better athletes, and it’s been they who’ve failed to come out fired up against Big East teams. Except us, because we have some status nationally.

We can dissect this all day long, but the truth is simple — our guys weren’t good enough to block their guys. Our linemen got taken to school by their ends. It affected everything in our offense. The line was collapsing every play, and they didn’t even need to blitz.

That’s a pretty succinct and accurate explanation, as it has been in two of the past three years. Remember, it was snowing in Morgantown last year and USF had a first-and-10 at the WVU 14-yard line on its final possession. The Mountaineers won, 13-7, but did almost nothing after scoring on their first possession. Sounds familiar, right? Every year, USF is the worst matchup in the Big East for WVU because it basically has receivers and running backs playing cornerback and linebacker and defensive end — skilled athletes who can tackle WVU’s skilled athletes in space. The essence of WVU’s offense is to win those one-on-one battles. If WVU can’t block them and can’t outmaneuver them, WVU can’t win. 

Mack said:

I guess it would be easier to understand a coach who questions the officiating if that coach was doing his own job really well. Bill Stewart should look in the mirror at his own decisions – which were more than just questionable errors, but rose to the level of being flat out wrong – before saying that a borderline TD/safety had anything to do with his loss.

How about clock mismanagement, punting from the 33, blitzing a qb that you can’t tackle, watching the offense and your quarterback get progressively worse as the season goes on, etc.?

Stewart is a nice guy, but He has earned the nickname Welcome-To-Wal-Mart Stew.

Clock management, and specifically the use of timeouts, isn’t just a Stewart problem, but it blows my mind. USF had a first-and-10 at WVU’s 26 with 1:58 to go before halftime. The Bulls gained 17 more yards on that drive and kicked a field goal, but WVU got the ball back with 23 seconds left … and three timeouts. Then they tried to move the ball and use timeouts to set up a scoring opportunity. Personally, I’d rather have some more time and one or two fewer timeouts to work with in that situation. Blitzing seemed like a good idea — it’s what WVU’s done to rattle QBs — and a lot of them got into the backfield, which was a goal. Daniels had made some bad decisions when pressured in previous games. So WVU was getting pressure on a kid who makes errors. Trouble was, he evaded the pressure and managed to make almost no mistakes. WVU blitzed much less in the second half. As for the punt, I at least understand the idea, but the defense wasn’t working and it allowed a fourth-down and a third-down conversion after the bad punt. There were other issues at play in that situation.

Foul Shot said:

One other thing, if everyone is going the throw against us, should we not try to develop a pass rusher so we can get some heat on the QB without having to bring LBs and Corners?
Same thing every game, the opposing QB has about 4 seconds to make a throw unless we bring extra guys, which frees up the receivers.

Eh, they’ve been effective with their blitzes this season. Friday was just a bad, bad game. I think WVU sometimes brings pressure to help the secondary — the QB doesn’t have time to find a receiver or a breakdown. The good thing about the 3-3-5 is there are theoretically eight blitzing possibilities and you can’t have more than five receiving possibilities from the offense. Say WVU blitzes three against a five-wide set. It’s five-on-six up front in WVU’s favor. The trouble is with plays when a generic rush doesn’t get there. Very few corners can cover for five or six seconds. Also worth mentioning, WVU was hoping Tevita Finau couldhelp with the pass rush this season.

Jeff in Akron said:

I agree, there are holes on this team. On both sides of the ball. The players that should be providing depth this year would be from the 2007-08 recruiting class. Doc did a good job salvaging that recruiting class. He simply came in too late.

The breakdown of WVU players by class are as follows, Sr. 21, Jr. 22, So. 23, Fr. 51, as compiled by ESPN. Comparing those numbers to other teams in the top twenty, WVU’s JR. and Sr. numbers are just slightly low. WVU’s So. number is low, and the Fr. number is high. For the record Cincy by class 18,16,33,43. Pitt by class 20,15,23,40. Florida’s numbers 19, 34, 20, 38. Texas’ numbers 19, 24, 23, 45.

What I extrapolate, (another word that’s nice to use), from all that is WVU was a young team to start the season. But no younger than Cincy or Pitt. Further, numbers are only slightly different than those from the current #1 and #2 BCS teams. Everyone is welcome to form their own opinion.

In essence, Oll Stew and Co. will be playing with their players at the start of next year. Although, the 07-08 class deserves an asterisk. Oll Stew and his staff must look for the 09-10 recruting class for depth. There are players on the roster that will certainly see time next year, that do not this year. As evidenced by the numbers.

The 2010 WVU football team will define Oll Stew and Co. He’ll be three years into his tenure. Fair or not, WVU needs to win next year for the current coaching staff to stay.

I disagree that WVU will go 1-3 the rest of the way. But, 2-2 is probably very possible.

Nothing to add. I just didn’t want to overlook Jeff’s work and contribution here.

JP said:

I could successfully coach an offense against our defense. Just get a receiver between the linebackers and the safeties and wing it. Works every time.

/Searching for counter … finds nothing.

Bill said:

Why in the world would a good coach like Gruden go to coach at a wimpy program like Loserville? Think of all the other higher profile options he has…..like WVU! Anyone? Anyone? I keeeed I keeed!

Heyoh! I have two theories, one of which I’ll let someone else get into below. The other is Louisville isn’t stupid. It’s actually a masterfully organized and operated athletic department. If they float a rumor about Gruden and that accompanies all the other good things people generally believe to be true about the school, then a job that doesn’t look very appealing suddenly has some shine to it. “Hey, if Gruden’s thinking about it, it must be a good one.” The risk? Gruden might want the job.

Karl said:

I think the Louisville job could be a plum. Well-monied program, nice facilities, good place to live, no looney fan expectations, and being a Big East team, there’s a realistic path to a BCS bowl every year. The biggest drawback is that Kragthorpe has left the cupboard pretty bare, but it’s not Syracuse bare.

Kragthorpe turned out to be a disaster, which really surprises me. Louisville desparately needs a home run hire after the season. They landed Pitino for hoops, so it can be done.

This is the other point. It’s not a bad gig.

Jeff in Akron said:

As I was typing my previous post, I noted the headline in Prep Sports, “Wasonga carrying Big Reds to playoffs”. So I read the story. Apparently, the game between Man and Buffalo was delayed a day because the game officials drove to the wrong city.

Someone needs to phone the Big East, I found some officiating candidates. They would be a perfect fit.

Really, one of the best stories of the year.

rekterx said:

Uh … Mike … Pitt is the best team in the league.

I like the Panthers. A lot. I’m not yet convinced they’re better than Cincinnati, though. The Bearcats had a better non-conference schedule and went through unbeaten. Pitt, which has Notre Dame next week, collapsed against a so-so N.C. State. I also think Cincinnati’s big-picture progress was stonewalled by Pike’s injury … and yet Collaros keeps them going. Now, in Pitt’s favor, they’re probably the most improved team within the season. Their secondary is strong again and they’re coming back and/or putting games away in the fourth quarter, which was an issue. Add the fact they’re great on the road and, yes, this may very well be the best team in the league. Just not yet by my estimation. 

Bill said:

Casazza – I’m still waiting for comments from you regarding Kilici getting suspended 20 games this season. What’s the scoop man!?!?!

The scoop is one of manure. Kilicli is from Turkey where there are no high school teams. The kid needs to play basketball, but the only option is a club team. One of his teammates was a professional, which violates an NCAA rule governing amateurism. Apparently that pro was playing in a higher division, but was dropped down to Kilicli’s team (Read: Kilicli joined a team without any pros and could do nothing about one being added to the roster). The NCAA doles out penalties on a game-for-game basis and I believe Kilicli played 11 games with the professional. The other nine toward the suspension — or whatever the total is — are for accepting benefits from the club. Here’s where I get miffed: Kentucky’s John Wall was playing AAU ball for an agent. The NCAA investigated to see if Wall accepted benefits. Wall is suspended for two games and has to pay back $800 in money spent on his unofficial visits two years ago. I’m actually beyond stunned. I’m disappointed. Kilicli was turning into WVU’s best low-post scorer on a team that doesn’t really have one and values easy scored near the basket. He’s skilled with both hands and would have made an impact this season. Now he has to wait until February. Could WVU redshirt him? Sure, but he’d still have to sit out 20 games next season.

jjefboc said:

Tell Kragthorpe to hook up with Mark May. They can combine their batteries and nickles and buy a transistor radio.

What of the frozen fruit?

Karl said:

Sounds like Kragthorpe is getting bored of batteries. Maybe it’s time to treat him to that rarest of Morgantown delicacies, the trash can to the head.

What I’ve always though was underplayed about that incident was the presence of an unsecured trash can in the bleachers. Who thought that was a good idea? “No, Stan. Put the trash can right there. The drunks will surely dispose of their cups and wrappers afterward and we’ll simply remove the bags, tie the knots and be done with the stadium cleanup in about 45 minutes. Truuuust me.”

Kragsupporter:

Roopoo is right. I was at the Louisville/WV game in Morgantown 2 years ago and there were no batteries being thrown. I am a good friend of Steve’s – and proud to say it! – and he’s just doing what he can to keep things light for himself and for his players.

Thanks for stopping in. Could you tell Steve we said hello? Better yet, could he drop by and leave a comment? I think that’d be a gold star moment for the blog.

r said:

I do like 12 o’clock nooners.

Enjoy the weekend!