Long wait before kickoff, so here’s an impromptu Friday Feedback, Saturday style. I felt compelled this week. The input was too good to overlook. I can’t even really offer Feedback for a lot of what was said. I mean, what can I say about this:

glibglub said:

Another LSU-WVU similarity is that Tiger fans spell “o” sounds e-a-u-x, whereas some of us have taken to spelling “u” sounds E-u.

Geaux figEure.

I can’t beat that. Nor will I try. Instead, onto the Feedback. As always, comments appear as posted. In other words, use your head.

rekterx said:

Mike … I guess it makes a good story. None of us really know all of the details, do we? And its always possible that Stew is taking a more measured response than he has in the past.

I think articles like Hertzel’s really only serve to stir up animosity amongst a bunch of people who do not know the inside story. So in that sense, Hertzell’s piece is really no different than gossip.

As I said, it makes for a good story in the paper.

There’s a line people see and blur all the time — and I mean this as no disrespect to you or your opinion, which I get and can agree with on many levels. However, it’s a story that must be covered. Must. Be. How it’s covered, sure, that can vary. But a lot of people have suggested we the media have made this out to be something bigger than it is. In my view, how people digest news develops a story. Someone saying, “You’re making a big deal out of this” would make me think that that someone has made it a big deal individually. And you know what else makes for a good story? The talk about how losing a game isn’t the end of the world and football and the program are about much more than wins and losses. Goes both ways. I’m not saying I disagree with what’s been done with regard to Hogan. I don’t really even know what’s been done, but I do think it’s an open topic and subject to discourse.

glibglub said:

Well, situations like these do warrant media scrutiny. It helps keeps coaches and their programs honest. Without such scrutiny, some coaches would really push the envelope. That’s part of the reason why we thankfully don’t see programs where players pile up some ludicrous numbers like 30 arrests in six years.

/urgent but indistinct whispers

Hold on, someone’s interrupting me.

/Florida? Really?

Never mind.

Right. And by the way, if I was in Stewart’s situation, I would have said Tuesday that Hogan was playing … because he’s playing. No way he’s allowed to practice and have a travel spot if he’s not playing. And if he does travel and doesn’t play, that does Hogan no good. It’s almost as if an example is being made of him at that point and I don’t think that’s the way this will go. Further, if he’s allowed to practice, travel and play, why not just start him?

Jeff Halliday said:

I’d say the kid gloves should come off when you try to defend Stewart’s approach to Hogan’s ’scenario.’

From afar, it’s obvious the major difference between these scenarios Stewart refers to is that one was during the ‘off-season’ and one was mid-season. [I know, Captain Obvious] But it is quite possible Stewart’s reaction to Sanders’ offenses in Feb. 2009 was POTENTIALLY grounded with football-related reasoning. Meaning Stewart was swift and harsh in order to set the tone for Spring Ball and for the summer ahead.

Sanders was reinstated in August, 6 months after his run-in. Stewart talked a bit of a tough game in the presser this past Tuesday about being the sole disciplinarian for Hogan and, less than four days later, the same player is on the sidelines in team activities.

That’s like being grounded by your parents, but being able to watch TV and play with your friends after school.

Stewart is certainly genuine in his care for the student-athletes, but to put Hogan on the sidelines this past weekend was a shockingly near-sighted decision. No one outside of that circle knows the facts of the evening, but the police report seems clear: the kid drank, got behind a wheel and drove a car the wrong way on a one-way street. No coach should condone that behavior & to place him back on the field with his teammates in public view on game day isn’t a great message.

I’m surprised Stewart didn’t take the Urban Meyer approach, get mad about it in front of the cameras & vow immediate change. That tends to be enough public push-back for boosters, fans and some media folks. While WVU isn’t even close to the perceived level of trouble at UF, it doesn’t take long to lose your grasp on a team. Meyer’s public self-lashing was a move to be accountable in the locker room and in recruits’ living rooms.

Stewart seems to be struggling as he attempts to be both bulldog and BFF to his players. He’s a good guy, but he can’t afford to be the nice guy in matters such as these.

That is of course unless he keeps winning…then all’s well that ends well.

Stewart suggested precedent was a factor in things. Sanders had a battery plea on his resume. Hogan took a leak in public. Neither is to be brushed aside, but one is more serious than the other, so maybe that tips the scales. Also, I don’t know what these guys are like in their normal walk and, hypothetically, Stewart could have banished Sanders for as long as he did because he didn’t want Sanders and whatever Stewart didn’t like about Sanders around the program. Perhaps the same concern doesn’t exist for Hogan. There are a lot of moving parts in this and, quite honestly, it has to be hard for Stewart to have them all working properly. He’s not dealing with an epidemic, though I think he should probably understand why people have invested in this story. And I think the way he’s handled himself while discussing it has been very appropriate.

The 25314 said:

I came to this conclusion following Torrey Smith’s second 60+ yard reception that Brandon has learned his lesson and he will be a better man and player for having served a one game suspension.

David Lockwood kind of disagreed with the fact Miller was free of culpability on the second TD, by the way. Safety didn’t help, but said the slant route was not covered adequately. And I watched that play a few times now: Great recognition and throw by the QB. It happens sometimes. Could have happened to Hogan.

JL said:

I feel like Stew is damned if he does, and damned if he doesn’t, so he might as well let Hogan play and increase the chance of a victory.

OK, but if Hogan plays, thereby increasing the chances his team might win, and WVU still loses, then what? Wait … you said damned if you do, damned if you don’t. My bad.

Parks said:

Still not sure you abandon Miller Saturday night. Doesn’t give the kid a hell of a lot of confidence does it? I think regardless we have to make sure that he and Jenkins are getting some time back there to get them used to the speed of the game. They eventually will be depended on.

Devil’s advocate: What if it happens again? Then his confidence is shot and his teamamtes have reason to worry. If it happens in a loss, compound matters. Truth be told, what happened against Maryland may be a great experience for him. Remember, it happened to Hogan at ECU in ’08. He got it going in the right direction. 

glibglub said:

I’m glad Jenkins’ scope went well. Sounds as if there were no Marshall med school products on hand, calling out Scalpel! Suction! Forceps! Retractor! to throw off the surgeon’s timing. 

… why, that’d be illegal.

Jeff in Akron said:

Far be it from me to pretend to know Morgantown like the back of my hand. While I did spend a considerable amount of time there in my formative years, my memory is “cloudy” at best.

If Hogan astually drove the wrong way down a one way street that the police station just happened to be on, he deserves a 4 game suspension on that alone.

I trust Bill Stewart and his handling of this situation. Should Stewart decide to play Hogan before the accepted USF game, rest assured he will have consulted Jock, and the rest of the team for that matter, on his decision long before he makes said decision public.

At some point Oll Stew must be given credit for something. The Mountaineer players seem to follow wherever Oll Stew leads, from where I sit, that’s good enough for me. They may be “kids” in the eyes of most people, and rightfully so. Still, for over a hundred young men to follow an individual, and place their undying trust in him, should speak volumes to the masses.

Unfortunately, it gets lost in translation.

There’s a good point in there: For all of Stewart’s so-called personality flaws, guys aren’t running away from WVU. I’ve seen no one bad mouth Stewart after the fact or bomb him in the media. There’s something to that. Heck, Quinton Andrews pretty much blamed himself when he had an opportunity to explain his departure.

Sam said:

I think the issue isn’t the play – I’d love to see that play again – but the timing. Also, describing Eu as being 2/8 really doesn’t acknowledge the fact that the offense in the second half seemed more tentative. It wasn’t the aggressive attack we’d shown during the entirety of the first half. The feeling was distinctly that the coaches knew how fast we could go in fifth gear and then wanted to figure out how fast we could go in second.

However, what we saw Saturday was a progression. Against Marshall, we got a quarter(ish) of hurry up offense. Saturday, we got two quarters. If we’d abandon all pretenses and go to hurry up all of the time, we’d be a ferocious offensive team because with our speed, the other team’s defense has no time to adjust, recover, react, etc.

Yeah, the offense was suspect in the third quarter and we’ve seen this already this season and I’m wondering if it is somewhat by design. I’ll say yes for now. I still think Maryland contributed by upping the pressure. As for the no-huddle, Stewart said his team can’t do it for an entire game. It’s for stretches, perhaps prolonged stretches.

overtheSEC said:

Go deep with Smith, you say, instead of a trick play?

Yes.

Well, when has that worked for WVU?

I’d ask you that about the double pass. Have we even tried going deep this year? I have a tough time thinking a hitch and go with a pump fake can’t deliver either the same big play, or at least to let Maryland know that they’d better start playing us a little softer.

Fair enough. And welcome to 2010 WVU football, where the deep pass is a trick play! It’s kind of true, isn’t it?

The 25314 said:

I strenuously object to Jeff Mullen’s philosophies in general, but I had no problem with that play call. However, the play call furthered the logic-defying pattern that whether Bill Stewart chooses to gamble or play conservative, the results seem to blow up in his face. Statistics would suggest the results would eventually even out over time, but, stunningly, this has not been the case. 

Know what bummed me out? Mullen didn’t like the call in retrospect and said there were other ways to achieve the same goal there.

Edge said:

Wasn’t that same play (without the double pass) ran the drive before and nearly picked off? The terps were ready for the screen pass.

Pretty much … and that first instance was really weird. How many bubble screens has WVU thrown this year? Not many, right? So why was Maryland sniffing? The second one, Jock took a much different, much more severe route into the backfield to catch the backward pass. I’m sitting way above the field, but I could tell something was on.

Homer said:

Brad Starks says sometimes it doesn’t matter how good the blocking is when you have a non-starting QB throwing the pass. I would prefer Geno to throw 50 times in a game rather than somebody else on the roster throw once. His 50 are going to be more accurate.

Put that way, there is no argument.

thacker said:

Is Ryan J Boyd healthy. Hell, no, but then neither is Bob Huggins. Does that change who and what they are? Another, Hell no.

Perhaps stereotypes are propagated more by immediate judgments of the individual who is subjected to stereotyped conclusions?

Perhaps acceptance of an individual based upon merit and regardless of superficial silliness does more to defeat stereotyping … simply because such acceptance is carried forward, again and again and from instance to instance.

It’s good to have you back, sir.

glibglub said:

RJB does the YMCA and is still standing.

Mark Dantonio calls a fake field goal, has a heart attack.

Discuss.

Mark Dantonio, in my observations of him, is not a patient man. I saw him at the Final Four in Indianapolis (very nice man, by the way) and he sat to eat sushi and left shortly after it became clear the service was going to be an issue.

The 25314 said:

I’m going to go ahead and assume “snipping of a part” and “joints so well put together” are medical terms and not lines from a 19th Century Marion County play.

When I read that texts from gameday was in peril, I instantantly imagined a scene similar to that in Charlie Steiner’s Y2K spot.

It was pretty similar in my house. But it’s back on. So text away.

Mack said:

“An anonymous minion — this person will get credit if this works out, otherwise I’m protecting this person right now — will try to conduct the Texts procedure in my stead.”

Since your wife wil be reading them, should we watch our language?

Have you met my wife? This has been a hilarious development, by the way. Said wife is stressed out about this. The responsibility is such that she’s staying sober for the game. That says a lot about the importance of TFGD.

Sam said:

I’m going to add that to my resume – “Joints are so well put together.” – even if it isn’t necessarily true.

The moment it was spoken, I knew that line was going to get some miles. Some time later Stewart said, “Oh, somebody here ask me about penalties later. I want to discuss that.” Heads couldn’t have turned faster.

wvu304 said:

I received praise similar to Lazear’s during my 5 years of college.

I dropped it on Bourbon Street last night. Went over very well.

hershy112 said:

I’ve said this before on this blog, but when is the charade going to end with people saying Pitt is a good team? As long as Wannstedt is there, it’s not going to happen. Take it from a Dolphins fan, he’s not a good coach.

Brian Bennett on the Big East blog on espn.com picked Sunseri over Geno before the season started. Think he is second guessing that?

I’d say he’s 22nd guessing that now. Not a pretty picture in Oakland.

Parks said:

On a side not, it was just announced we will play BYU at FedEx Field on 9.24.2016. Isn’t this what VT wanted? I think ole Ollie is really trying to make a point to a few, uhhum, certain schools. Maryland’s extension announced day of the MU game and now this. No one can complain about playing Div II schools, if we are beefing up the OOC schedule like this. I like it, I like it a lot.

I’m not sure about tonight, but WVU will win the tailgating title for that game. Guaranteed. Also, WVU, in the current structure, will almost always play its seven conference games, a FBS opponent, two FCS non-BCS league opponents and two FCS BCS league opponents.

Spatial Angel said:

Sleeping til noon has failed me many times…now, on to what really needs to be said…the media has totally dropped the ball re: handshake-gate…sorry Mike, this includes you…we the readers need in-depth reporting about Doc’s ‘book’…is it just a handshake book?…does it feature other postgame do’s and don’ts?…is Doc really as sensitive as Jim Brown?

You might be onto something here. I’ll forward this to Chuck McGill. It’s fodder for a good post on his blog.

Bill said:

Its funny – that guy obviously had had no idea that when he put that shirt on to go out last night, the number of people who would see that and get a kick out of it, based on a small pocket of EERS fans who frequent this blog.

EUphoria knows no boundaries.

Parks said:

So, after reading Colin’s Q&A today, is this last night when the drinks were plentiful, or this morning when the headaches were in full force?

The former. The latter never happened. Not to me, at least.

glibglub said:

OK, but what’s Robert Downey Jr. doing in the shot?

Where? Oh.

 p.i. reed said:

West Virginia gets to play a coach that had a major role in the history of the football program. If Les Miles goes to Michigan, Fraudriguez doesn’t. Fraudriguez probably goes somewhere else eventually, because he obviously had a wandering eye. But maybe he’s a little more focused for the Pitt game. Maybe West Virginia wins and goes to the BCS title game … instead of LSU. Maybe WVU beats Ohio State in a game that would have changed the whole landscape of power/recruiting/bragging rights in the greater West Virginia-Pennsylvania-Ohio megaplex. …. Thanks, Les Miles. … Sigh.

I’m surprised more wasn’t made of this this week, and I’m partly to blame. In my defense, I was investigating whether LSU will commemorate the ’07 title and publicly thank WVU.
/ducks

thacker said:

I don’t know about anyone else, but I wanna see one hell of a kicking game.

Not the one on Saturday evening. But the one on Sunday ‘Mourn’ … the clean-up/maintenance crew and a few lingering fans kicking the trash, kicking the seats, kicking the goal posts, kicking each other.

Yeah. The kicking game.

Enjoy the weekend!