Welcome to the Friday Feedback, which does what it does and isn’t interested in showing people all the things it can’t do. You think about that. It must be basketball season!

I go into tonight’s exhibition/Jonnie West reunion special fully aware I’ll come out with nothing too relevant, but I want to get an eyeful. Bob Huggins had one of those “That doesn’t make any sense … except it makes total sense” statements yesterday. “We’re not as tall this year, but we are bigger.”

(3, 2, 1 …) WVU lacks the height and reach of Devin Ebanks to guard and rebound. Gone is the the vertical ability of Wellington Smith near the basket. The Mountaineers will miss Da’Sean Butler under the basket. He wasn’t really athletic or long or tall, but he did have a knack for finding the ball in crowds on offense and defense.

Stepping forward: 6-8, 260-pound Kevin Jones and Danny Jennings and 6-9, 270-pound Deniz Kilicli.

True, they all played last year, but the latter two will play far more this season. They’ve got wider, more massive bodies that Huggins hasn’t featured at WVU and I’m interested to see how they play and how the team plays around them. I can’t imagine, for example, the 1-3-1 will be as reliable, but I suppose that’s what exhibitions are for.

I’m also watching the situation in the backcourt and the stats for when Truck/Mazzulla play together, the new and improved John Flowers, freshman Kevin Noreen’s game and who has treadmill legs.

The Mountaineers have to get ready in a hurry because, while not filled with the big names of the past, the non-conference schedule is actually very tough. I wonder who has a better lineup of mid-major opponents than Oakland, Davidson,VMI, American, Robert Morris, Cleveland State, and Duquesne. Some good teams and players in that mix and people will expect WVU to stroll because, well, it’s WVU.

Did you forget about football? I think it’s a good week for an open week. There’s no result this week to support or take down the past two and, truth be told, people do get a little tired of talking about or listening to bad news. They need something new and, for that reason alone, Nov. 13 can’t come fast enough. Good week for those Mountaineers.

Onto the Feedback. As always, comments appear as posted. In other words, pay attention to detail … or not.

Yackety Sax said:

Miss me?

So glad you’re back.

glibglub said:

I’ve been out of commission for a few days. So… What’d I miss?

Hit me, Mr Hill!

Jeff in Akron said:

Is it me, or does the Fiesta Bowl seem like half a hundred years ago?

You’ll never walk alone.

Mack said:

Its easy to point to the fumbles but the problems are much worse than that. The biggest being that the offense (with all of its speed) has no big play capabilities. Our defense forces no turnovers but holds the other teams to 20 points or less. Why? Because they generally stop big plays. When you have no big plays, there are a million different ways to kill a drive. When your players have no discipline, fumbles are a big one.

WVU has 32 offensive plays of 20-plus yards this season and 16 are 30 yards or fewer. Twelve of the 32 came against Coastal Carolina and UNLV. These aren’t good numbers and certainly indicative of lack of game-changing ability, but also of a desire to even attempt these plays.

JL said:

Last night was a good night for Mountaineer football. There is a problem than cannot be ignored now.

My biggest issue with Stewart is that his teams don’t improve offensively. Can anyone say this team was better in game 8 than it was in game 1? And that doesn’t only go for this year, but any of his 3 years. In fact, they seem to get worse during the season. To me, that’s one of the hallmarks of a good coach, and I haven’t seen that. And I have no reason to believe that it’s going to change, unless, well, there’s change.

Good call … and, unfortunately, not a new concern.

Wayne said:

I have my tickets to Louisville and we will still go. I just hope that the game is not part of a downward spiral to close out the Stewart era. I have not had this little confidence in our coach since the Cignetti days came to an end. I always said that Stewart deserved 4 or 5 years to prove himself but I would like to retract that statement. It’s time for a change; I just hope that the defensive coaches don’t get lost in the shuffle.

This is an interesting topic: Would you endorse change if it was wholesale change? Ie, Casteel & Co. are not retained and the new guy gets to start anew.

AnxiousEER97 said: 

With respect to the fumbles and penalties, while it’s true that the coaches aren’t on the field, I attribute those problems to the coaches – why? These problems have existed all season and they remain uncorrected. You either coach up the players or find players who can take care of the ball. I think this team is extraordinarily undisciplined. And that’s a reflection of the coaching staff. Need more proof? Look at Stew on the sidelines. He doesn’t know whether he’s coming or going.

I get that, really, but at what point is the prolonged trouble a result of players just not listening and taking to coaching?

Drew said:

I’ll watch all and even go to the games when I’m able, but it’s just different when you know they’re going to, at the very best, play poorly.

Do we probably win last night without a couple of those turnovers? Yes. Is holding on to the ball going to fix this offense? No. We might not lose to UConn, but we’re still below average.

You make a very good point: Avoiding turnovers doesn’t repair all that’s gone wrong with the offense. Most of those fixes, I agree, must be made by coaches.

Homer said:

Even the last play call, 1st and goal at the 1, was terrible. A trap play at the goal line – your guard has to move a lot of ground in a quick amount of time against a packed, crowded D-line and the assignment might change depending on a stunt. TERRIBLE. STRAIGHT AHEAD BLOCK THERE. We cannot kick Stew back up to the Panhandle fast enough.

Yeah, I’m not one to criticize play calls, but that one invited more trouble than that situation required. Figure the defense is going to fire through the middle … and that happened. The LG got pushed back and bumped into the pulling RG and that caused Clarke to take an altered route to get the handoff, which he never secured.

thacker said:

Short story:

A little kid comes up to my door this afternoon wearing a WVU football helmet. I answer the door, see the kid and literally beam. I say to the kid, “WVU football fan for Halloween!” The kid says, “No, sir. This is my Mickey Mouse outfit.”

thacker doesn’t strike me as the kind of guy who’d hand out pennies. There are exceptions.

Dave said:

“On the next episode of Mythbusters … we’ll dive into the sports adage that defense wins championships … we’ll look at Jeff Mullen’s offense at WV, stacked with talent in a weak league.” Busted.

I’ve never seen an offense self-destruct so often as consistently as it has this year. Smith running more is not an answer. He doesn’t like to run, it’s so apparent the announcers commented on it.

First drive, a throw down the middle, a nice run,fast tempo … well, we have to obviously stop such action. Hardly any points beyond the first half in the last three games, either the Big East has the best secondaries in the entire country, we have *nobody* who can run down the field or Smith is just completely gunshy (I’m thinking it’s a combination with emphasis on #3).

I can’t really come up with an adequate correlation because we show signs of being really good. For whatever reason, we stop those things and … I’m not sure what they’re doing half the time. I got confused last night because we throw behind the line so many times, that I thought a few times that we gained nice yardage only to realize that we moved into 3rd and 16 or so. Not only do we not throw down the field, we struggle to maintain our own original line of scrimmage!

The best I could come up with is a guy who comes to a fight with a better weapon than the opponent and then after the first blows, he opts for something less, and something less, until he’s at a gun fight with a spoon.

I’ve tried to look at the bright side, but wow, last night was not a matter of jutting a jaw or bowing a back, like Stewart likes to say, it wasn’t a matter of players not executing or listening … they are just not put in positions to succeed.

And Smith, really, if he doesn’t want to throw downfield or run, we should put in Brunetti for a few series. I like Smith, but we seem to go four steps forward, 6 back, two forward, more than anything.

No question Eu’s had a rough time the past two games, and for the very reasons you highlight, but I wonder if more good is accomplished with Brunetti in the game. Face it, you’re most likely playing close games the rest of the way and a series is valuable. Do you risk it with a freshman getting his first real burn? I don’t entirely see how that helps. I guess the wild card here is you just don’t know … and what you don’t know may be better than what you do know.

thacker said:

Mike–

Any ideas or insight on how the performance of this season’s Big East football, more specifically WVU football, may impact next year’s television broadcast schedule [not too mention loss of revenue to that university if such drops]?

I think the ideas are pretty apparent. The league is settled in TV contracts through the 2012 football and 2012-13 basketball seasons, so, if anything, this terrible season for the league and the marquee football instituion comes at a *good* time. Per the terms of the contracts, the league has to be televised X number of times on networks in both sports. If it gets worse, use your imagination. It’s going to be accurate.

Mr. M said:

I used to joke about how we could make a LOT of teams look good. It’s not funny anymore.

State of affairs: Laughter no longer the best medicine.

overtheSEC said:

We’ve scored 34 total points in the first quarter in our three Big East games. We’ve gone on to score 13 points in quarters two through four and an overtime in those same games and have yet to score a point after the third quarter in Big East play.

Succinct explanation of what’s gone wrong.

oklahoma mountaineer said:

There are a lot of people, me included, who thought that Stew’s hiring was a reach…..he was hired in the heat of the moment, but also that he did not have a track record as a HC or even as a coordinator in his recent past.

Coaches are evaluated on wins and losses which probably gives them too much credit in good times and too much in bad times.  I believe that was true for the Product having #5 guiding his offense and solid hard nosed players on defense during the last 4 years of his run at WVU.  He really didn’t leave his brains in his house in Cheat Lake or run them through the shredder with the evidence….

That said, coaches are and should be evaluated on their ability to adapt to the situations as they occur.  Our defense has been doing that and our offense has not.  We have WAY to much talent at the offensive skill positions to go over 50 minutes without a touchdown.  Playcalling violates every maxim I have ever heard:  1) do something until they stop you; 2) run when you should pass and pass when you should run, etc.

Stew has an offensive background and this is still happening…..it’s incredible to me as to how this same thing happens again and again.

If you are a Senior at WVU this year, you went BCS bowl champion, bowl champion in a rebuilding year, bowl loser to a clearly inferior team, and now hoping to play in a  toilet bowl.

Quite a fall from the elite in such as short time.

The final part is what, if I were a fan, would begin to worry me. When is check-out time?

Dave said:

If I read everything correctly, aside from the UNLV game, we haven’t had a pass completed for more than 33 yards in a single game this year.

Smith pulling the ball down and running is not going to drop the secondary back. Throwing the ball behind the line is not going to loosen them up.
Fumbling 7 times is not going to drop them back.
Following penalties with negative yardage is not going to loosen them up.

I thought that between McCartney and Bailey, combined with Starks, we had some modicum of mid-deep threat in the passing game.

You are correct on the longest pass stat … and that 33-yard pass was a short pass to The Poet that he ran to the end zonn and then fumbled through the end zone. The receivers were — and remain — the unproven commodities, I think.

Wayne said:

Mike, do you have info on all the parking changes for basketball? I received an email indicating very limited public & ADA parking in the Coliseum lots for 20.00. This part of the new policy was not mentioned on Sportsline yesterday or in the DP today. Is it just me or is all the information not getting out to the public? Thanx

Here’s the release from WVU. People will LOVE this.

Spatial Angel said:

There was this curious exchange in the personals.

Free Press…P-Rod-all is forgiven, can we talk?-Mr. Lucky

Dominion Post…Mr. Lucky-see you in Toledo, but don’t call me P-Rod.-The World’s
Most Interesting Man.

No. Never happened. Never.

The Artist Formerly Known as EER96 said:

The frightening/disturbing/intriguing thing today is how many people on the message boards would love to see RR come back. Folks, it ain’t gonna happen.

Never. Never.

Bill said:

With as much of a level head as I can muster right now, I would agree that Stew isn’t going to be fired this week, or the next few weeks, no matter what happens. I wouldn’t be surprised if Beatty isn’t given play calling duties at some point to see what he is capable of.

I’m sure Ollie has been, and will continue to put significant thought into our football coaching future, and I’ll bet he already has identified at least five guys who he would formally interview. I wouldn’t be surprised if agents and boosters haven’t already been called.

I think HCBS needs to win out, including a bowl game, to guarantee him a coaching job next year.

Mike – this may not be the best time or venue to discuss this, but since I respect your opinion and your thoughtfulness, can we discuss theoretical head coaching and OC jobs at WVU? Just for fun??? Or at least assign a probability to some of the top guys out there?

In response to your question, sure … when Bill Stewart and/or Jeff Mullen is/are fired or resigns. Until then, I’m not going to engage in it because there’s nothing there. No offense, but it does complicate my position when I’m steering a vehicle that is talking about the replacements for two still-employed individuals.

Parks said:

Unless a donor offers the money, which I would say at least one would, we would owe him somewhere around 4 million to fire Stew. Don’t quote me on the exact amount, but I’m pretty sure it’s close. Then to bring in some of the names I keep floating around, it would take a hell of a lot more than $800k a year. I know everything is a mess right now, but assuming we win at least 3 of the next 4 and get to a bowl AND win, I think you will see Stew back next year with an entire new offensive staff. That is, of course, unless he does what he said he’d do when he was hired and walks away.

I’ll go down this road for the purpose of accuracy: The buyout is a prorated sum of $850K for each year remaining on the contract. Stewart is in the middle of the third year of a six-year deal.

Wayne said:

I believe that Stewart has a clause in his contract allowing termination without compensation if found guilty of a major NCAA infraction. I’m not saying that it would happen but……

Yes, it’s a standard part of any employment agreement. It’s also news to people without any imagination or with agendas they feel they must serve. It’s not going to be applicable. In a legal sense, to apply that clause your basis for firing the person has to be solely breaking NCAA rules. Bill Stewart is not … Tim Floyd. He’d be fired for performance, not misbehavior. Can it become part of a negotiation? Sure. It won’t wipe away the liquidated damages (buyout) clause, though.

oklahoma mountaineer said:

Stew’s press conference was beautiful — trotting out statistics to show that the offense is better this year and that we have better production.   The statistics that matter most are W-L; we are 5-3 with losses to three teams that we should beat.

Before everyone steps and says LSU was a “good loss” think of this.  No one sees that as a good loss if we change their uniforms to red, white, and blue and their name to USL.   They were putrid on offense and we gave them the points off turnovers and a long return.

I never agree on shaming a player on fumbling, but I remember the last time this happened….and many of you do too.  Exhibit 1:  Jason Colston…..fumbled one too many times and Product put him on the bench….permanently.

I don’t know that we should see that, but you work the crap out of them during practice and then the pine awaits if that does not fix it and quickly.

I thought a lot about Mr. Colson this week. I don’t think he was every given a fair shot, but, perhaps, there is a lesson within that chapter.

p.i. reed said:

It may be turning out that Rick Trickett was the biggest loss this program sustained in the last several years.

The line has never been the same. Never.

WVmaniac said:

http://www.herald-dispatch.com/sports/x1769795713/By-dissing-MU-WVU-AD-pressing-his-Luck

What’s your take on this, Mike?

Chuck’s had his fastball this season. That was an offspeed pitch that traveled 57 feet and scared the batter in the on-deck circle. I suppose I can see his point, but I suppose he could have adequately subbed “reportedly” by calling Mr. Luck. Also, and I apologize to those who this will offend, but I like Chuck. Never had a bad interaction with him … and we did work together for a while. He’s always been good to me, hasn’t included me in some of his crusades and every now and then drops a compliment in my head.

rekterx said:

OK Mike … we need a deciphering Jeff Casteel column. I’ll get it started:

“We’ve got to get in a situation where we make a play and turn the tide …”

This means that if we are going to win anymore games the defense is going to:
A) Stop the other team most of the time; B) Force the other team to fumble the ball deep in their own territory; and C) Actually score a touchdown or two.

Bingo?

The 25314 said:

Has Stew tried this?

You fumble the football,
and I will break my foot off
in your John Brown hindparts…
and then you will run a mile.

He has, to my knowledge, not tried that. Perhaps this is the problem?

The Artist Formerly Known as EER96 said:

How about this Mantra?:

“Fumble the ball again and I will choke you and your puppy with my bare hands on my way over to burn your d**n house down.”

If that doesn’t work, threaten them with having to ride beside Jeff Mullen on the way home from the next away game…

Either or.

hershy112 said:

I agree that it would be nice to have a turnover here and there, but giving up 13 points in regulation is doing MORE than enough to get the win.

The stats you pointed out that the offense hasn’t gone over 34 yards for a score after a turnover and they have only scored on half of the extra possessions is atrocious. But this is what I’ve come to expect out of our offense……atrocity.

There’s enough blame to go around. And around. The point was this defense — and not this writer — feels it can do more, and perhaps must do more, to help win games.

Jeff in Akron said:

Mike, there has to be a place for Uwem Etuk in the blog dictionary. How about when a WVU player scores a winning goal of anykind, for any team, they have just performed a Uwemnoggle? Okay, maybe that’s been used, but still…

Done.

Puntin’ Pugnetti said:

Mike, ask me about why I always get defensive and try to throw Michigan under the bus any chance I get by saying “a team up north”. Go ahead…ask me.

We’re coming up on the one-year anniversary, you know.

Drew said:

Did Pastilong/Garrison/Manchin have any clue of the true direction he wants toctake this program in?

Essentially Stew said we can’t run a spread without Pat White. What a ridiculous statement. He recruited Geno. We had Starks, Brown and Coley on the roster. They were made for the spread.

Is Tavon not a small spread style TB?

I don’t believe it’s in our best interest to run a pro style offense.

We will never have the OL of schools like Alabam, OSU or even Wisconsin or Iowa.

We have proven we can get speed from Florida and other places, though.

Again, I didn’t listen to the radio show so I’m hesitant to make any type of a statement, but the general opinion I’ve formed based on what I’ve read and been told is Stewart said he was losing the parts/didn’t have the parts in place to run a spread. If this is true — again, I’m taking in context only — it’s inconsistent with what Stewart has said in the past … which is why I’m suspicious that is what he said/meant. Stewart’s message has always been he had to change the offense because he did not want to be have an opponent stonewall one dimension. That’s a matter of philosophy, not personnel.

hershy112 said:

I have a few problems with all he said.

1. You can run a spread without a running style QB. Example: Tony Pike at Cincinnati. It’s just a different type of spread.

2. He said after the Syracuse game that the offense has an identity, then in this transcript implies that we don’t? So what is it Stew, yes or no?

3. He said that he wouldn’t run the I with 175 lbs backs yet Devine has had tremendous (heh) success out of it whey they aren’t in “1 yard to go” situations.

4. I think he somewhat backed himself into a corner. He refers to the 2 consecutive top 25 recruiting classes, yet he is still losing games like the last 2. Speaks volumes in my opinion.

Billy needs laryngitis at about 6:55 pm next Wednesday.

The Artist Formerly Known as EER96 said:

Is it me or does Oll’ Stew go for the stats faster than anybody in history. I don’t recall any other coach I have seen start the post-game news conference by rattling off stats. Especially when they are the losing coach. The only stats that matter are the final score of the game and your won-loss record. You can shove the rest of it…

I think some stats matter. I’m not sure the ones he produced do. Many of them are transparent. Also, we’re often reminded stats lie.

The 25314 said:

Stew is 2-1 against USF and 21-10 against everyone else. His predecessor “up north” who only went 1-2 against USF was 31-3 against everyone else the seasons he played USF. Stew was not hired to beat USF and lose to everyone else.

And why didn’t we just fold up shop and quit football when Stevie and Pat graduated? Apparently, they’re the only people who have ever walked the earth that can run the spread. Notwithstanding the fact that besides Pat White, WVU scored more points with Rasheed Marshall, Charles Hales, Adam Bednarik, Jarrett Brown, Pernell Williams and Jason Colson than they do now.

Actually, they wanted to stop football. Manchin intervened.

ccteam said:

Mike,
Just read your article on Stew’s press conference. Nice job. You put it all together logically and made it sound like an orderly, complete review of the season by Stew. Yet, your quotes above in this thread, “I tried to write the story”… “It wasn’t easy”… made it seem you weren’t so sure about Stew’s effort. I realize that the nature of press conferences makes it hard to put things in order because random questions from reporters create disjointedness. So it seems you were giving him the benefit of the doubt in the article. I guess you are right. The proof is going to be in whether he has any solutions.

I’m water, CC. Going with the flow. Stewart told the story. I relayed it to the readers. I sensed, though, people wouldn’t be happy with highlighting problems and not providing solutions — and that’s turned out to be true.

Foul Shot said:

Like Al Davis says, “Just Win Baby!”

Nothing is better.

The Artist Formerly Known as EER96 said:

Foul Shot:

It seems we have “A Commitment to Excrament” with the offensive play calling. I’m sorry, I couldn’t resist.

… except maybe that.

rekterx said:

An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. This team needed about a pound of prevention some time back. Now it needs a truckload of cure and I don’t see the truck coming down the road.

I love Stew. But he is just going to have to ride this out until the end. And we are too.

Enjoy the weekend!