(Just so we’re clear, Eu will have surgery in January and sooner rather than later on that same left foot he’s had cut on twice before. I’m told it’s not too serious — he wasn’t playing with a debilitating injury all year — and he could participate in spring practice this season the same as he did last season. That’s not full-go, which is obviously less than ideal with Dana Holgorsen arriving, but he’s not being ruled out, either).

You might want to do one of those things where you make a “V”  with your left hand and cover your eyes, but leave enough room to peek through your fingers. This is a rough, though revealing edition of Texts From Game Day.

I got a majority of them in and, in truth, every one sent by a number of people. And, per usual, it’s on point.

Tuesday night was a bad night for West Virginia University. A lot of the presumptions and the stereotypes, the rumblings and the stated facts were bolded, underlined and italicized by the performance.

Everything that was bad or curious about the Mountaineers in 2010, everything that was suspected in bowl “preparation” became a contributing factor to the 23-7 loss. At the front was the very ineffective offense which once more let down the defense.

You saw it. Everything that, at one point or another, came to define the season returned one last time. The game plan played right into the defense’s designs — ie, passing a lot, despite promises to run a lot, even though the WVU offense knew the N.C. State defense was absolutely going to attack a depleted offensive line with a mess of zone blitzes.

The line retreated a lot and the offense never once got in a rhythm. The longest drives in terms of plays and yards were eight plays and 64 yards. WVU managed eight plays twice. The 64-yard drive ended when half that yardage was submitted by the very nice touchdown pass from Geno Smith to Stedman Bailey.

Apart from that, the Mountaineers looked listless and really did squander a few opportunities. The turnover on downs after Jock’s 60-yard kickoff return in a 13-7 game was critical. The Mountaineers had first-and-10 at the Wolfpack 34-yard line and did nothing with it. That was enormous.

All that was missing from the script you’ve come to know was the rash of penalties.

There were bright spots, I suppose. The defense was again quite good. It was again put in a lot of bad spots and probably gave up more than it would have liked in those situations, but this was arguably the best offense it had encountered this season and the Wolfpack more or less plodded their way to 23 points. 

It’s not like WVU’s defense surrendered a variety of big plays.  

Gregg Pugnetti punted well. Bailey played a very good game. I don’t even think the secondary was all that bad despite the losses of Ea Smith and Brandon Hogan, though it did seem like N.C. State looked for Hogan’s replacements when it needed yards.

In the end, this was about plays and plans that didn’t work, an offense that compromised the entire team with turnovers and a defense that ultimately couldn’t do what it had done all season.

There’s a winner and a loser in all this and it’s the same person: Oliver Luck.

Mr. Luck made a very bold call to arrange this coaching situation. I don’t think you could have watched that game, risen from your couch, gone to the ice chest one last time and said, “What was he thinking?”

Dave Johnson and Jeff Mullen are very nice men. They just haven’t gotten things done at a satisfactory level here. And now they’re gone. Bill Stewart choreographed this whole thing and he is to be replaced, date definite.

Then again, Stewart is coming back next season. I do wonder about his future. Was Tuesday night his last bizarre game and standoffish press conference? Will he definitively be back?

If so, than Mr. Luck is perhaps in a predicament.

We know Stewart is supposed to be the coach next season, but we know contracts mean nothing. We know we haven’t seen the agreement he signed. We know everything about the plan that preceded the bowl was, to say the least, unusual. If even some of the things I’ve heard are true, it was beyond unusual. We know that wasn’t a fully prepared and fully focused team. That looks bad.

Maybe I and others are guilty of making too much out of the lack of practices and the re-scheduled walk-through. Or maybe it mattered. Maybe that could have been handled better. Whatever the case, there’s a lot to think about moving forward and there’s plenty of incentive, given everything we’ve witnessed the past three weeks, to believe nothing is certain.

Hey, Satan! Paying my dues playing in a rocking band. Hey, momma! Look at me. Text my way to the promised land …

My edits are [in brackets].

(6:30 PM):
Dear god Nike – please make it stop

(6:38 PM):
Somebody did remember to tell the o-line the game started at 630 right?

(6:39 PM):
I don’t miss Dave Johnson already.

(6:41 PM):
Drawback to the Pro Combat unis? Caridi, Wiggs, et al making really lame jokes about it looking like there is penalty flags all over the field

(6:49 PM):
That Rod Gilmore is in the booth tells me exactly where this bowl registers on the prestige meter.

(7:05 PM):
Games aren’t won in the first qtr but it really feels like we have to answer that td…

(7:11 PM):
If only there was a way to challenge a spot

(7:12 PM):
You’re Bill Stewart. You’ve been fired because you’re not capable as a coach. Don’t you challenge that on principle?

(7:17 PM):
Sidney Glover just killed James Washington. Good LORD!

(7:18 PM):
That Glover hit was so nasty it made even Bruce Irvin go “daaaaaaaamn!”

(7:23 PM):
“…and now they’re gonna fake it!”

(7:24 PM):
Tom O’Brien, you ain’t no Les Miles. You ain’t no Les Miles at all.

(7:25 PM):
Fake figgie? Methinks OBrien’s white hat must be too tight.

(7:28 PM):
That pass to Jock worked so well lets go to Alston twice in a row

(7:28 PM):
This is simply putrid

(7:28 PM):
I hate that [not at all masculine] sliding [stuff]. Ans [condemn] brunetti for leaving.

(7:30 PM):
Mullen!

(7:31 PM):
Wowwwwwww

(7:37 PM):
Luck just used “tremendous” to describe Holgorsen 3 times in a sideline interview.

(7:39 PM):
It’s clear Luck was your source based on his use of ‘tremendous’

(7:43 PM):
I like how Starks falls down to cover his inability to catch a ball.

(7:46 PM):
Stedmania!

(7:46 PM):
Stedman friggin Bailey! My god what a catch!!

(7:47 PM):
Broadcast shows Luck applauding on the sideline after the TD …. Not the coach.

(7:47 PM):
Is it just me or does Oliver Luck look a little like Rick Reilly?

(7:49 PM):
Bad feeling only way WVU scores is on big plays … And this isn’t a big play offense.

(7:51 PM):
Bruuuuuuuuuuuuce

(8:00 PM):
I think Geno has a low IQ.

(8:25 PM):
I’m literally sitting right in front of jeff mullen…I would like to yell things at him

(8:35 PM):
This is what happens when u dont practice

(8:43 PM):
Down-field!!!

(8:44 PM):
No one wastes a long KO return like WVU.

(8:45 PM):
Even Heather Bresch thinks WVU doesn’t deserve to win this one

(8:45 PM):
Tonight, the part of Jeff Mullen, will be played by Jeff Mullen

(8:45 PM):
Going for it on 4th and 10? [Bold] move…sign of a coach with nothing to lose.

(8:47 PM):
I’m switching to a Colonel Sanders bio on CNBC.

(8:49 PM):
Wow. The announcers are really down on our coaches.

(8:55 PM):
Our offense is offensive

(8:55 PM):
Yakety snaps!

(8:59 PM):
I hope Holgerson has Barry on the phone begging him not to leave

(9:00 PM):
Who knew this here bowl would be a “here’s why Mullen & Johnson are fired” commercial!

(9:01 PM):
Has stewart quit already?

(9:06 PM):
Boy are they owning us on 3rd down

(9:15 PM):
Gdansk! (I like to use Eastern European cities in leiu of expletives.)

(9:22 PM):
Maybe we’ll score TDs again next year. What is that old saying? Holgorsen springs eternal? Something like that.

(9:26 PM):
I just spilled beer all over me courtesy of that “tremendous pick” as the tv announcer called it. [Fiddlesticks].

(9:28 PM):
Brunetti is 2nd on the depth chart behind a guy who’s having surgery in the offseason AGAIN, and he’s still leaving? Baffling.

(9:31 PM):
Krakow

(9:32 PM):
Bratislava!

(9:33 PM):
I’m gonna need another bottle.

(9:36 PM):
Wow.

(9:37 PM):
So, uh, you said special teams didnt practice, right? It’s evident.

(9:40 PM):
I read the WVU Sports Blog with Mike Casazza this week. I read between the lines. I bet heavily on NC State. Thank you, sir.

(9:42 PM):
Bracket this. Son of a [gun]! This is the [goshdarn] Mountaineer team I remember being ashamed of when I was a kid.

(9:44 PM):
Same bad coaching, different game.

(9:44 PM):
De[flipping]saterous. Stew should walk.

(9:45 PM):
Stew should quit after this pathetic performance. Glad we didn’t use all of our practices to prepare, we obviously didn’t need them.

(9:45 PM):
Stewart supporters can choke on that 7 point bowl game

(9:46 PM):
I’d enjoy buying you a Nestea to get the full story for what went on this week. I thought there was more than you said. Now I know

(9:48 PM):
The game of football has passed Stewart by…and he doesn’t even know it!

(9:52 PM):
So, did luck already have the script written up for this, too?! Thank god for basketball season.

(9:52 PM):
5 [more] turnovers. 2 missed field goals. A whole lotta pissed off people.

(9:52 PM):
NC State gave up 25 points to a mediocre UNC team and 38 to maryland and we put up 7?? Kiss my [posterior] Stewart backers

(9:53 PM):
Ask coach “Gomer” if he thinks he did his job well tonight

(9:54 PM):
Retire Stewart or Oliver should retire him tomorrow

(10:05 PM):
It’s moments like this when you have to be wondering why you didn’t go into a noble profession such as sewage treatment

(10:20 PM):
If before the game I wrote how it would play out that’s pretty much exactly what I would’ve written

(10:27 PM):
Jeez…I hate to say this, but was the outcome that obvious? Nothing I read this week gave me much hope.

(10:38 PM):
Being a nice guy or a class act doesn’t make you good at your job. Safe landings Mullen_

(11:24 PM):
Geno looked like a [guy not suited to play football]….make sure that makes texts from gameday!

(12:47 AM):
Not sure 37 practices could have saved that goatscrew