Welcome to the Friday Feedback, which is heading out of town for a festive occasion and will be leaving you without live and on-site coverage of practice today and tomorrow — and those are the last two days open to the media. As a token of my sorrow, I offer this text message exchange from last night:

Friend: Ok, I’m in San Antonio at a conference. There is a social mixer 4 the conf and a band. The band is trying to tell everyone how to do the cotton eye Joe.

Friend: Apparently it is a dance. I immediately thought of you.

Me: I need more details. Are people furious about the song or oddly excited?

Friend: Oddly excited. There are a lot of boots and cowboy hats here. Mostly on middle aged women.

Words can’t express how much I want this Joe guy to go away fast and forever. I feel like our day is coming …

One more piece of business, and it’s a bit of a stunner. Freshman point guard Gary Browne didn’t make the Italy trip because of an eligibility question. I haven’t gotten return calls or email yet, but I’d imagine the NCAA’s Eligibility Center tapped the breaks here. I saw Browne at practice Saturday and he and Bob Huggins had a very informal, very normal talk about things to be done before the team left Monday. Now I’m told he isn’t even on campus and either back in Jacksonville or Puerto Rico.

And the this is where I really goofed up. I was looking at the reports from the first two games overseas and saw Brown hadn’t scored. I couldn’t tell he hadn’t played. I thought, “Wow, kid’s trying to make a point here.” Treadmill for me. If you haven’t already, cross your fingers Jabarie Hinds isn’t in some sort of peril. If you have, then cross your toes.

Onto the Feedback. As always, comments appear as posted. In other words, watch your back(side).

Josh24601 said:

URGENT QUESTION: How many of the following items can be found in Mt Pleasant, IA: (a) stoplights; (b) bars; (c) trucks without rearview mirrors?

Road trip? Anyone?

rekterx said:

With some reflection I think it becomes clear that Holgorsen has a much better WVU Head Coach mentor than Stew could have been.

Choir!

Jeff in Akron said:

I wonder if Huggins warned Holgorsen about the pitfalls of not leaving a night light on in the hotel room. Those stray doors and furniture are dangerous stumbling around in the dark.

I’d be stunned if that story, in some capacity, hasn’t come up in conversation. I’d actually be disappointed.

JC said:

I especially liked the loyalty comment. Not that it makes me think Holgorsen will be the coach permanently, but it makes me think maybe he won’t necessarily be constantly looking for another coaching gig like RR.

It was a well-placed comment, but, yes, you keep telling yourself that. I have no idea how his eyes will behave in the offseason, but he’s young and popular and successful and … well, you’ve read that book before. I don’t want to infer anything. I’m just saying everyone ought to know better than to be surprised by the first and inevitable story of another school thinking it can just poach WVU’s coach.

JP said:

Or it could mean that if Holgy moves on he’s taking his entire offensive staff with him.

Or it could mean that.

Karl said:

Pittsburgh also had three head coaches in the last four seasons. One of them just never coached a game.

You’ve been had, Mr. Bogaczyk.

jaybirdeer said:

I sure hope pointing this little tidbit out has not doomed our QB’s for a injury plagued year. You never mess with a winning streak. Mike, I hope for all that is good, this continues in 2011!

And here came the flood of “You jinxed us!” comments that flowed in from many directions.

Josh24601 said:

Surely, Mr. Holgorsen has never encountered the relentless zone blitzing and twisting exhibited by the fearsome defenses of the Big East.

Or the … wha? He did? OK.

AnxiousEER97 said:

Or those zone blitzes from NC State.

I’ll never forget that press conference. An absolute manifestation of frustrations. Or the God’s honest truth. Either way, bad form.

pushthebutton said:

After this spring, am I the only one starting to get just a little bit nervous we may have a repeat of Wes Lyons on our hands?

At least McCartney had fairly big hype coming out of high school, unlike Wes, but the way I keep hearing other fans talk about how he’s just about to break out sounds eerily similar.

I think we’re right on the fulcrum here. I have a hard time holding last year against him since, it would seem, he wasn’t ready to play … and still played. It also seems like a young guy, a talented young guy, would perhaps need a smack upside the head to realize he has an attitude problem. Let’s start a fresh page here and see what happens. It’s a good point, though.

Drew said:

Was Chad the one who told him to high step in practice the other day as well?

DH should be glad he didn’t riverdance or something.

Ah! Twasn’t Mr. McCartney.

The 25314 said:

I’d feel better if Ivan had asked 8-5 about his time at Oregon State.

Hmm. Who is his T.J. Houshmandzadeh? Is it Ryan Nehlen?

SheikYbuti said:

Seniors to Holgorsen: “Step away from the craps table and give us the keys to the Jeep.”

Loose translation, but, sure, I think it passes.

Tom said:

I watched Dustin play at Pearland size means nothing this kid he is a work horse. West Virginia fans you going to love watching him play.

Clear consensus among people I’ve talked to is Garrison and Buie are offensive stars in camp, either because they’re really good or really ready. Also, Garrison, I was told, is engaged. I’ve got a feeling we’re dealing with a different cat here.

mike4352 said:

Screens work great … when they are not ran 30 times a game. A screen is meant to surprise somewhat, but when your opponent is preparing during the week before your game, and they are watching tape, and they see you run it 10-15 times per half, it tends NOT to surprise them.

Sorta like Don Nehlan on 3rd and long back in the day… “We’ll run a Draw, they’ll never expect it!” … only if they haven’t been paying attention the last few years.

A screen is basically a run play for Holgorsen. It’s a toss sweep, just with a longer toss, but I think it’s a more regular feature than you’re hoping for — sorry! I just don’t think it’ll be called again and again and I’m sure it won’t be called if the guys can’t block it.

Bill said:

BAT SIGNAL

Casazza – would appreciate your thoughts on aTm leaving B12 for SEC and what that may mean for WVU and BE. Any scoop on your end? Sounds like they are voting on 8/22 to formalize it.

I’ll hang up and listen.

I think Texas A&M’s exit is inevitable and I think the Big XII is in some sort of trouble … and I think this has been the major hunch across college sports for a while. Then again. the conferencehas a new and enormous TV deal, so I wonder how shaky things really are. Money talks. Not sure what it means for WVU, except that I imagine Oliver Luck has a grease board in his office and an elaborate flow chart with all sorts of scenarios and subsequent directions once one domino falls. If the Aggies go, Luck grabs the laser pointer and retraces what he plotted a while back. It’s the first part of a puzzle, but I don’t think it immediately affects WVU. Maybe I’m missing something, though. Does it matter? Sure, and probably because someone is going to be itching to (make a) move, but if the Big XII loses a team and other conferences are compelled to pounce, wouldn’t they then pounce on another Big XII team. I mean, those schools have to be looking to bolt. Or is the TV deal too lucrative to abandon? Fewer teams means the payouts increase, right? Also, I think, for some reason, Virginia Tech is going to become a major player soon. They’ve been too quiet.

Mack said:

The few times I’ve read a WVU football player’s twitter messages… they’ve almost always been related to missing their girlfriend back at home.

I can’t even decipher some of the ones I’ve seen.

JP said:

No more updating Facebook during halftime?

Technically, it would be allowed since nothing is prevented.

AnxiousEER97 said:

By the way, does anyone else get the impression that Holgorsen could care less about press conferences or answering questions?

Kind of hard for me to answer that, so I hope others have an answer, but I get the sense it’s like a lot of other things in his life: He wants to keep it simple. Elaborate answers and complex topics aren’t in his interest. He doesn’t like questions that require an obvious or nonsensical answer. He doesn’t seem to like going over injuries every day. He doesn’t have an opening statement that goes over offense, defense and special teams in mind-numbing detail. Get in. Get out. Make them laugh along the way. Fine by me.

oklahomamountaineer said:

I think we are going to find that this guy is either the wave of the future or the village idiot…….and I think it’s too early to tell which.

I’ve never seen a press conference begin with the words “any questions?” and that is the way every post practice conference begins. He definitely is not the type to relish the past….I’m guessing Mickey will not get the first question each day and I don’t think that he really cares what the media think of him.

Can’t wait to hear the Coach’s show this year on the radio because his interpersonal skills are such that poor Tony is going to have to carry a lot of the show.

How does that work for a HC who doesn’t seem to be a good communicator? Doesn’t the HC have to be the one who closes the deal and, literally, could sell an air conditioner to an eskimo? I’m thinking this guy puts the AC company out of business if they are dependent on him.

You basically described Bob Huggins. No opening statements. No rear view mirror. And Huggins kills it on the radio and TV. True, he’s been in it a lot longer than Holgorsen, but maybe it works. I kind of like his style. He’s better than his predecessor. And probably predecessors.

Mack said:

I agree with lowercase jeff. I think that Holgorsen is kind of a “new school” type of guy in that he isn’t putting on a tie just for the hell of putting on a tie. He isn’t going to give you an elaborate presentation just for the sake of giving you an elaborate presentation.

He’s substance over style. He’s a football coach. He coaches the football team and if you want to ask him questions about what they’re doing, then he’ll answer them.

His approach seems to be that “This isn’t brain surgery. It’s football.” By contrast, remember that Rich Rodriguez would always claim that no one else was capable of comprehending what the WVU coaches were trying to do. If WVU lost by 30 points, Rodriguez would say, “I reviewed the film and we were extremely close to winning that game.” Ummm… Ok?

Holgorsen seems to at least give the listener the respect that we all have common sense and we’ve all watched a ton of football in our lives. We all know at least something about the game. He knows more than us about his offense because, for the most part, we’ve never even seen it before. But the concepts can still be described in a lay-person’s vernacular… because, again, it’s not brain surgery.

How anyone can say that our new coach would be horrible on the radio after our last coach was Bill Stewart. . .

I happen to agree with virtually all of that.

Jeff in Akron said:

I can’t wait to hear Holgorsen in a post game presser, I believe there will be more than a few interesting quotes. He doesn’t seem like the type to water down his comments.

He’s a first time head coach in his first week of practice of his first year. What is there to really say. The only topics he can talk about are the parts of practice that the media already saw.

It may be a cart and horse issue, but, I might just be looking forward to his post game press conference after the Marshall game as I am the game itself. To me, that will be when everyone begins to see who he is going to be as a head coach.

After years of the Lion King and Ferdinand Foch Holgorsen seems like a normal person. Other than this blog (only because of the head coaches it is quoting), I would never bring up either the Lion King or Foch in a football conversation. It’s kind of like driving a VW Bug, as a man you give up something in the process.

And I happen to agree with virtually all of that. And when Dana Holgorsen is going to throw someone under the bus, he won’t be saying, “I’m not throwing anyone under the bus …”

Karl said:

I just realized that when I read Holgorsen’s quotes, the voice I hear in my head is Matthew McConaughey’s from Dazed and Confused — “That’s what I love about these high school girls man. I get older, they stay the same age.”

I can’t shake it either. And I don’t mind.

rekterx said:

When Athey left a lot of people were saying that it was not a big loss. I, for one, could not imagine a team not having a decent 3rd string QB.

Let’s hope that a couple guys turn up that can throw the ball well enough and grasp the basics of the offense. There has got to be a couple of athlete’s out there in the student body that would make decent 3rd stringers.

Mack? Where have you been? Athey and Millard joined the team in January and Athey transferred last month.

It’s a subtle loss. You hope he never had to play, unless Millard got worn out relieving Eu in a blow out, but it’s beyond that. You need backups to take the weight off the top guys, but also, who’s running the scout team offenses? Not Millard. He’s preparing in case he has to play, and he’s preserving Eu. Someone has to mimic the other team’s offense for Jeff Casteel’s defense.

AnxiousEER97 said:

How does one scout for a “solid mediocre guy?”

Pretty much exactly like that. No glory. Lots of ice. Maybe they get to know your name. No promises.

Seoul Man said:

I told my wife that if I were still at WVU I would SO do this. She still hasn’t stopped snort-laughing.

Someone at the Daily Athenaeum is crazy not to do this.

WVU83 said:

If I’m not mistaken, Kennedy Award winner Justin Fox is headed to WVU on a baseball scholarship. Hopefully, he sees the ad and is interested.

Send it in. I’m serious.

johnny oz said:

Incoming freshman Jordan Angalich of McMechen Bishop Donahue would be a good one. Last year: 33 TDs, 5 INTs for a fine Class A team. He’s “Class A small” — maybe 6 feet, 170 pounds — but throws a fine deep ball. Maybe he can bring WR Ryan Jones with him. Fun times …

Again, send it in. I don’t think Holgorsen is totally kidding when he’s soliciting advice. He doesn’t know the state all too well yet, and, let’s face it, he’s going to probably need guys who were good in 2010 or in recent years. So fire away.

Josh24601 said:

Bruce Irvin, welcome to the McAfee-Alexander-Herber Go-to Interview chair! Bless you.

Without question.

alfordtl said:

Sure wish the Gazette had positive Mountaineer writers like Mike.

You know … you can read the Daily Mail.

overtheSEC said:

SET YOUR ALARM CLOCKS, BOYS…for continental breakfast??

Enjoy the weekend! And please update the blog!