Welcome to the Friday Feedback, which sighs wonders what’s the big deal. Here’s what we know, and what we’ve known: Dana Holgorsen doesn’t have a West Virginia drivers’ license. The West Virginia football coach has a Texas license because he never got an Oklahoma license, either. And he lives in a hotel. And though he’s bought land and has plans to build a house, his mailing address is the Puskar Center. Not sure any of that was news, but whatever.

Here’s what I did not know: There’s a law stating a state resident needs to apply for a license within 30 days. … And that’s about it.

I’ve vacillated on this and I still think, in principle, the story idea is fine. Sorry, it is. The head football coach at WVU, a guy making a lot of money and a guy who has wheels and insurance gifted to him as a privilege, doesn’t have a license now nine months into his stay. DMV lines aren’t that long! So I can see the significance, especially in West Virginia, where fans are a little anxious about the allegiances of their coaches. And, finally, there seems to be neither care nor consequences for this apparent violation.

At least, I don’t think there are. Never read what the A.D. or the president had to say. Never saw word from the DMV or a state government official who might be concerned with such a thing. What about the Wheels Club? I don’t even know what the penalty is, if there is one. All I saw was Holgorsen explain and then defend his position — and capably and so.  Just totally disassembled the case against him. I mean, how do you argue that a coach is busy?

It all makes me wonder if this didn’t start somewhere else. No way the story started as “Holgorsen doesn’t have a West Virginia license.” At least, I’d hope not. If he didn’t have a license, that would be different.

There’s been a little rumor he didn’t have, or couldn’t get a license. And I can attest to the fact that isn’t true. For one, he doesn’t get the job without one. I’m one of a few people who was assured he had a license — a Texas license. And Holgorsen nearly sideswiped me, my wife and my boss as he wheeled into Waterfront Place in August. It was dark, we were walking off the sidewalk as we headed to the parking garage and he never saw us. It wasn’t really close, but it was kind of funny because, you know, the guy who isn’t allowed to drive was driving an SUV. He and I had a laugh about it the next day.

Does he drive everywhere? No and that’s become an issue, even in the presence of explanations. One I don’t want to even get into because it’s 2011 and I don’t want to deal with the people who would have a problem with it. Another, he sometimes doesn’t know where he’s going when he goes somewhere — Elkins, Parkersburg, Charleston, on and on. Thirdly, car rides are like office hours for coaches. They check and send email. They visit their voicemail and make calls. They read stuff. They do things they can’t do when practicing or meeting or watching film. A lot can get done in the 80 minutes it takes someone to take him to Tennerton.

But Holgorsen could drive there if he wanted. He could pull out of the garage at his hotel or, if we wait a while longer, his new house on that large plot of land. He could motor down I-79 and make the trip himself because he has a Texas license. Not a West Virginia license, and that probably has to change. I request to ride shotgun for that trip because I’d like to write the story about how Holgorsen spends the 55-minute wait until C-37 is called at the DMV. Imagine the non-verbals there …

Onto the Feedback. As always, comments appear as posted. In other words, don’t press your luck.

ffejboc said:

Bruce Feldman got access because Bruce Feldman isn’t going to write some TMZ garbage piece about casinos or driver’s liceneses. It’s not paranoia if they really ARE trying to get you.

The thought occurred to me yesterday. And I wasn’t very happy to think it.

overtheSEC said:

#freemike

The 25314 said:

Why do I keep picturing Dana Holgorsen as Jessica Tandy?

Why do I?

pknocker40 said:

I’m more concerned that Holgorsen hasn’t produced a birth certificate yet. HOW DO WE KNOW HE WASN’T BORN ON NEPTUNE?!?!?

Long form or short form? Because I don’t think the long form exists in extraterrestrial jurisdictions.

glibglub said:

Driver’s licenses are overrated anyway. I mean, have you seen some of the people who have these things in action? Jeebus.

I know. He’s staying above the fray, giving West Virginia a good reputation, and this is how you treat him?

Wesmo said:

Tell the truth Mike, did Bill Stewart ask Eric Eyre to dig up that dirt about the WV drivers license?

What of the second reporter?

p.i. reed said:

Colin Dunlap reporting Dana Holgorsen has filed paperwork with the SEC, i mean DMV

Tremendous.

Drew said:

Move over Monica Lewinsky. Make room for Colin Dunlap.

Mike, did you ever share a cigar with Jeff Mullen_?

Thaaaat’s enough.

Josh24601 said:

Sounds to me like you need to start signalling your questions to Holgorsen during the “news conferences” with the West Virginia head coach. Make the other newshounds do their homework to follow your trail.

Noted. Something has to give.

glibglub said:

A quizzical facial expression coupled with clenched fists at the 10 and 2 position, rocking back and forth in a steering motion means “Anyone licensed in WV? I need a ride back to the hotel ’cause all I got’s my Texas ID, and nowThe Man is gunnin’ for me.”

Also, tunnel screen.

SheikYbuti said:

Does this mean Geno has to start dating a supermodel?

I think he’d be OK with that.

Drew said:

“The only difference is he can run.”

I wouldn’t say that’s the ONLY difference

I’m just glad we have the requisite “call the high school coach” go-to move before October. Junior year, but still.

JC said:

Hopefully Eu doesn’t decide to grow a ridiculous hairdo and dance like a litle girl at Carnival!

It is here where we’ll disagree.

Karl said:

Geno is #3 nationally right now in passing yards. Interestingly, Taj Boyd is right behind him at #5. I guess everyone made out well, and for once, the recruiting services got a couple of guys right.

Oh yeah? Did you happen to not —

SheikYbuti said:

More interestingly, did you happen to notice who’s #1 and #2?

Case Keenum and Brandon Weeden.

Jeff in Akron said:

Geno entered this season as a dark horse for the Heisman trophy, even with the loss on Saturday I have to believe he hasn’t lost any gound and may have improved his standing. Also, there is not another QB that even comes close to throwing for 463 yards against LSU for the rest of this season. The Vols are the only team that has a shot, I just don’t think they have the pedigree.

With that said, I believe the Heisman is A. Luck’s to lose, with the way Stanford’s schedule sets up, Luck won’t lose it. Even a loss to Oregon in early November probably wouldn’t be enough.

It would be nice to see Geno give him a run for his money though. A great season to be a Mountaineer if Geno comes in second to Luck. Imagine the hype and cameras that would be around the entire off-season leading to 2012, not to mention if Geno gives Luck a run for his money this year.

At the worst, alleged and actual road warrior Oliver Luck could expense his trip to the ceremony.

hershy112 said:

Artist,

I wish there was a blog tailgate. That would be fun.

Just leave me a Nestea and a brat.

Conservative Mountaineer said:

From the on-line poll at Triangle Business Journal (same publisher as Pittsburgh Business Times and in most larger cities):

What university should be the ACC’s top target if it decides to expand past 14 teams?
– East Carolina
– Rutgers
– Notre Dame
– Penn State
– Texas
– UConn
– Other

Bwwwwaaaahhhhhaaaaa!
Me thinks someone toked a little too much wackee-tobackee today.

… actually, I think there was interest in Texas and/or Notre Dame and at least some interest from either side concerning UConn and Rutgers. Even ECU makes some sense.

By the way, the Big East presidents meet Sunday in Washington, D.C. It looks as though all the presidents and the commissioner will be there this time. No ADs. Separate people told me “no fireworks” and “nothing explosive,” which makes me think the word is out — in common language — and this is a procedural meeting … or an intervention for pyromaniacs. I’d imagine the Big East wants to do something to secure its membership, but I can’t imagine schools are going to be OK with any increases, or major increases, to the exit fee and the 27-month period. The tricky part might be entry conditions. Say Navy and Air Force, as is presumed, have been invited and want to join. If this Big East loses TCU, WVU, Louisville and/or Cincinnati, Navy and Air Force aren’t going to want to join. Might be hard to argue against eventual damages in that case and there might be some thought given to tying all these schools together in some manner. The general feeling is some want this to move faster, some want it to slow down. I do think there is the potential for reverberations from this meeting, but conditional, at best, and likely dependent on what happens with Missouri. There’s a difference in opinion there among people who want to go to the SEC, people who want to say in the Big 12 and people who want to stay in the Big 12 in hopes the Big Twhatever won’t remain idle and instead comes calling. If you’re worried about WVU, they remain in contact with everyone they need to be in contact with. If something happens, WVU has already prepared the next move.

JOE D NY ‘EER said:

BTW–had planned on traveling to Syracuse for WVU Friday night game–but changed my mind. SU’s switch to the ACC was all about money and so is my decision. I won’t give SU a dime of my money.

Yes!

Josh24601 said:

Question about something unimportant:

Does the Holgo regime hand out the weekly champion awards only when the team wins? I haven’t seen any LSU-week champions announced.

Good observation. It is as it seems. Champions for wins only.

Grumpy said:

Do you know if stuff was taken from both locker rooms? WVU and LSU?

Just WVU’s. And they’re frustrated as can be about this.

p.i. reed said:

that jackbog column was either a horrible example of burying the lede – re: sec straw poll favoring wvu – or based on a LOT of speculation

I assure you that wasn’t speculation. Jack’s not a kid at a birthday party. He’s not swinging at pinatas or pinning tails on the donkey’s mane.

Twitter World:

/Angry mob with pitch forks, torches, smart phones and pseudo intellectual glasses slowly encircles the blog like the Sherrif of Nottingham’s men around Lord Locksley’s castle.

SHOW YOURSELF! We saw your tweet and assumed what we wanted to assume and when our assumption wasn’t correct we became angry!!!

/Meanwhile, inside the Cassazza-Dunlap home, Mike burps the twins as Colin scrambles the eggs in his finest silk komono.

You enjoyed the reaction almost as much as I did. People were expecting something like a reassurance WVU was getting into the SEC or a promise the Big 12 was making an announcement — you know, all the things they said last week were happening last week, or said this week were happening this week. What they got was what they did not want to hear and they were very angry. But, no, heads did not explode.

ffejboc said:

During the press conference, I heard Holgs say Cole Bowers “wasn’t in the rotation” at OL, I never heard him say straight out that the kid wasn’t good enough. But perhaps I just missed it.

Well, yeah, but he’s not in the rotation for a reason … and it’ s not because he’s impressed people.

pknocker40 said:

I think both Huggs and Holgs tailor their criticism (and praise) to each player’s personality – you heard Holgs discuss getting to know how each individual player ticks when he assumed the HC job. He also described how he would coddle Weeden some last year b/c his confidence was relatively low but that he needn’t do that with Geno b/c Geno’s a baller and he knows it.

Q-Spain might have been called out simply because he got a ton of playing time against LSU, held his own, and was likely patted on the back a bunch by family and friends after the game. Good for him, but his coach’s job is to keep him focused on improving and developing as well as to instill in him an ability handle both success and failure with a similar drive.

Two things: Holgorsen doesn’t go out of his way to smoke  a player. It’s always been an answer to a question, with the notable exception being the subtle smackdown on Geno … but those two have a very different rapport. Secondly, I’d bet he says the same things in practice or meetings so it’s not like he’s not saying it to a guy’s face. That hasn’t always been true here.

ccteam said:

What I liked most about Holgorsen’s statement about Geno was that he didn’t say he wasn’t going to throw Geno under the bus before he did it! I liked Holgs statement, I liked Geno’s decision, and i like to think Austin may have broke one if the execution of the pass had been just a tad higher. Just got beat by a good player making a great play. Hats off to him.

Again, acts of commission, not acts of omission. You’ll get far, far more rewards than bummers, but the bummers will pop up from time to time.

The 25314 said:

Did Dana say anything about the second down play before the INT where the official stood over the ball and allowed LSU to sub even though WVU did not sub?

SEC crew. Every conference is different. He was non-plussed, to say the least.

Josh24601 said:

That game was SO much fun. Easily the best WVU-loss experience I’ve ever had.

Anyone disagree?

Rick said:

Oh this is just salt in the wound for the Morgantown businesses and Sodexo. Can you imagine what the numbers COULD have been for next year’s HOME game against JMU?!

So unfair. Wondering if WVU sees the beer revenue in night games and tries to play more games with late kickoffs.

The Artist Formerly Known as EER96 said:

Mike, this is not head exploding news, but it may be liver and kidney exploding news!

Everyone disagrees. They read it the message board previously. By the way, the idea of Jack reading a message board is too funny. It would go like this: Squint, gasp. Chair slides back, Jack stands up, brushes off his argyle sweater and walks away forever. Twenty seconds, max.

Bill said:

RE: Austin and the punt coverage. I have some thoughts on this issue but I’m sure there’s plenty of blame to go around. (1) Arent you supposed to let a punt bounce if you are standing on the 15 yard line or deeper and its going over your head? (2) Where the hell was our punt coverage? If we had proper blocking then the balls would have rolled into the endzone instead of getting downed (3) he could have caught the balls, yes, but then he would have either gotten killed and possibly fumbled or the balls would still have been in sh-tty field position (4) credit their punter who made insanely ridiculous punts. I’ve never seen anything like that in my life, much less 5 times inside the 11 yard line?

I think the 10-yard line is the so-called deal-breaker. I also thought LSU did something weird and spread the field on coverage, which then made it hard for Tavon to zip through people to get to the ball. Then he has to let it hit. But, yes, he has to do a better job getting to the ball. Vaughn Rivers was unspeakably valuable doing that.

AnxiousEER97 said:

That was the best rendition of the Nat’l Anthem that I’ve heard at Mountaineer Field in quite some time.

Agreed. Some people seemed to disagree with me. I thought Landau started high and that led to some underwhelming moments when he could have gone with a high note, but couldn’t get there. It was still good, though. And I’m a sucker for anthems. Also, for some reason, someone emailed me this.

Tim said:

That punter is going to play on Sundays. Damnm

OK, so Brad Wing is Australian. He played a season of American high school football and ended up at LSU. Story goes that at a practice one day last season when Wing was a true freshman he wondered aloud who they guy in the hat was that was doing all the yelling. Les Miles.

Jeff in Akron said:

WVU is not a polished team, yet. Still, I feel better about our future than I have in about four years. Losing to LSU, after four turmnovers, is not the same as losing back to back games to East Carolina and Colorado. I believe tonight is not an acurate representation of WVU football for the future. Wait, we may look back and see that WVU played their worste game against their best opponent, there is a correlation there.

Yes, not polished, but I think just about as advanced as last year’s team was at the same juncture. If this team is behind, it’s not by much and will pass soon. Yet we’re close to “You are who you are” territory and there’s about two games, at most, before you can cement some conclusions. Things can get better fast, and look no further than the offensive line as proof, but is this a team that starts slow, doesn’t rush the passer well, needs a punter and/or struggles covering kicks?

oklahoma mountaineer said:

Urban Meyer summed up our football team very clearly. Our skill positions are impressive, but our weakness is on the offensive and defensive lines.

The D-Line, after the kickoff and prompt series (3 and out), finally wore down once LSU had a 2 score lead and began to simply lean on us.

Our Oline play is inexcusable; most of these guys have been starting/seeing significant time for 3 years. They make every team’s D-Line look like all world players and I don’t think it’s coaching.

Upgrades and quality depth for our lines is going to move us back to the elite. We will definitely be able to recruit talent to this system at the skill positions on offense — we just need to find a little more of a nasty streak in our O-linemen.

Yep, but I don’t think the scales will be as uneven the rest of the way. And they’re sinking efforts into recruiting linemen for both sides.

Karl said:

My only complaint is that we didn’t keep the game closer. As several others pointed out above, the dumb mistakes killed us. And LSU’s special teams play was unbelieveable. There’s no shame in losing to a football team of that caliber, and to be honest, it’s not like I expected a win — just hoped. Did anyone really think this team was capable of going undefeated and playing for a national championship?

We’re moving in the right direction. That was the third full game under a totally diffrerent offense. We’re young at key positions — especially RB. These are things that can, and I believe will, improve as the season wears on. The schedule lines up great now — a tune-up game against Ball St. followed by a bye week to work out some kinks before the start of the BE season. I think we’ll all have plenty to smile about ahead.

The thing that stands out is the game was in question twice — 0-0 and 27-21. LSU controlled the part of the game  immediately after both and WVU didn’t offer much resistant after the kickoff return touchdown.

Dave said:

There is nothing wrong with just saying that LSU was better than us. Turnovers? A lot of times that is simply because of pressure due to athleticisim and they were just better than us.

They were faster, more dsicplined and just better at almost every facet.

That doesn’t mean that we’re bad. Keep in it context, improve and we’ll be fine.

I’d rather have a measuring stick like this game than play some garbage game where everyone believes we’re holier-than-thou because we put 60 on the board.

We lost, it’s all right, we know what to work on and where we need help … and the world didn’t end (thankfully … that would have really sucked if it had).

A lot of logic in that, but I think everyone would rather arrive at the conclusion that LSU was better if WVU had actually played without the self-prescribed constraints.

JC said:

Dave, I disagree that LSU was much better. They forced two turnovers and we gave them two. And no, I’m not bitter about the loss and letting my judgment be clouded. I’ve been going to games for so long that I know it comes with the territory. I’m already thinking about the Bowling Green game, as should our players.

I was sitting on the 30yd line ($60 BTW) and from what I saw our offense essentially controlled the game. Sure the stats can be deceiving, but the turnovers and stupid penalties were the only things that stopped the offense all night. No one on their schedule the rest of the year will come close to moving the ball like we did on their defense, especially through the air. The o-line played especially well I thought. Even the running backs picked up several blitzes quite nicely. For those who wonder where the running game is…..we are not a running team anymore. These aren’t our fathers’ Mountaineers.

The two categories that often decide games once again decided this one……turnovers and special teams. If you want to say they won these categories because they had better players, that’s fine, but I completely disagree. Except for the punter of course…..that kid was outstanding!!

And there’s a lot of logic in that, too. But those turnovers are committed. Those penalties are committed. LSU didn’t commit them. And 47 points is 47 points, a 26-point deficit is a 26-point deficit. A lot of that is the other side of the field. Circular argument, I know. We can agree WVU should be better for the experience. I’d even say LSU could be, too.

The 25314 said:

Like the salmon returning to Capistrano, “the 3-3-5 can never work!” is an annual rite of fall.

Enjoy the weekend!