(I was down these past couple of days because I feared Texts From Game Day was done. Then I got an inspiring visit from an old friend and, well, it’s back in action. So bring your best texts to the table tonight and we’ll eat them up Monday morning. And in all seriousness, thank linds. She helped me pull this out of the fire.)

Welcome to the Friday Feedback, which would like to lay out some facts: Heading into the Syracuse game, WVU is 5-1 overall with a loss to LSU. It is the only ranked team in the Big East. It has the best defense and the best offense with the most explosive talent and the best quarterback on that side of the ball. And because of all of that, the Mountaineers are the early favorite to win the conference.

That was last year.

Everything I just stated is the same this year, including putting the crown atop the head of the Mountaineers before November. We were very wrong last year and after that game it started to seem like there were issues. It was almost a year ago when I wrote this.

The Mountaineers like to believe they can attack a defense in a variety of ways. Fast tempo, five receivers, shotgun, under center, two tight ends, I-formation, one running back, three tackles, two fullbacks. That faith in flexibility at least explains Mullen’s late-game philosophy, but there’s a certain audacity to think you can do eight things when you haven’t proven you can do one or two.

Is this not an issue?

“I see a lot of good we’re doing, I just don’t see consistency,” Stewart said. “That’s as calm and as honest as I can answer that question. Are we masters of any one particular thing? No. We’ve got to get better.”

The season is past the halfway point and, yes, there is plenty of football to be played. The Big East remains very open and, in reality, all Saturday’s loss did to WVU was make a 7-0 conference record unattainable. There was a notion WVU could do it and while the optimism seemed understandable, it was also without a logical base.

The offense is searching for something good, but is spread out widely when it needs a more narrow focus. WVU can’t reliably stay out of its own way, either, and now opponents seem more able than before to provide additional roadblocks.

Penalties and turnovers and a lack of blocking and protection on the offensive line preceded a bad day by the quarterback. The Mountaineers would stand around fire and expect not to sweat. Now, defenses are turning up the heat.

Aaaaaand that was about the time certain people stopped talking to me. You know, I read that whole column now and I wonder if it was that clear before it. Were we missing sighs? Hell, that’s a typo. I meant signs, but there must have been sighs, too. And then, because I’m a headcase, I wonder the same right now … but I honestly feel like this is very different. There’s a level of competence that just didn’t exist in the same abundance before. I say this because others say this, though not in the same words.

“I think we’ve got a lot of confidence going into this and we know what we can do,” Barclay said. “We’ve got great schemes if everyone buys into it and has confidence in it. Last year, I think we didn’t know if we were a spread team or a power team or kind of both, but this year, we’ve got an identity.”

Nevertheless, good test for WVU tonight. The offensive line will be tasked. The receivers can’t be “about average.” Syracuse will be better on defense than the ranking and the statistics suggest. Dana Holgorsen said Syracuse has played good offenses, which explains the statistics, but I counter with this: Isn’t his a good offense? I think the feet go in the wet cement tonight.

Onto the Feedback. As always, comments appear as posted. In other words, don’t fudge it.

Karl said:

The line is WVU -14. Thoughts?

It was 131/2 at kickoff last year.

overtheSEC said:

Karl, I’d take WVU to cover that in a heartbeat. (Let’s not forget Holgorsen’s contract has incentives for offensive performance and he’s less than 40 yards/game out of being in the top 5)

What about this from Vegas:

Higher total:
Seats on WVU’s chartered flight (+300)
WVU Passing Yards in 3rd quarter (+200)
Total fans in Syracuse student section (-250)

The three props are interesting, yes, but I want to go back to the contract. He gets $50,000 for finishing first and $25,000 for finishing second, third, fourth or fifth — and this is according to the term sheet, because the contract has not been finalized. No hooey. Still, if he thought enough to have it in the term sheet, it’ll be in the contract. And if he thought enough of it for that, does he think enough of it during the season? And remember, Oliver Luck gets 75 percent of what any WVU coaches get in incentives, up to $130,000.

The Artist Formerly Known as EER96 said:

I think in last year’s game, Geno had a hard time with the zone blitzes. I don’t think he saw them.

Did you see them? Thank you.

Josh24601 said:

Holgo has inherited from Mike Leach and bequeathed to Shannon Dawson and Jake Spavital an oral syntax quirk of saying “is is” regularly. Examples: “All’s we can do now is is fix it” (in re the BGSU no-show crowd) and “Our goal is is to improve every week.” Leach employs the “is is” construct daily on his radio show. It’s impossible to unhear this.

I got an email from Leach’s publicist this week to do some story on his book signing, and all I can say about that is is I had a nice little laugh.

wvu304 said:

Off topic, but does Rutledge’s suspension from the hoops team qualify for the Bat Signal, or is this sort of thing too common?
I heard there was a suspension, so I googled “WVU Basketball player suspended”.
I guess I needed to be more specific.
Results came up for Cottrill, Mitchell, Mazzulla, & Kilicli.
I added “October 2011″, and the Rutledge release came up.

http://www.wvillustrated.com/story/15699339/dominic-rutledge-suspended-from-wvu-basketball-team

It’s like the buzzer beater in the semifinal of the America East tournament signifying the start of March.

oklahoma mountaineer said:

Taking you back to the Stewart era, I believe that Marinatto may be of French descent rather than Italian…….the Big East continues to construct the Maginot line in an effort to protect itself from being raided.

The only problem is that the line, though formidable in appearance, is really made of paper mache and easily breached by their opponents…….$10 million is a small investment for membership in any of the three conferences WVU has supposedly applied to join.

Big East is now the punch line for every Sports comedian in America — a bag that has been beaten upon since this process started 10 years ago…..

I’m just blown away that the exit fee was doubled Monday night and announced Tuesday. All along the idea was it will be doubled once any team joins as the Big East hurried to 12 teams. Meantime, a team could leave for the original $5 million fee before that. That conference call Tuesday was followed promptly and emphatically by absolutely nothing. I don’t understand how they made this announcement and didn’t have something to chase it. Still, many people want to fire the guy, but that would be worse. It would look awful — and unoriginal after the Big 12 — and leave the Big East without someone as intimately familiar with the process.

The 25314 said:

A twelve team conference with a championship game in NYC would have been a very savvy move in 1998.

Yes. Or every year after that.

Jason said:

As soon as they have 12 teams secure for a certain year (say 2013) then Pitt and Syracuse will be released. There is nothing gained from holding them beyond the point they need them to keep an AQ bid. Plus, Louisville and WVU want them out as soon as possible.

Also, these exit fees are all negotiable. What Colorado and Nebraska “owed” the Big 12 was over 20MM, but both negotiated down to less than 10MM. If WVU leaves, they will do the same, discuss what the true damages are and then take a haircut for not having to litigate it and come to a settlement for a number less than 10MM. Same holds true for and Conf USA or MWC team coming to Big East.

I always thought that, but, man, they seem committed to 27 months. I think the schools would rather negotiate that than the money.

Jeff in Akron said:

Marinatto actually used the term bushwacked, “I don’t think anybody will be blindsided or feel bushwhacked when this process is complete.” Too late!

John Marinatto meet John Swofford, or, bushwacked meet bushwacker. Marinatto forgot his RedBull again.

If they get 12 or 14 teams, the divisions are definitely Bushwhacked and Blindsided. Much better than Legends and Leaders.

ffejboc said:

Pretty sure I read that Notre Dame is chairing the football expansion committee.

Seriously.

Is this real life?

Tis, but I think the appearance is worse than the reality.

Foul Shot said:

Certainly it is great to have enthusiasm at the stadium, but it is soccer, so surely he can’t expect packed houses every night.
You have to give him credit for trying to generate the interest.
The coach needs to get his guys pumped and not depend on a certain level of crowd attendance and enthusiasm to get the team to play well.

The brutal part of this is the next and final home match is at 7 p.m. tonight. No one is going to that match.

The 25314 said:

Marlon referred to the Dick as “this place” and WVU as “this team.” Someone check this man’s driver’s license!

Not only that, he aggressively turned down interest from his alma mater and didn’t renew or renegotiate his contract.

pushthebutton said:

I would like to point out that I loosely compared McCartney to Wes Lyons before the season started.
I am quite pleased that the comment now looks stupid.

So is Ivan.

Sam said:

This is a team that still hasn’t played a 60 minute game, nor maximized what it is truly capable of. If either of those things happen, unimaginable numbers (like 750 yards passing) start to become a possibility, right?

Possibility? Sure. Remember, Geno was pretty upset he left two big plays on the field against LSU that would have put him above 540 yards.

rekterx said:

This team is going to absolutely destroy another team in a BCS bowl … IF it keeps listening to its coaches and continually strives to get better.

I’ll put it on the record.

Homer said:

Rutgers will be ranked at 6-1 only in the Steve Politi Homer Poll.

I appreciate the subtext of what Dawson is trying to accomplish but he should be careful about not taking it too far like calling a 400-yard game “average.” You lose credibility with college-age students if you try too much negative motivation divorced from fact. They need a lot of maturity but they generally have fully formed bull$hit detectors.

I see Shannon’s point and I see yours. I see the danger is withholding praise. I see the concern about credibility. I see a lot of 400 yard games through the years in this offense, too.

Sam said:

So that second paragraph stands out as the most backhanded compliment in the history of backhanded compliments, right?

Yeah, about that Kevin Jones thing … I was saying I can’t see it happening again, in case anyone ahemKJahem might misconstrue it.

ccteam said:

We better hope Jones makes at least 2nd team all conference this year because if he doesn’t WV could be in a whole heap of trouble.

That, too.

oklahoma mountaineer said:

Winning cures a lot of concerns/issues that may be or are below the surface. I think if there were questions or concerns of a significant level, there would not have been extensions offered and accepted earlier in the year.

They start losing and there would be a potential for problems….as there would be on any staff completely assembled by the head coach.

I think the likelihood of problems would be growing if there werent support in the selection of recruits or if there was a lot of second guessing on practice/gameday decisions.

I’m thinking DH is a little smarter than that, but time will tell.

Well, I agree there are no signs of trouble, but let’s not believe it can be hidden by professionals. Not to say that’s what’s happening, but we’ve all made that mistake before. As for the contracts, Luck had no trouble spending to get rid of the other guys. If Dana wants his guys on defense …

pushthebutton said:

I’m still a little curious as to why no defensive coaches Mantrip it.
Perhaps they’re all Sierra Club member

OK, so everyone has noticed this, right?

Seoul Man said:

Best upside of WVU joining Big 12: Crazy ol’ T. Boone Pickens runs out of ways to contribute to Oklahoma State, installs 700 wind turbines on Law School hill.

I think this is a bad idea. Given the wind resistance, Quinton Spain would weigh 185 pounds after one run up Law School hill.

Mooresville Jeff said:

Like the movie title, Look Who’s Talking – “insiders” on message boards? The NYT? Boston Globe? Also, Look Who’s Not Talking – Oliver Luck, SEC and Big 12 leaders and Mr. Casazza.

You can’t coerce the outcome by publishing rumors. I’m not saying people aren’t in the know. I’m saying that those in the know aren’t talking.

There’s a lot of truth in that. I feel like I need to let this go, so here goes. I poke fun and I have a chuckle from time to time about these message board and Twitter experts, but I don’t have any problem with them. In truth, I poke fun and I chuckle a lot. I know people who run and moderate and post on these boards — and this is here and at other schools and for other professional teams. They’re friends of mine. I think some of them are crazy, and I tell them that, but, hey, it’s their team and that’s their vehicle to drive their desire. That’s fine. I love Liverpool. I go to one of their blogs and fan sites a lot. People make fun of me. Who’s right and who’s wrong? Twitter is a different animal we still haven’t figured how to tame, but give it time.

Anyhow, one day recently I got a hold of something I thought was significant and it made me think in a direction toward a conclusion. As I went to send an email to someone to inquire further, I hit Twitter and saw a lot of RTs that reinforced what I was thinking. It could have made me think more toward the conclusion. It instead made me step back. I investigated a little more and ended up writing nothing, which was smart because what I would have written, had I chosen to pursue it, would have been wrong. Some say the Internet has contributed to the madness, but it can be useful, too. It’s mostly about how you handle it.

But what offends and bothers me is this idea that the media isn’t doing anything while the Internet is carrying the story. I’m not talking about who knows more. I’m sure there are people online who are privy to the company and the conversations of some very important people at the university and they sometimes log on and dish what they hear and it’s spot on accurate. In fact, I’ve been told this in the past by some of those important people. So, yes, there are legitimate INSIDERS out there. It’s not my point. I just don’t know what the evil media is supposed to write.

Trust me, there are regular conversations with all the actors here and there and you’re not seeing anything because there is nothing. No one is telling me or anyone else, “Here’s the deal … but you cannot write it.” I have been clued in from time to time about where things stand, but I’m not yet sure how you write, “WVU is in the Big East and that situation may one day change” without looking like a big-headed idiot. You think WVU wants in the Big 12? OK, now write that story. You think the SEC arranged a deal with WVU? Awesome, but I’m going to need something to lean on for the story. You say WVU wants out of the Big East? Get someone to tell you that. I can’t speak for everyone here, but for me, and for JackBo, it’s not worth it to constantly write and refresh the story lines. What’s right one day can be wrong the next and then credibility is shot. Credibility is my paycheck. Pick your battles, choose your need-to-know conversations with your sources wisely. Write when you’re right … not when you might be right. There’s a huge difference there. I’m looking back at all of this now and what has actually happened and  I can’t shake this: Where were we wrong?

The 25314 said:

Can’t wait for that first roady to our nearest rival, 14.5 hours away in Ames, IA! I’m going to party like I’m Larry Eustachy.

Enjoy the weekend!