Welcome to the Friday Feedback, which last night confirmed the house sitter and lined up the lawn mower and then prepared a lazy post to hold things over whilst I vacationed.

But then I got a phone call and, well, here we are.

Just a quick note to start, and let’s start right there: President Clements made a few phone calls Thursday to say his athletic director wouldn’t be going anywhere. I was one of a few, somewhere between first and last, because I’d called him previously to discuss it. That’s my job. His is to address things as can, and a few days later he got back to me when he could actually discuss it. He tends to do that.

I nevertheless thought that was strange — the Tweet was supposed to express that … “So President Jim Clements just called me” … “So J.B. got hammered at the wedding and passed out at the table, only to come to and pump his fist during the chorus of ‘I Love Rock ‘n Roll’ ” — because aren’t we used to people not telling us stuff like that because, if for no other reason, they don’t have to? I know I am. I was not expecting that.

I thought Clements was proactive and I told him that. I’ve said this a lot, so much so that I may have to amend it, but WVU doesn’t do things like that. It doesn’t, or didn’t, address conjecture. Clements pretty much stamped out a smoldering rumor that many would not seek to extinguish. I mean, every time Oliver Luck was asked and he extended his no comment, it became, for some reason, a comment.

Now all those interactions with Luck or Clements, all those emails and texts and voice mails for Clements from people he does and does not know, all the Coaches’ Caravans that WVU personnel including Luck attend don’t have to involve that — and, by the way, people are more apt to give to an athletic department they know Luck is going to lead into the future.

I don’t know, unusual, shrewd, out of place, right on time, I guess it depends on your perception and perspective.

What I do know is I’ll need your perspective to maintain the perception of this blog while I’m gone. A post will go up Monday and be there for the week. I told people I was leaving two days ago, but I did it for you, and we witnessed the fruition of the WVU v. Alabama game in 2014 and the resolution to Luck’s connection with the Stanford job. I suspect one thing will happen while I’m gone, but I tried to sweep up the other stuff before I left.

I return stateside Friday and I’ll be in Charleston for the Vandalia Gathering Saturday at the West Virginia Book Company tent. Stop by and say hi and, I don’t know, buy a book or have yours signed.

Onto the Feedback. As always, comments appear as posted. In other words, keep moving.

Josh24601 said:

Not that anyone would ever say it aloud until way after the fact, but might Luck be a mite miffed that Clements scorched the WVU-beat earth with news that Luck isn’t interested in other jobs? If Luck wanted to say that, every reporter Clements called would have taken Luck’s call.

Maybe there is genuine collegial enthusiasm here and that’s that. Maybe Luck has been strongarmed and an Other Shoe has been hurled into orbit — lo, it looms.

Yeah, I had the same thought, but two things came to mind: 1) Luck just doesn’t do that stuff 2) Those two don’t make decisions involving or impacting one another without some sort of a consensus. Wait, three things: 3) Clements is the boss.

ccteam said:

I personally think the no comment strategy is the best path. When you are willing to say I’m not interested in a position when you aren’t, then you have to evade the question when you are interested in one. Better to just always answer the same: “no comment.” The next time the rumor mill starts, Mike and his cronies will bypass Ollie and go straight to Clements for their quotes. If Clements says “no comment”, or “I don’t know”, there’s your sign.

Now that I had not considered. Interesting. Clements took the media’s aim off Luck the next time Luck is in a prospective employer’s scope? I’ll buy it.

IrishBillATL said:

Somewhere in Huntington, a mulleted head explodes. And evil-intentioned fingertips begin crafting another masterpiece of excrement.

Think that might happen? I see a tome assailing lip service and perhaps ventriloquism.

Lee in Dayton said:

By making his conversation with Luck public, Clements has not only reassured the fan base and the rest of his senior leadership team, he has also possibly deterred other suitors for Luck’s services. Clements has put Luck on record as saying WVU is where he wants to be.

Go ahead and read or listen to some of the things Clements said elsewhere. He specifies that he never specified Stanford. He told me he spoke only generally and he inserted Texas into our conversation. Everywhere he made it seem like he asked Luck about his uniform intentions and was told not to worry. So to your point, yes, other suitors probably took note. That’s another thing about him calling reporters. He increased the delivery method of the message he’d crafted.

lowercase jeff said:

i feel like we’ve seen this stuff enough, all over the country, to know that this is meaningless.

Absolutely, but timing is everything at at this time, it matters exactly as much as it needs to matter.

The 25314 said:

Sounds like Ollie will be here as long as we’ll have him!

Page: Turned.

Foul Shot said:

Everhart better get ready to step in a few times next year.

Technically, it would be Larry Harrison. Unless you’re suggesting the rule is so off base that Harrison would get run, too.

pknocker40 said:

Good – the infallibility of college basketball officials has been undermined far too often. They should call this new policy “Karl Hess’ New Clothes”

Done. If it goes into effect, it’s 2013-14. Let’s try to remember, ok?

Rick said:

This is awesome! ECU would be the logical choice to drop all together. I’d rather play Va Tech in Charlotte every year than play a I-AA team at home though. Oh well, bring on the Tide!

Can’t drop them completely because there’s a per-year buyout and WVU needs to stop writing checks. Virginia Tech won’t be an annual thing, not even in a neutral site, and the I-AA teams aren’t going anywhere before 2016. It’s a low-cost, high-yield win at home. That’s big for WVU.

SheikYbuti said:

If Pitt can be dismissed with barely a by-your-leave, then I don’t think the notion that we’ve “played ECU for years” is going to matter much.

The loss of the Pirates will be easier to swallow, but it’s not going away completely. They’ll stretch out the series. As for Pitt, I continue to say something is going to happen in which WVU plays Pitt and Maryland alternately once the Panthers are settled in the ACC. Their entry, and Syracuse’s, changes scheduling in the ACC and gives teams one more non-conference opportunity. WVU doesn’t want two ACC teams per season. One? Yes. They can make it happen really easily.

Rugger said:

I hope we fare better than we did in the KO Classic vs Nebraska……it was close up until kickoff as I recall.

You recall correctly. And remember the year before that unbeaten and No. 2/3-ranked WVU was miffed it didn’t get Nebraska in the Orange Bowl? Whoops.

SheikYbuti said:

I was wondering how long it would take someone to mention Nebraska. We were set up to fail in that game. We were there in the first place because of the monumentally overachieving 1993 team, but then we were also hit hard by attrition, having graduated Kelchner, Studstill, and God knows who else. As I recall, however, Todd Sauerbrun was magnificent.

Absolutely. The ’94 team wasn’t nearly as qualified to play Nebraska as was the predecessor. Not at the start of the season — that team got a lot better at the end. And you, too, recall correctly. Sauerbrun punted nine times and averaged 60.1 yards, thanks to the ridiculous 90-yard strike. Remember the Nebraska punter? Future MLB star Darin Erstad, who averaged 48.3 yards on three punts.

overtheSEC said:

Although Luck and co. still show a net loss from the Orange Bowl, shouldn’t they be able to count some of this $3M win as a direct consequence of 70-33? If WVU loses to Clemson, or WVU wins in a score more typical of our 2011 season (24-22, 21-20, 30-27) I say there’s no way this Bama game is as easily sold to powers that be. Similar to LSU/Oregon, (SEC D vs. high speed offense) this is a game that America will want to see.

That ought to go on the Orange Bowl DVD. Swell point.

SheikYbuti said:

It’s almost impossible to overestimate the effect of that Fiesta Bowl win. The fans got stubbornly fired up and wanted to show the world that the program had not been destroyed by the events of December 2007. Unfortunately, the administrators also got stubbornly fired up and wanted to show the world not only that the program had not been destroyed, but that things were going to be just fine with very little effort on their part. The fans’ reaction was admirable. The administrators’ bordered on denial.

On some twisted level, perhaps purely retrospective, isn’t the denial admirable? That took stones. It’s like robbing a bank. So wrong, but so remarkable.

Drew said:

It shows you how much people wanted to believe in Stew and that we didn’t need Rod.

Don’t forget that team was preseason #8. Lots of hype all around. Lots of hype by the head coach – which he later he said he knew was unfounded.

Lots of hype already this year, too.

2008 – new coach
2012 – new conference

Let’s hope the parallels stop here.

I was juuuust about to toss the wet blanket out there until the last sentence.

Jonesy said:

The fan base was more united in 2008 even though Stew had his detractors before he ever started. Following the 2008 season there was a fracture that deepened and, even though it might be growing back together, is not back to the unity we once knew. I’m still trying to get a handle on what WVU is becoming and how I feel about it.

Fair, but I think the fracture it started within the season. Early. In Boulder. I was there and I was startled, at that time, by what I perceived to be a serious skepticism among players — I wrote it and Stewart was furious. Regardless, I think because of that you and so many others are taking their time getting a grip on things. And that’s smart.

Foul Shot said:

Mike, just finished the section in your book related to the ECU loss at their place in 2008. Another thing I did not see in the book related to that was White throwing his hands up while gazing at the press box. It sure was a sign of things to come.
Surprising to hear 2008 was the best year for season tickets.

Eh, USF game, but that is one anecdote I sometimes think about and wonder if I should have slipped in somewhere. Didn’t really fit into what I was doing at that stage of the chapter/book. When you look back, on Pat’s night when he could have done just about anything and gotten away with it, he did, and it was the full-blown revelation of frustrations.

The 25314 said:

WVU returned Stancheck, Isdaner, Dent, Figner, Capers, Jalloh, Gonzalez, Jock Sanders, Pat White, Noel Devine. Only a fool could screw that up. And a fool did. And then made the preposterous claim that they were overrated to begin with.

What always struck me, or bothered me, about his reactionary “overrated to begin with” claim was I never heard it at the outset. Really, what coach doesn’t downplay his team’s hype at the start of the season? Billy, ever the contrarian.

Pigroasteer said:

Wow Mike, it hasn’t taken very long working for the Charleston papers for you to acquire the negative slant toward WVU.

I have no idea what this means. I’ll let you clarify.

Mack said:

Call me naive, but I think WVU spends enough that it’s a non-factor. It’s one thing if you’re talking about having an adequate locker room. It’s another if you’re talking about an “academic center” or a marble-floored coach’s office.

Other schools have always had geographical and monetary advantages over WVU. Yet, when the smoke clears every school’s football rePutation is what it is and is unlikely to change significantly.

The spending is pretty solid, maybe even impressive, when you consider the resources and the applications. I’d agree with that, but I still think when you look at those comparable spenders and earners in the Big 12, those are teams WVU would like to avoid having an audience with through the years. Oklahoma State obviously has a heck of an asset in its corner, but when T. Boone started pouring money into the thing, it started producing at a high level again. Spend more to make more? Spend more wisely to make more money? 

Jeff in Akron said:

Mack, that is a good point. Texas spends money becasue they can and other schools spend to keep up with Texas (the Jones’). If WVU comes out of Austin with a win this season, how many of their fans are going to say, “We still spent more money than you!” Plus, will it really matter?

I would be interested to re-visit this analysis in say 4/5 years, when WVU has absorbed the expenses of the past coaches and the move to the Big-12. I have a hunch that the athletic department balance sheet will be in a much better place and the comparison will be more of an apples to apples deal.

Oh yeah, you write and cash the biggest checks with the final score and WVU, and Iowa State and Kansas State, for that matter, are better equipped to compete competitively than financially. If that happens over time, then this conversation four or five years from now is especially interesting.

AnxiousEER97 said:

I don’t think WVU needs to spend dollar-for-dollar in order to be competitive. One of the most absurd things I’ve ever heard about was the need for Rodriguez to re-do his office. Give me a break. Nice lockers, nice break rooms, nice study halls – ok, I get that. Gotta have it to attract recruits. It benefits the students. Coach’s office? Not so much. Once we get into the full revenue stream with the Big 12 we’ll be fine. The numbers will go back to green. Been too busy lately paying for the sins of the past (e.g., paying a buyout to an OC whose market value didn’t justify a buyout – as evident by his current role as an OC for a school that doesn’t even have a team).

So you’re of the “spend more wisely” school, a school where you learn from history rather than repeat it?

Karl said:

Our plan or goal shouldn’t be to keep up with Texas and the others in that vicinity. If we’re going to be successful in the Big 12, we’re going to have to do it by branding ourselves as the northeast’s representative in the most serious football conference. We’re going to need to continue to recruit kids from Pa., WV, NJ, Maryland, Ohio, Va., etc. but do it better than ever. Our facilities and spending need to be comparable or better than Penn State and Virginia Tech. They are still going to be our most direct competitors, even if not on the field. It will be difficult, but doable. We’re no longer selling kids on playing in a decaying football conference vs. teams nobody cares about. The emphasis must remain on building our team within our region and taking those kids down to fight in the foreign lands.

Yes, I like it: Best the best in your neighborhood. Have the greenest lawn, but not necessarily the biggest, the cleanest garage, but not the one with the fanciest cars. When you travel, or when you entertain, make sure your purchases, investments and modifications are understood. It’s funny, but as we’re in this new age of college football, the old rules apply. Recruit your area, keep up with your regional peers and just do what you can do.

The 25314 said:

The most important expense is that for the head football coach. If we can continue to hire great coaches, we’ll be fine.

This is true, but circular argument would state it’s easier to win with the right coach and it’s easier to find or keep the right coach if you have a good program and it’s easier to have a good program if you have nice amenities and it’s easier to have nice amenities if you win. Vicious cycle. Let’s step out of it.

overtheSEC said:

Sometimes I like to picture Huggins as Henry Hill, with Frank Martin as Tommy and Ron Everhart as Jimmy (and maybe Mick Cronin as a third crony). And to mix mafia movies, I picture Billy Hahn as Tessio, and upon Huggins reading the Yahoo article about Hahn looking for a new job, saying “It’s the smart move; Billy was always smarter.”
The question is, has Billy asked Larry Harrison to tell Huggins that it wasn’t personal, just business?

I sometimes think about the conversation Huggins had with Hahn when he switched Hahn and Calhoun’s roles. I think I can see it now.

pknocker 40 said:

Calipari as Virgil Sollozzo

‘Natch.

SheikYbuti said:

Or maybe Huggins reacts less drastically, dipping into his front pants pocket to hand Hahn a big wad of cash and telling him, “Now I gotta turn my back on you.”

Enjoy the weekend and then next week!