Friday Feedback
June 28, 2013 by Mike Casazza
Welcome to the Friday Feedback, which is fiddling with the dials on its stereo and tilting the antennae, trying to get that signal just right. The apparent argle bargle earlier this week got me thinking, maybe because I was subconsciously guilty of wanting it to be more than it was, or because I realize a similar, albeit more civilized conclusion may be nearing.
What if this is the end for the lengthy and mutually beneficial relationship between West Virginia Radio Corp. and WVU? Because it might be. There is no contract in place between the two. Do you honestly think WVU wants to re-up now? Do you want to see that?
There’s also a call for an injunction that would delay the Tier 3 contract and/or disqualify IMG College. WVU would, in essence, be starting anew. That’s time consuming.
This lawsuit is lingering and every day brings us closer to the start of the season. We still have time, a long time, in fact, to resolve this. But what if it isn’t dismissed? What if there is no settlement? What if there’s a countersuit brought by private parties who believe they were defamed by the original suit or some other component of this campaign?
WVU could be nearing a season without WVRC or IMG (or whatever company wins the contract). Gone are eight WVRC stations, powerful ones with lofty reach throughout the state. That’s a loss for the people. You would like to think WVU had some foresight, like, you know, us, and realized a lawsuit was imminent once Team Raese lawyered up months back. There are still about three dozen non-WVRC stations that are or were Mountaineer Sports Net football affiliates that are under contract or were before and could be brought back in again without much effort. Could WVU find eight more? Probably. Would they be the same quality? Probably not.
And quality matters. The production is as important as the reach because it’s a good product. There’s also the matter of personnel. There may be changes to that roster, be it pregame or postgame or possibly even in-game (that’s a little complicated to explain, but it’s not impossible).
People really like those shows and those people, but some are property of WVRC, which means you might have to live with new programs and new personalities as part of the game broadcast. It’s the difference between the MetroNews pregame show and, say, the Tier 4 pregame show. You don’t want that, right?
WVRC could do live shows, like Statewide Sportsline, as an example, on site on its stations, but since there might not be a relationship with WVU, it would be without game broadcasts and thus might not have your attention.
It’s quite a web and how much you’re affected depends really on how much you rely on the radio, or radio websites, for your entertainment and information. Just about everything is available on the television, so perhaps you don’t care, especially if you live far away, but the state and its most immediate following relies a lot on the radio.
We knew there would be changes when the multimedia rights company took over, but I wonder if we ever wondered what it might be like in limbo, which seems as though it could be just around the corner.
So WVU could still have a list of affiliates as large or larger before. They won’t be as powerful and might lack the width needed to reach the same audience, bit it might have to suffice. It might be the only choice.
That doesn’t solve all the problems, though. A contract with West Virginia Radio Corp. means more than stations and on-air talent, and both could be casualties because WVU might not be able or willing to contract West Virginia Radio Corp. employees. It’s about production and familiarity with the audience, and no matter the elements to this dispute, that company does a job WVU likes and peers respect.
The most critical concern for you and for WVU ought not to be in the quantity of stations and the audience, but the quality of the product.
Onto the Feedback. As always, comments appear as posted. In other words, consider the consequences of your actions.
And again, sorry for the bugs yesterday. Still working on the problem with the comments. The typing problem is fixed. Also, today is June 28. It’s the last day of the fiscal year. Monday starts the new year. This is when you’d witness change, like not renewing contracts or assigning employees to new roles. I’d like to tell you more, honest, but I’ve been effectively, though permissibly, stonewalled. Just a heads up in case something happens.
FakeBobHuggins said:
Apologies accepted, Mike. In the meantime, tell us about your #FirstTimeontheMilegroundRoundabout
It was strange. There was some traffic and thus some down time for me, but by the time I got going again, Morgantown had joined Star City, the city planner had resigned, Jim Clements had taken a job at Clemson and I had WiFi in every arena and stadium.
Drew said:
Obviously Luck & Co. didn’t handle this temporary equipment removal properly. The WVM people had advanced knowledge of this and had assistance from the University to move the equipment. In the best interest of the people and taxpayers of WV these transgressions must be penalized. Does anyone know a sibling of a disgruntled former employee who can help me file a lawsuit?
Good job, good effort.
Patchy said:
Borman should keep his CV current. Failure to pump sunshine 24/7 is a sackable offense in this era of happy-face press releases about the ‘fan experience’ and branding.
I know, right!
I love you, Doug! said:
So, when the players are straining with a heavy weight, they won’t go, “Unngggghhhh!” They’ll go, “Bruuuuuuuuce!”
Myriad jokes to be made here. I’m proud of our decorum, so I’ll simply agree.
WVfaninGa said:
Any inside info about this, Mike? Would be quite a battle in our backfield if we got his services.
I know no more than what that says. In situations like this, when a stated number of schools are competing for a player, it’s hard to trust anyone or anything, so let’s just assume everyone says they’re in the hunt and everyone is right. He’d be an asset in 2014, though. I think it’s fair to say his character needs properly vetted. If he makes it through, why not take him?
oklahoma mountaineer said:
Didn’t see that one as the one……I’d love to see begin his ascent to stardom begin on Sept 7 with a win on Owen Field in Norman.
You guys can not imagine how hard it was to be a Mountaineer fan living in the land of the Sooners and listen to them brag about beating us last year……my response
“we didn’t lose, we ran out of time”
Undefeated! I seem to think White is the one receiver who isn’t in real danger of losing his spot, or much standing, when we reboot in August. Everyone else is in relative peril. Man, they need K.J. Myers to click.
Bobby Heenan said:
I first thought it meant WVU coaches commented anonymously, and I thought they were going to mention Cody Clay – they seem to be really appreciative of his versatility and importance to the offense.
But then I re-read and realized it was other teams coaches commenting, so then I thought of Alford or Sims.
Sims might be too good already for that list. He hasn’t been on the big stage yet, so I can understand.
SheikYbuti said:
I’ll bite. In alphabetical order:
Dante Campbell
Terrell Chestnut
K.J. Dillon
Nana Kyeremeh
Jordan Thompson (the “obvious” choice)I think Karl Joseph is already a star.
Nice list. Nana’s getting a lot of buzz this summer. That might be by default, but it might be rooted in something, too. My K.J. Dillon poster needs a good sophomore season.
smeer said:
maybe the other coach saw this
http://fasstperformance.com/2013/05/16/wvu-wr-kevin-white-hits-a-54-box-jump/
Yeah, everyone needs to see that. I can’t believe I haven’t mentioned that before. Bad job by me.
I love you, Doug! said:
What lured Jacky Marcellus to Morgantown?
We shale know soon.
oklahoma mountaineer said:
My question is post – recruiting…….comparing the signing list against the roster shows a number of guys who aren’t on the team roster on the WVU website. Mike, can you shed light on guys who didn’t make it or aren’t coming??
I’m hopeful that they just haven’t gotten here yet, but I would think all HS Seniors would now be in Morgantown for summer school. Am I wrong?
July 1 is about the latest WVU would like to see guys enroll, but some guys just need more time and WVU, obviously, will allow for that. But some high schools in states WVU recruits from don’t get out until after the first or second summer dates. Alford, Al-Rasheed Benton, D’Vante Henry and Marcell Lazard are new to WVU’s student directory. Ronald Carswell, Shelton Gibson, Grant Lingafelter, Jacky Marcellus, Nicholas O’Toole, Tyler Tezeno, Jeremy Tyler, Stone Underwood, Eli Wellman and Daryl Worley enrolled during the summer. Hodari Christian, Malik Greaves, Daikiel Shorts, Wendell Smallwood, Dreamius Smith and Kevin White enrolled in January. By my count, WVU is waiting on Marvin Gross, 572-pound Darrien Howard, Dontrill Hyman and Isaac McDonald.
Clarence Oveur said:
Whoever Kerin’s lawyer is, he’s an opportunist. This is definitely a climate in which WVU will want to settle.
While I’m sure WVU might want to settle regardless of the circumstances, the chances of a more advantageous settlement for Kerin in this instance are greater than usual.
Shrewd “lawyering” right there, although there are plenty of other not so endearing ways to describe it…
His lawyer is Grag Van Zant’s sister. That part is as underrated as a sac bunt. But, the rest, yeah. Spot on.
The 25314 said:
Wasn’t Brady Ackerman hired to eventually replace Kerin?
Director of Ops is a young mans game in bball, and is becoming so in fball, as well. Mike Parrish wasn’t exactly seasoned when he took over at Michigan. Football coaches normally have their choice of Dir of Ops.
He can easily argue that he was constructively fired.
What’s this smoke? Don’t give us the I know something you don’t know.
That was the original plan, but it blew up spectacularly. One of my favorite stories. The Kerin suit can go either way. What I gather is WVU will have to prove him wrong more than Kerin will have to prove him right, but that WVU can point to all sorts of language in the contract, as well as the general direction of college football and the position of director of operations, and justify its action. I have to think the timing will be pointed out and possible considered, too.
Karl said:
This season will tell us a lot about whether Dana Holgorsen has what it takes to be a successful head coach, or whether his ceiling is as a superb offensive coordinator. Luck’s plan to use Stew as a figurehead coach in year 1 crumbled, but it did leave Dana with a competent and cohesive a defensive staff. One of his first acts as the sole CEO of the program (with Casteel and co. gone) was to assemble a new defensive staff on his own. We can all agree that went poorly.
Dana is on his own now. This is his team, with a roster of players now tilting to a majority of his recruits. They’ll be on the third year of his offense, the second year of his defense. The expectations are low. Good coaches find ways to sneak up on people in years like these.
I wrote this before Stewart’s ill-fated third season, when things that had to go right for him instead went left and thus reinforced a lot of the points raise within the story. Holgorsen is entering his third season, but call me crazy, I find it hard to hold him to the same standards that story, as well as commonly accepted and conventional wisdom, agreed to hold Stewart to. In short, I think Karl’s submissions is pretty much the theme of this season, but that there’s slack built in because of the move to the Big 12. Sure, he should have a better handle on it this year, and he better, but I think last year has to be revisited and digested differently. I’ve rewatched games and considered different statistics and theories and I’ve started to sing a different tune. The defense was very bad, but it was also purposefully limited as the season progressed. The offense wasn’t as bad as we probably all thought in the moment. The Texas Tech and Kansas State games were not good, but the rest were above average and better. And though this might bug you, take away the senseless Josh Boyce touchdown catch against TCU and Oklahoma’s fourth-down touchdown pass with 24 seconds to go and WVU is perhaps 9-3 in the regular season. That close. Or, that close?
Mack said:
“Since spring ended, Clint Trickett, Ronald Carswell, Jacky Marcellus, Shelton Benjamin and Ivan McCartney joined the offense.”
Shelton Benjamin?! Holy crap! Former WWE wrestlers on the football team? I like it.
Damn it. Shelton Gibson. Shelton Gibson. Shelton Gibson. But he and Alford could turn out to be the world’s greatest tag team in the slot.
rekterx said:
” ….. additions, if not upgrades.”
Color me optimistic for this upcoming season.
Sorry, just not very high on the guys I saw running routes and especially attempting to block during the spring. I’m willing to bet a few of the new guys are better.
Rugger said:
He’s no Cooper Rego.
Last I heard of Mr. Rego, he was still doing comedy and hosting open mic nights in the metropolitan NYC area.
Karl said:
A few years ago, out of the blue, a guy fondly recalled Cooper Rego as the best high school player in New Jersey history, and he had no idea he was talking to a WVU alum. It was weird (and not accurate).
I bet.
Mack said:
I don’t get the logic behind Casazza’s argument in this post. The argument seems to be that if WVU had three crappy running backs, it would run the ball all the time. If it has one good/great running back AND three crappy backs, it runs the ball less.
It’s weird, but so am I. I’ll go slowly. First, I never really bought into the idea WVU was going to be a running team. Made no sense. My point now, obtuse as it may be, is that Sims will tilt the offense more toward passing than rushing. He’s better than the other three. Remember, when WVU talks about balance, it’s talking about touches, not yards. Sims should do more with, say, 10 touches, than the other three. You can then do more off of those 10 touches because those figure to keep a defense more honest. For the offense to function optimally — and this assumes it’s the same iteration and that Dana does what Dana does — you need productivity out of the running game. Sims, in theory, can do that in fewer attempts and in better form than the other three. (Say it’s second-and-3. You might run it twice with the other three because you might need to run it twice to get the first down. With Sims, there’s a better chance to get those yards in one carry, which means passes are again on the table. Additionally, you don’t fear an incomplete pass with Sims because he’s good for yardage. You might fear an incomplete pass more with the other three because they might not get the same yardage on the same number of attempts as Sims does.) Mostly, though, I think Sims gives defenses more to worry about and Dana and Shannon Dawson less to worry about with regard to the run game. That is great news for a passing attack. It makes sense, I promise.
Mackslow’s Hierarchy of Needs said:
There is a transfer hierarchy, which goes like this:
Most Valuable: Players who started for their prior school, graduated early, and are transferring for immediate eligibility due to the NCAA’s grad school exception. These are the guys that are good enough to stay and play at their current school, but are going to a team that is a better team that has a hole that they can fill and get noticed. These transfers are most likely to work out for your team.
JUCOs: I don’t know what the success rate is on JUCOs but I don’t think it’s very good. Seems like you can get superstars out of them, but there will be more misses than hits.
Player who is good but “off the field issues” caused him to be “dismissed” from his prior team: Similar to JUCO players.
Player who couldn’t win the starting job at prior school so he transferred “down”: I, personally, don’t care for these guys at all. I don’t think any player has ever left WVU because he couldn’t get playing time and amounted to anything. (Curtis Keaton, who transferred to JMU, ended up in the NFL but even he doesn’t strike me as a guy that WVU missed).
There are exceptions to all of the above, but I feel better about Sims since he’s in the top tier of my hierarchy than I do about some of the others that are coming in.
I endorse this. Let’s revisit it in depth if Shell picks WVU. Hell, even if it doesn’t. I think it needs another tier or two. Coaching changes encourage a lot of these transfers. Then you have guys who just weren’t good, never mind the coach or the depth chart. Let’s mull this over, yes?
Clarence Oveur said:
WVU’s last recruiting class had the market cornered on potential porn star names:
Jacky Marcellus, Wendell Smallwood, Dreamius Smith, Dontrill Hyman, Grant Lingafelter, Tony Tezeno…
Alley oop…
SheikYbuti said:
If my porn star nickname were “Smallwood,” I’d fire my agent.
Enjoy the weekend!