You are looking live at Section 64 inside the Coliseum, which is where West Virginia’s football coaches and prospective student-athletes get to sit for games during official visits. It’s not the best view and it’s not the catty-corner floor-level site the team once enjoyed in the past and was once too close to the action and fan interaction in the past. This is more remote, I guess, and invites less interference.

WVU, of course, has a home game today and it’s the last weekend before signing day, which means more official visits. So at the end of the recruiting cycle, WVU had home games on successive Saturdays.

“Needless to say,” director of player personnel and recruiting honcho Ryan Dorchester said, “I’m very thankful for the schedule this seasons.”

And why not? Consider the situation since the 2011 signing day:

2011: Signing day is Feb. 2. Road game Saturday, Jan. 29, home games Sunday, Jan. 23 and Sunday, Jan. 16. (Sundays don’t count because families have to leave.)
2012: Signing day is Feb. 1. Road game Saturday, Jan. 28, home games Saturday, Jan. 21 and Saturday, Jan. 14.
2013: Signing day is Feb. 6. Road games Saturday, Feb. 3, Saturday, Jan. 26 and Saturday, Jan. 29.
2014: Signing day is Feb. 5. Home game Saturday, Feb. 1, road games Saturday, Jan. 25 and Saturday, Jan. 28.

“You don’t necessarily need them, but the kidsvlike them,” Dorchester said. “They get a little sense of the atmosphere and the fan support. They get to see the things you try and tell them about.”

Interesting point there because the TCU game was, shall we say, intense. Once again, the game looked to be in doubt for the home team toward the finish and people started streaming for the exit — and I’ll point out they marched up toward the exit level, which is to say from the pricey seats — only to rush back in and stand in the hallway area of the inner bowl. I’d kick them out and cite a fire hazard, to be honest, but I’m not in charge.

Before all of that — before WVU’s frantic finish in regulation, before overtime — Section 64 cleared out. The team and the visitors had a schedule to keep and they ran out of the time allotted to the basketball game. A dinner was to follow, which meant getting showered and/or changed for dinner and then traveling to dinner, and the team and the visitors didn’t have enough time to finish the game and then do everything they had and wanted to do before dinner.

Remember, that was a 2 p.m. tip, which is more ideal than a noon tip, and a it lasted 2 hours, 48 minutes. The team was long gone before Miles-to-Carter and before Trent Johnson earned a reprimand. Would that have made an extra impression on the visitors? Perhaps. It wasn’t possible, though

“If we stayed for the whole deal — those kids were tired,” Dorchester said. “They get up here Friday and do a bunch of stuff. They get up Saturday and do a bunch of stuff and then they’re at the basketball game. They get tired. A lot of them wanted a nap before we took them out to dinner that night.

“I understand it was a great ending and it was exciting, but that was the right call.”

Perhaps WVU and Texas Tech can expedite things today. Think of the children.