The Sock 'Em, Bust 'Em Board Because that's our custom

New tool for his trade

O'Toole choose carefully

The F Double is coming, but it’ll have to wait until this afternoon. I have a few appointments to keep, and I didn’t finish before them.

As you can probably tell, I’ve been messing with the G&B and trying to perfect that piece. I looked into using gifs, and I like them no less than I like the YouTube clips, but it’s so time consuming. The beauty of the YouTube clips is you can upload as many as you want at once and edit them while they (quickly) upload. It’s a bit more time consuming to do the gifs because you have to load them individually — unless I’m missing something, in which case I ask for your advice.

Anyhow, this is a fun Nick O’Toole clip with the celebrations from his two punts downed inside the 5-yard line Saturday. The first mid-air meeting with Cody Clay made O’Toole think twice about the second.

And as you can probably tell, O’Toole has looked good punting so far this season, better, at least, than he did a season ago. There are a few explanations, but one is pretty significant across the entire roster.

“We’re using different balls,” he said. “I love the ones we’re using now. Last year, they were just harder balls to kick. We made the transition this camp to the ones we’re using now, and they fly so much better. They feel solid kicking them.”

WVU used Nike Vapor One footballs in each of O’Toole’s first two seasons, so that doesn’t explain the slip from his first year to the second, and the Mountaineers are again using Nike Vapor Ones this season. The name hasn’t changed, but the ball is indeed different.

O’Toole said the old ball felt like “two cones put together,” while the new ball is longer and has a larger sweet spot to greet his right foot.

“The shape is a little bit different,” said Dan Nehlen, the team’s equipment manager. “It looked more like an egg before. This one is fatter and more elongated. I think that’s the reason Nick likes it, obviously. He’s kicking it better.”

Nehlen raised his left hand to his head and tapped his temple with his index finger.

“Kickers, it’s right here with them,” Nehlen said. “Whatever works.”