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

And old question, a possible answer and a denial

July 13, 2016 by Mike Casazza

 

For as long as Tom Bradley worked at West Virginia, there was a question. Call it the question, and it followed him, never mind the two years he spent away from football, because of his long and storied career at Penn State.

Did he know?

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Yikes! Agree? Disagree? Who is in after 2016?

by Mike Casazza

 

This morning, the media covering the Big 12 — Disclosure: I don’t vote — named West Virginia center Tyler Orlosky and defensive end Noble Nwachukwu to the preseason all-conference team. Just those two. As many as Iowa State. More than Texas Tech (one) and Kansas (zero) combined. No love for Fish Smithson?!?!

That said, the Mountaineers have linemen on the all-conference teams and no skill position players or defensive backs. You’ll never forget where you were when that happened.

Thirteen offensive players made the team, and Orlosky is one of five offensive linemen, which is good. Fifteen defensive players made the team, and Nwachukwu was one of seven defensive linemen, which is weird. Oklahoma quarterback Baker Mayfield is the preseason offensive player of the year, Texas linebacker Malik Jefferson, who last year was the defensive freshman of the year, is the preseason defensive player of the year. TCU quarterback Kenny Hill is the preseason newcomer of the year, so it’s good to know his hype train didn’t slow on the way out of College Station two years ago.

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What’s new?

by Mike Casazza

 

Hi, I’m Mike. Been a while. A couple of things happened during my sabbatical. My boss is leaving the newspaper. Mickey Furfari passed away. There’s time for tributes here coming up here soon, but there were good things, too.

Support for the flood victims has been heartwarming. Brad Paisley. Ken Kendrick. Jennifer Garner. Heath Slater. Countless high schools from here and from afar. Marshall University. Random sports equipment companies. Jimbo Fisher and Nick Saban — who’s at SEC media day this morning — will be in Clay County later today, that after calling on high school coaches to do what they can to help.

People are amazing. It’s withing all of us.

Our little mission here more than tripled my initial goal, and while we’re here, how about that? Thanks to all of you who’ve given a little or a lot, and thanks to all of you who’ve spread the word. If I may, I’d like to ask you to keep it going. If you haven’t chipped in, there’s still time. If you can’t or if you have, there’s also still time to spread the word. I’d like to to give this another week and then send the check to the WVSSAC.

As for me, I put on the lab jacket and made a plan for the rapidly approaching season. It’s … it’s going to be different. Removed this, added that and, hopefully, have a plan about going about the newspaper stuff differently, too. I’m tan and refreshed and ready to go, and I’ll be in Dallas Sunday for Big 12 media days. Hopefully my paper doesn’t fold this time!

We’ll pull the cord and get going here in a bit. Good to see you all.

Let’s break the huddle

July 1, 2016 by Mike Casazza

 

In the past 10 days, we’ve seen a lot of pictures, moving images that reveal both the depth of the devastation our state feels right now and the inspirational spirit people possess and provide to help get everyone and everything back to normal.

I think this picture is one of the best I’ve seen since the rain started to fall. It’s three players from Clay County’s football team — from left to right, Tyler Runnion, Zack Ferrebee and Bruno Bonura — and the picture came from their first-year head coach, Jason Nichols.

“Clay County football is rebuilding,” he wrote in a text message.

Indeed, the Panthers are once again standing tall, albeit in different colors and uniforms. So, too, will everyone else. Incrementally and yet inevitably, people are working their way out of this, and not surprisingly, people are helping others work out of this. It’s not over, not even close, but I’m just as sure we’ll get there.

We talked last week about what we could possibly do to help. What we’ve come up with is a simple idea that achieves our goal, which is to bring sports back to these towns. That at first was low on the list of things people needed, but it’ll work its way up higher and higher, and it’ll help folks inch back toward normal. I’ve talked to coaches and players from different sports at different schools and not one of them dared to consider the possibility they wouldn’t have a season. They want to practice and play and give people a reason to cheer and feel proud.

So here’s the plan: I’ve set up a PayPal account. No one’s taking a percentage from our goodwill. The email is mikec@wvgazettemail.com. If you can, send whatever you like. If you can, tell others. If they can, have them tell others. Facebook, Twitter, email chains, word of mouth, it’s all at our disposal.

I liked the idea of adopting a school or helping football teams find their footing, but I think the best thing we can do is help as many people as possible. So the money will go to the WVSSAC, and we’ll ask them to put it toward a specific need. We’ll make sure the affected schools, coaches, players, cheerleaders and whoever else is it that makes our high school sports the spectacle they are have what they need so they’re up to speed and in style in the fall.

This isn’t about one school or one sport. Different football teams need different things, but they play soccer and golf and volleyball and they run cross country in the fall. Schools might need to repair a pitch, a green, a court or a course. Whatever they need, here we are.

I’m on vacation until July 13. When we reconvene, we’ll see where we are, and we’ll figure out if we’ve done enough or if we can do more. Thanks a lot, everyone. Let’s do something special.

Argyle for life

June 30, 2016 by Mike Casazza

 

This is for the originals, I suppose, but everyone should follow along. Take a moment to salute Jack Bogaczyk, who retires today after a wonderful career as a reporter, columnist, sports editor and, more recently, literary gangster at Marshall.

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No thanks

by Mike Casazza

At long last, 6-6 is better than 5-7

by Mike Casazza

Last December, we were trying to make sense of the always-silly bowl projection picture, which is typically futile. The whole exercise was even more unusual last season because entering the final game of the regular season, a 7-4 West Virginia was seemingly at the mercy of 5-6 Kansas State.

The 40 bowls weren’t going to have 80 available teams with winning records, so some five-win teams were going to make it, and the Wildcats, because of their academic standing, figured to be one of them and would likely be selected in the Big 12’s order before WVU because WVU did the Liberty Bowl the year  before.

It was weird.

The Liberty could pick Kansas State, regardless of its record, against an SEC team, if only because the Mountaineers played in the Liberty last season. That would send WVU to the Cactus Bowl in Phoenix against a Pac-12 team. Both bowls are Jan. 2.

However, the Big 12’s bowls do not have to pick traditionally eligible teams (six or more wins) before they pick a five-win team. WVU could end up in the Liberty again or in the Texas if the league, the bowls and the Mountaineers work together to avoid a repeat appearance in the Liberty.

The Liberty could pick Kansas State because it is not obligated to pick a traditionally eligible team before a 5-7 team.

“I probably think we’ve got a few too many bowl games if that’s the case,” Holgorsen said. “Our stance here is we don’t think it should be that way, to be honest with you. I think it ought to be 6-6, the way it’s always been.

“There have been rare instances, and I agree with it, when a 6-6 team went to their conference championship game and lost to get to 6-7. I think they deserve a bowl game. Other than that, I think you’ve got to have [six wins].”

Well, about that …

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You already knew this, but still…

June 29, 2016 by Mike Casazza
recruits

In the 2017 recruiting class, Florida has 45 blue-chip recruits, that evaluation according to SB Nation. Texas will have 43. The 21 states pictured above? Forty-two!

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Here comes NEO

by Mike Casazza

Cleveland’s Indians are the hottest team on the planet. The Cavaliers just won the NBA championship. People don’t hate LeBron. The King’s high school just had a football player commit to West Virginia. If it ain’t broke …

Ideally, the plan would be for the 5-foot-11, 180-pound King to redshirt his first year on campus — as it would be for most every high school recruit — but his combination of speed and athleticism may keep that from happening.

“Coach Adams said he wants to coach me and he would love to redshirt me to break down and develop me from the bottom up, but he doesn’t know if he will be able to because of my skill set,” King said earlier this summer. “He said that they’re going to need guys that can come in and play, and he feels that I’m a Power 5 conference player.”

Weather balloon?

by Mike Casazza

Here’s a trailer for a NFL program, but one presented by Amazon. Last year, Yahoo! broadcast a NFL game, which is the most-valuable sports TV commodity, even if it was Bills v. Jaguars. But it was a live stream, and the reviews and the ratings were pretty good for that. Amazon has had a lot of success producing shows and has plenty of room for inventory, and that’s a streaming service, too.

So consider that Amazon did its version of Hard Knocks, which is immensely popular, on its streaming service. Yahoo! did its best to air an NFL game, which is even more immensely popular, with its streaming capabilities.

Sooner or later, a college or a conference is going to get involved with Amazon or Yahoo! or Netflix or Google or Apple or YouTube or someone similar. How it works and how it looks, who knows, but it’s bending, bending, bending that direction.